Mount Fuji

Day 250 – Going Up

The streets of Nagoya were nearly deserted as we made our way to an early morning Shinkansen toward Fuji.  At Shin-Fuji Station we grabbed a couple of bento boxes, some snacks and stocked up on water before getting on the bus that would take us to the Mt Fuji – Fujinomiya Fifth Station, as far up Mt Fuji as you can get using public transportation. 

There are four main routes up Mt Fuji, each departing from a fifth station on a different side of the mountain, we’d opted to start from Fujinomiya because it was the easiest to access from Nagoya and the shortest route to the summit.  As the bus (just a normal city bus!) wound it’s way up the side of Mt Fuji we go our first taste of just how popular this place is.  Traffic jams delayed our bus by more than an hour, while all the people who had climbed Mt Fuji overnight on the Saturday tried to get back down.

We had a brief moment of panic at the fifth station when we were told that there wasn’t actually anywhere to store all our excess gear (contrary to what the tourist lady at Shin-Fuji Station had told us and some others on the bus), but thankfully the confusion was resolved and we were able to store about 15kg of extra stuff. 

With that out of the way we were ready to start climbing.  It was 1pm and the hut we were staying in expected you to be there by 6pm or they were entitled to give your space away.  From guidebooks and the internet we had figured on it taking four and a half hours plus a stop for lunch, so it was going to be close.

As much as we had seen of Mt Fuji to date.

400m of altitude gain done, 1,000m more to go.

By the Eighth Station we were consistently faster than the recommended times, so we decided it was time for our bento boxes.  As you can see the view had not improved.  (Also note that the beer next Erin belongs to someone else, the Japanese sure love the stuff.)

Climbing Mt Fuji is a family affair for many, the youngest of these kids must have been about 8 years old.  We saw many children even younger than this, not to mention many people who could have been grandparents and few that could have been great-grandparents.   

Coins stuck in a wooden post for luck.

The Tenth Station, otherwise known as the top.  The building directly behind me is a shrine, to one side is a Japan Post Office (only open mornings in July and August) and straight ahead of me out of the picture is our mountain hut.

In the end we were there by 5pm, which made us amongst the first to arrive.  By my left foot is where Erin would sleep and by my right foot where I would sleep.  About another 10 people would share the space you can see in the photo and about 40 in total in the room, cosy.

When dinner came around it turned out that there was no vegetarian option, it was beef, beef or beef.  So Erin had a tiny bowl of soup and some of my rice for dinner.  At 7pm it was lights out and about half an hour later a fantastic storm rolled through, threatening to blow the hut clean off the mountain top.  It didn’t but it did hail heavily enough to leave the top of the mountain looking almost snow covered come morning.

Day 251 – Going Down

Lights on was 4am, though they jumped the gun a bit and turned them on at 3 something, a little over the top considering we were already at the top of the mountain and didn’t really need to walk far for our sunrise views. 

Just some of our many hundreds of friends assembling near the summit before sunrise.

It was very cold, the first time we’d been cold since trying to go swimming in Canada!

  

Looking across the crater to the abandoned weather station on the summit proper (3,776m).

What a circus!  In a couple of the buildings in the middle there are souvenir stores!    Something like 200,000 people climb Mt Fuji each year, the majority in the two month ‘open’ season, making it far from a wilderness experience.

On the slightly more peaceful crater circuit walk.

The mountain’s shadow, we’re becoming fond of these (Mount Kinabalu and Tajumulco). 

Coming down was unsurprisingly quicker than going up, but we were more in tune with the suggested times, I guess our muscles are more resilient than our joints.

One of several primary school groups we passed on the way down.  I can’t imagine this happening in Australia somehow…

In the end we were back at the Fifth Station before the first bus, thankfully there was no traffic this time and we were back at Shin-Fuji Station well before lunch and ready to start our day!