We set a world record for climbing Mt. Fuji! Sort of...
Huge thanks to Ruy Ueda, the fastest man to ever climb Japan’s tallest mountain, Mount Fuji! And especially thanks for chatting with us after our climb!
Business email: hitobitomedia@gmail.com
Social Links:
► https://www.tiktok.com/@hito.bito
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Who are Megan and Ben?
► Megan - I’ve tried to write this like five times so let's do bullet points:
- I grew up in America, then lived in Germany, then China, and now Japan (and took Ben with me)
- I’m an absolute fiend for walkable cities
- Watching Inuyasha as a 10 year old on Adult Swim had an irreversible butterfly effect on my decision to live in Japan
- You could call me Miss Worldwide - believe me, been there, done that
► Ben - I sacrificed my soul in another life to become entertaining. I think I got scammed tbh…
I make music: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/bnji3/guruguruguruguruguruguruguru-running-in-circles-feat-mms
After finding success on TikTok and Instagram, we moved to Tokyo to find jobs and continue our creative efforts! We now live in Tokyo and are making videos all the time!
Source for assets:
Epidemic Sounds - here's a free trial!
https://share.epidemicsound.com/ye7br5/?playlist=1pnbegntqsdiy9eb3qfsakc04js85nmm
Vecteezy
Pexels
Jitter
Camera: DJI Osmo 3
Mic: DJI Mic
Program: Adobe Premiere
Editors:
Ben
Jassica James
hi
Huge thanks to Ruy Ueda, the fastest man to ever climb Japan’s tallest mountain, Mount Fuji! And especially thanks for chatting with us after our climb!
Business email: hitobitomedia@gmail.com
Social Links:
► https://www.tiktok.com/@hito.bito
► https://www.instagram.com/the.hito.bito
Support Us
► Become a Member - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXvbilRzK1DrcrYM_0-BxfQ/join
Who are Megan and Ben?
► Megan - I’ve tried to write this like five times so let's do bullet points:
- I grew up in America, then lived in Germany, then China, and now Japan (and took Ben with me)
- I’m an absolute fiend for walkable cities
- Watching Inuyasha as a 10 year old on Adult Swim had an irreversible butterfly effect on my decision to live in Japan
- You could call me Miss Worldwide - believe me, been there, done that
► Ben - I sacrificed my soul in another life to become entertaining. I think I got scammed tbh…
I make music: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/bnji3/guruguruguruguruguruguruguru-running-in-circles-feat-mms
After finding success on TikTok and Instagram, we moved to Tokyo to find jobs and continue our creative efforts! We now live in Tokyo and are making videos all the time!
Source for assets:
Epidemic Sounds - here's a free trial!
https://share.epidemicsound.com/ye7br5/?playlist=1pnbegntqsdiy9eb3qfsakc04js85nmm
Vecteezy
Pexels
Jitter
Camera: DJI Osmo 3
Mic: DJI Mic
Program: Adobe Premiere
Editors:
Ben
Jassica James
hi
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We're speed running Japan's tallest mountain, Mount Fuji. Let's go!
00:03The current world record holder for a Mount Fuji speed run is Rui Ueda,
00:07a legendary Japanese mountain runner.
00:09This man is a beast, having run all four routes up and down Fuji in under 10 hours.
00:15For normal people, one route can take up to 10 hours.
00:18We're Megan and Ben, definitely not pro mountain runners,
00:21but by using some of the speed strats he used, we will set a world record of our own.
00:26Let's go!
00:27These are the strats. First, some people climb in the evening sleep,
00:32then climb again when they wake up, but that's not fast enough.
00:35We start at 5am and our time stops when we hit the summit.
00:39Rui was sponsored by Red Bull, and we are not.
00:42I hate Red Bull.
00:46But we want to see if it actually helped his time.
00:48He ran all the routes, but we picked the most optimal one, the Fuji Yoshida Trail.
00:54Some may call the oxygen tank a hack,
00:56but official rules allow it as the oxygen levels drop 30% on the mountain.
01:01Finally, we have a top secret strat to guarantee that we set a new world record at all costs.
01:08So with that, let's do Rui proud.
01:11Fuji has a total of 10 official stations on the Yoshida route,
01:14starting with the 5th station as a base camp.
01:165th to 6th starts off pretty easy and oxygen levels are high, minus the wind.
01:20Nobody tells you about the dust. The wind is so strong,
01:24it just pelts you. So I have to climb up sideways like some sort of crab.
01:30At an hour in, we're on pace for a world record when we run into an 87 year old Japanese legend.
01:3587?
01:36He said, why are you taking a break? You're 25.
01:42That just made my day. We're an hour and 20 minutes. I think that's world record pace.
01:48It was not world record pace.
01:50But after breezing past the 6th station, we realize this climb is no joke.
01:54Not even two hours in, Ben is starting to really feel the no oxygen status effect.
01:59Put one foot in front of the other.
02:03Miserable, tired, sweaty, sleep deprived.
02:07A cliff face.
02:09I'm gonna have to be really careful here.
02:11And we still have two stations to go before we could get any oxygen tanks.
02:16So listen, I get why Dream would want to cheat all of his speed runs,
02:19but we aren't going to resort to that.
02:22A couple hours in, Lui would have already been up and down the Fujinomiya trail.
02:26If this were a Mario Kart time trial, Lui would have already lapped our asses,
02:30which is just a testament to what a monster climber he is.
02:33All right, we got our splits. Two hours, 17 minutes.
02:387th station.
02:408, 9, 10. Almost there.
02:42They were not almost there.
02:44All right, Megan, we're at the 7th station. What's our fun fact?
02:48Fun fact is that women didn't used to be able to climb Fuji.
02:53It was like, what, the 1900s?
02:56When they became allowed to climb Fuji.
02:58Because women are impure, so can't climb such a pure and spiritual mountain.
03:05Should have stayed that way.
03:06Because I don't want to be here.
03:08So we made it to the 7th station.
03:10Only three more to go to the summit, which doesn't sound so bad,
03:12except it turns out there are multiple 7th and 8th stations,
03:16so you can climb for an hour and still be seeing cabins labeled
03:197th station, which does kill your motivation.
03:21Enough people must have been having their runs ended in between them
03:24that they wanted to have more save points.
03:26So we have to fill up our stamina bar at the next station with Snickers bars.
03:30Lui probably didn't eat Snickers on his run because he was sponsored by Red Bull,
03:33but it's possible Big Bull is suppressing the truth of his success.
03:38It's time for one of these bad boys, finally.
03:42Little known time save.
03:44If you eat a Snickers bar, you actually get three hours deducted from your time.
03:50So we're going to finish in about three hours.
03:54All right, let's get a time check and a lap.
03:57Good splits, good splits, good splits.
04:00Still on pace for our world record.
04:02Of course.
04:03So we continue our ascent to the first of many 8th stations
04:07and bow in front of the Torii gate to pray that it wouldn't really take us another 262 minutes.
04:13The next section is absolutely brutal.
04:16It takes multiple frame perfect inputs,
04:18plenty of near deaths, and unfortunately, a lot of breaks,
04:22which we couldn't afford since our time was already suffering.
04:25What's our fun fact, Megan?
04:27From this station up, Fuji is actually private land.
04:33Who's private land?
04:35Some, like, shrine association.
04:37And what does that mean about climbing it?
04:40I'm trespassing.
04:41Trespassing.
04:43We're literally goated.
04:45Oh my God.
04:46Box like a fish, box like a fish.
04:48At this point, Rui would be on his third trail.
04:51Watching him fly up the mountain like he did some kind of wave dash, moonwalk,
04:55wrong warp, cheese skip got us wondering, how does he do it?
04:59Does Red Bull really give you wings?
05:01No, they got sued for saying that.
05:02Or is this guy just built different?
05:04It was these philosophical ponderings that kept us up at night.
05:07As our time was already slipping away from us,
05:10we encountered the ultimate challenge that might doom our world record run.
05:15All righty, so the top is closed at the moment.
05:17Day is young, but at this point, they're turning people away at the 8.5 station.
05:23This was devastating news for our run,
05:25and makes more sense when you know about the goddess guarding Mount Fuji.
05:29Konohanasakiyahime's temper is said to rapidly change the weather on the mountain.
05:33This is no longer just a speed run,
05:35this is a battle between us and an ancient goddess who does not want us to see the summit.
05:39I think this is the hardest stretch.
05:41Between the 7th and the 8th gets brutal.
05:44That looks a lot like safer.
05:46It was not, in fact, safer.
05:48As our willpower was called into question by the incoming inclement weather,
05:52we found ourselves worrying not about our record,
05:54but whether or not we'd make it to the top at all.
05:57I'm getting kind of delirious.
05:58I'm gonna hang in there.
06:01Hang in there.
06:02However, we quickly found our guiding light, Hideyaki-san,
06:05an ojiisan steadily making his way up the mountain right alongside us.
06:10Less than three.
06:11I think a lot of people get hurt here.
06:13This spot is like one of the roughest spots on the whole trip.
06:17Am I crazy or did it say 2.6 last time?
06:20We got some much-needed encouragement from some Japanese construction workers to keep us going.
06:32And after being filled with determination,
06:34our boosters are charged and we're on fire with the indomitable speedrunner spirit.
06:39We're in it to win it, even if we don't go anywhere near as fast as Rui.
06:43Plus, we still have our secret weapon to ensure we set a record.
06:47I gotta get to the next station because I am ready to set the world record for fastest pee on Fuji.
06:54Keep the mic on for the toilet, right?
06:57For being up on a mountain, f***ing mint.
07:01Yeah, it was good.
07:02They had a little spray thing that you had to use instead of flushing it,
07:05so that's the only kind of weird thing.
07:06But otherwise, had a sink, had hand sanitizer, so I'm happy.
07:10Arriving at the 8.5 station, we expected to be turned away like we were told we might be,
07:16but instead we were greeted by the goddess's favor of good weather
07:20and we used our oxygen exploit.
07:23You said that five minutes ago.
07:25I need to pee.
07:26We just stopped at a pee station, but I didn't need to go then.
07:30As we get closer to the top, every switchback takes us longer and longer.
07:35Getting really dangerous here.
07:38No guardrails, all this wind.
07:40And after 8.5, it's hell, because we can't see anything.
07:44We can't see anything.
07:45We can't see anything.
07:46We can't see anything.
07:47We can't see anything.
07:48We can't see anything.
07:49And after 8.5, it's hell, because there are no more toilets,
07:54no more rest cabins, no more water.
07:56We were on our own with a total of maybe two brain cells to rub together.
08:01All right, Megan, what's our fun fact?
08:03Buddhism once said that life is suffering,
08:07and there's no escaping that, especially on a mountain like Mount Fuji.
08:14You can really feel the desperation as you come upon the ninth station.
08:18It's basically just a pit in the ground,
08:21as it's too far up to maintain safely with storms constantly battering it.
08:26One of the things no one talks about is how quiet it is up here.
08:29It's crazy.
08:30And when a cloud passes over you, it just kind of insulates the sound
08:35like you're the only person in the world.
08:38It's crazy.
08:39One must imagine Sisyphus climbing Mount Fuji.
08:44But unlike a speedrunner glued to their gamer chair with G Fuel locked and loaded,
08:48we were dealing with the real deal, Kuku Mountain.
08:50We were no Mario doing double jumps up the cliffside.
08:53We were panting with every step, basically crawling up to the summit.
08:57We're faced with the realization that this challenge might be too much for us.
09:00And when we've just run out of motivation or about to give up,
09:04down from the heavens descends the one and only Rui Ueda,
09:07here to give us our final push up the mountain.
09:15Well, that was good timing.
09:27Didn't know you could take a Zoom call from up here.
09:30So after we've given everything we have,
09:32we push ourselves to take the last few steps to the summit.
09:36And our timer finally comes to a stop.
09:40How do you feel?
09:42I don't want to die.
09:48We're here.
09:49We're at the top of Mount Fuji.
09:51We didn't die.
09:53No one got hurt.
09:55Not yet.
09:56We're hungry.
09:57We speed ran Mount Fuji.
10:00We didn't do it fast, but we did it.
10:03A bad speed run is still a speed run.
10:06I'm so oxygen deprived right now.
10:10With a final time of 7 hours, 41 minutes and 38 seconds,
10:15we celebrate our climb, but we're disappointed that we didn't set a world record.
10:20Or did we?
10:22This is where our final secret strategy comes in.
10:26We knew all along that we weren't going to beat Rui's time.
10:29I mean, look at us.
10:31That's why we chose a hyper specific world record we knew we could beat.
10:36So you're looking at the fastest YouTuber couple to ever climb Mount Fuji
10:42on one of their birthdays and also one of them as a redhead.
10:45And we were so lucky that after we returned home safe,
10:49Rui was kind enough to chat with us and congratulate us for our climb.
11:06So while we may not be as fast or as cool as Rui,
11:11we had a lot more fun thinking of this challenge as a speed run and using the
11:27strats the world record holder taught us.
11:29Let's say it together.
11:30Thanks, Rui!
11:32And maybe the real speed run was the friends we made along the way.
11:35Tomato, tomato, tomato.