Mt. Fuji Day One

I head out in the morning getting food for a couple of days and then for the train station. I was going to start at the last train stop, hike along four of the five lakes, and camp in between. The first lake was Kawaguchi. The weather was nice and there was even a big runners marathon going on, and this lake was the finish line. It was a very enjoyable walk with a nice pathway. Then in get to the valley connecting to lake Saiko. At the south most side I had a camp marked and checked and come back. It looked nice but were definitely going to have me pay. So I move on and next door is an empty looking campsite. OK getting better. Then Five minutes later I find a totally deserted site that is high up. Perfect, this is the place to camp for the night, but first there is more to see. There is this old historic village way at the end of the road and I want to check it out today, as it will be out of the way tomorrow. there are many caves and I come to Bat Cave. They want 300 just to go in and I know it is not that big. So I pass, and get onto a trail in the smaller portion of Aokigahara (the sea of forest) that will lead me to the village. A mistake, because my feet are hurting, but I make it. It 5:00pm and the place is closing. All I want is a photo of the old buildings with Mt. Fuji in the background, but the guy isn't having it. OK I got some pictures, but now I have a bigger problem. The sun is going down and I'm going to lose light if I don't book it back. It took some time to hike up so. I take the road speeding past the Bat Cave and the small town. Everything hurts and I'm tired, but I make it back just in time. The campsite is perfect. Nobody has been here in a long time and it is high up so nobody is going to bother me. I set up camp and I have big blisters on the heels of my feet. My sleeping bag is not normal. It is a SOL Survivaly bag ment for last resort conditions, so 45° is as low as this thing will go. So yup it was in the upper 40's. So it was a cold night. Not the best sleep, but not bad as it was mostly my feet that were cold.