for the past 30 years of my life, my grandma and grandpa fukunaga have told me about mt. fuji over and over. they both climbed to the top back in 1979 and have the stick with all the stamps to prove it. so every sunday night when i use to go over for dinner, i use to look at the sticks and photos of mt. fuji that’s hanging on the wall above their tv. and i would ask a lot of questions about it. then it was 16 years ago when i first seen mt. fuji with my own eyes. i was leaving my house in fujisawa to go for a surf, as soon as i took the turn heading west, it was there right in front of me. this huge mountain just staring at me. it was half covered with snow and the first thing that came to my mind was the picture on my grandma’s wall. it was the exact same. then i looked at the top of mt. fuji and couldn’t believe my grandparents climbed to the top of it. since then, every time i see mt. fuji, it reminds me of my grandparents. i’ve must have told a thousand people that my grandparents climbed it. i was and still am pretty proud of them for accomplishing something that only 0.5% of the japanese population have ever accomplished. well, my grandma recently passed away and when i went to see my grandpa, there it was again, the pictures and sticks hanging on the wall above their tv. right there, something just clicked. i felt like i had to go to the top. after all these years of the stories, i feel like i have to live out for myself. so i made that my mission, my mission to climb to the top of mt. fuji, watch the sunrise, and talk to my grandma. my grandma taught me something important in life, something that wasn’t taught by words, something that was taught by example. and that is “unconditional love,” to love somebody no matter what. my grandma loved everybody and it showed. so on the way up to mt. fuji, the only thing that will be on my mind will be my grandma. how she loved me, and how she was there for me my whole life….
