Fuji san, 3776m

Last weekend we took Friday off and headed over to Fujiyoshida, a small mountain town at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Apparently, this is where the ancient Fuji san pilgrims would start from, so there is a tori gate and a shrine that make the entrance to Mt. Fuji. All the pictures from the town show great views of Fuji, but he was hidden behind a giant cloud the days we were there. It wasn’t really cloudy out, but there was just a big cloud hiding the highest mountain in Japan.

It is still “rainy season”, so we didn’t know what we’d get, but we actually had wonderful weather for our hike. On our train ride to Fujiyoshida, we met an Irish girl. We talked for a while and then parted ways. Saturday morning, Dan and I got up early to go get some food before the big hike. We ate delicious cinnamon toast and coffee at a cute café, then took the train to the station to catch the Mt. Fuji 5^th station bus.

After we bought our bus tickets and took our spot in line, I ran into the Irish girl, Blaitin, again. She came on the same bus and the three of us ended up spending a grueling nine hours together. We took the bus up to Fuji’s fifth station, which is where most people start these days. The volcano has ten stations, the tenth being at the summit.

The first hour or two wasn’t too bad. We occasionally passed a hut or a station and had many “konnichiwas” along the way. Most people start at night, sleep in a hut, then climb up to the summit for sunrise. We were not interested in climbing at night, nor during the “official season” when 10,000 people a day attempt the climb(I have seen pictures and people are just wainting in lines on the trails). This along with many things we’ve done, proved to confuse people. Climbing Fuji san, like most things in Japan is done one way. Anyway- Dan was leading the way and Blaitin and I were trailing. We were in one big cloud and everything was foggy and hard to see. At one point around the seventh station she almost turned around, but didn’t and then around the eigth station I felt like turning back too. After that point it just became treacherous. I had never climbed at that elevation before, and it proved to be a different animal. Every switchback or two I would have to stop and catch my breath. After a while the clouds broke a bit and we could see parts of Fuji and the big patches of snow that still hung around. There was one spot where people were stopped and looking at something, so we went over to see what it was. There were a couple crazy people snowboarding down a huge field of snow. I also heard reports that people were seen carrying mountain bikes to the top. Crazy!

Here I am around the ninth station.

This is Blaitin and I chuggin up the mountain from Dan's view.

Finally after five hours, we reached the summit. It was amazing. I felt awful. It started snowing a little. I got my photo taken with some old Japanese ladies who had made it up there. Old Japanese ladies are tough for the record. I constantly see really old ladies riding bikes, tending to rice fields, and doing their neighborhood assigned duties. Much different from old people in the US. So- once at the top my main concern was the crater. I had read that some people have fallen fatally into the crater or been blown off the top of the volcano by high winds. Neither of those things happened to us, so I was relieved about that. The crater was interesting to see, and we took lots of photos with it.

We hung out up top for about an hour, then headed back down the steep mountain. I felt like I was weightless. I loved going down, but Dan said it was more difficult for him than coming up. It took four hours to get back to the fifth station. It was still technically off season, so buses stopped at two thirty. We were prepared for the worst- hiking all the way to Fujiyoshida. Luckily some hiker took a cab up to the station to start their hike just as we were ending ours and for the bargain price of 12,000\(about 120$ ), we were happily driven back to our hostel. Having three people to split the cab made it bareable. So, in celebration of our tremendous feat, the three of us went out for dinner. We ended up at a place called “Skylark Gusto”. A Japanese take on the American family restaurant. The fries and beer tasted great and afterwards, I was so tired that I almost didn’t make the walk back to the hostel.

Me, Dan, and Blaitin next to Fuji san's crater.