Report: THE BATTLE OF Mt. FUJI’s PEAK (KARI)

| Idol | Posted by Yuji Hara on Aug.09.2014

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On August 6 and 7, UPUPGIRLS (KARI) made a special one off performance at the top of the Japanese tallest and a symbol of Japan, Mt. Fuji, “UPUPGILRS (KARI) BATTLE OF Mt. FUJI’s PEAK (KARI).

Have a concert at the top of Mt.Fuji, was surprisingly announced during the concert held on June 1, at Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo. As the group’s name suggests, this idol group has always aimed higher and higher. The spirit of the event is to wish them further success in the scene. Climbing the Japanese highest mountain and performing their new single “Zenryoku Pump Up!!” as hard as they can, at the summit of Mt. Fuji, this was the plan.

The challenge that made the girls and fans stunned, was held secretly for safety concerns, between “TOKYO IDOL FESTIVAL “(Aug/2,3) and “ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2014” (Aug/9).
On the early afternoon of August 6, UPUPs arrived at the mountain’s fifth station by bus, The Fuji-Yoshida Fifth Station, and started climbing at 4 p.m. For altitude sickness, they slowly and firmly took their steps. There was plenty room to enjoy, playing quiz and word chain games, and so on.

Things changed when they reached to about the sixth station. Rocky foothold suffered them.
In addition to the unsecure stages, delay of the schedule pushed them to be anxious. “What time are we arriving there?” A member opened her mouth, the sky gradually became darker after sunset.

In the meantime, a curious coincidence happened. A lady working in a lodge UPUPGIRLS stopped at short break, was a high school classmate of Saki Mori. Though Saki showed a look of astonishment, she enjoyed the meeting after a long separation.

About 20:20, they finally arrived at the goal of the day, Toyokan, the lodge at the 7th station on Mt. Fuji. Members who fully enjoyed a long awaited dinner (Japanese Hamburger Steaks!), went to bed early to prepare for the next day, under the wonderful, star-filled night sky.

On August 7, UPGS got up at 4 a.m., to see a sacred sunrise, then restarted climbing towards the summit. (The sunrise seen from the top of Mt. Fuji is called “goraikou”(sacred sunrise), which is considered very lucky.) Members completely recovered from the exhaustion of the previous day, and snaked up the long long rocky climbing road of the 8th station, singing their songs together!
A pro-climbing guide who went with UPUPGIRLS said in an admiring tone, “I have been doing this job for 15 years, but I’ve never met people like them, who could climb Mt.Fuji while singing songs this much.”

After passing the final 9th station without any troubles, all members reached at the Mt. Fuji’s peak at 10:15 after 5 hours.

Soon after they had a brief ceremonial photo time at the top they moved to Mt. Sengendake to be ready for the act. “We have a concert right now, right here! Please come look!” UPUPGIRLS called attention to climbers at full power. Then they accomplished the first great achievement in idol universe, that is, to put all their strength in performing “Zenryoku Pump Up!!” at the top of Mt. Fuji.

Ayano Sato looked back on the challenge, “We’ve always been having a “life-or-death” concert, but, this time I felt that we could make good use of those experiences.” Saki Mori expressed her sincere thanks for fans and the audience. “Not a few people told us that they came to like us after seeing our performance at the summit. I feel we took a big step forward. Besides, fans gave us messaged sashes for this project, that helped us to achieve this project. I deeply appreciate what they have done for us.”

When Minami Sengoku was asked their next step, “Having a concert at Mt. Fuji is way more than enough to say doing a live in high place, so we’d like to aim largeness next. The next goal is the Nippon Budokan, we’ll aim for the top of the idol universe!” In this way, the challenge of UPUPGIRLS turned out to be extremely successful.

(There’s more!!)
As an opening fight of “BATTLE OF Mt. FUJI’s PEAK (KARI)”, UPUPGILRS (KARI) got in Mt. Fuji Extreme Hill Climb Let’s Play Ride powered by SONY Action Cam!! Did they successfully make it? Check the website below!!

Japan Dream Road: http://www.sony.jp/actioncam/japandreamroad/jikkyo/