climb mt. fuji

http://www.ibarakijets.org/guides/fujiguide.pdf

More resources:
http://www.fujikyu.co.jp/fujitozan/en/index.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6901.html
http://mountfujiguide.com/

Notes regarding trails:
Yoshida is the most popular
Fujinomiya is the shortest distance
Gotemba and Subashiri are the longest and least crowded.

My father and I are going to Japan the first part of July for my Senior Trip, and climbing Mt. Fuji is going to be our main event. It’s going to be the first time for me to try anything like this—it’s going to be amazing.

I’m really looking forward it. :)

We are stationed in Japan for four years and would love to hike Mt. Fuji! Right now we have an infant and soon will have another newborn, so I don’t see it happening TOO soon (don’t want to take babies with, nor do I want to get a sitter for multiple days to make the trip to Tokyo just yet.) In the mean time, we can hike some of the beautiful mountains near us in northern Japan and get into shape. I’m aiming for the summer of 2010!

We started about 11PM, planning to reach the summit at sunrise. Climbing at night is a bit difficult. We heard stories about people who lost their way off the trail and slipped and fell to their death We had flashlights and luckely never lost our way. There are 12 stations on the way up. These are little shacks where you can rest, get a bite to eat or drink. They even have futons if you’re tired and need a nap. At about the ninth station, we felt ourselves in that napping mode, so concked out for a couple of hours. We finally reached the top at 9AM, missed the sunrise from the summit, but still a damn good view. There’s an expression in Japanese, “He who climbs Fuji San once, is a great man. He who climbs it twice, is an idiot.”

I initially planned to climb and reach the peak of Mt Fuji 4 years ago but was only able to finally do it September last year and again last month.

“富士山にのぼらないバカ、2度のぼるバカ。”　ハイ、ハイ、ハイ。これを知っているよ。この見たいというチャレンジを楽しむからね。(^o)/～

Not easy but we did it.
Sunrise in Mt. Fuji complete with branded walking sticks.

At the same time this was the most miserable time I’ve ever had in my life, and also the biggest achievement. We didn’t quite miss the rainy season, and ended up battling the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen for the WHOLE six hours up – freezing for the last hour, mudslides, pain, cold… you name it. We were fully prepared with cold and wet weather gear, but after 6 hours of solid rain, even the best waterproofs give up.

And no view from the top either.

In fact, of our coach of 50-odd people, only four of us made it up to the summit, along with 8 other people who had climbed most of the way the previous day and stayed at the 8th station.

When I read about ‘hundreds’ of people up there, and we were there with 12 of us, huddled in a hut round a tiny brazier trying to get anough warmth to make it down… well… it was pretty hard core.

But what a fantastic experience. And every time I look at a picture of Fujisan, I can point to the top and say… “I was there”.

Absolutely worth doing. I will never EVER do it again.

(Well… actually… it was too dangerous to go round the crater due to high winds and zero visibility, so I think I would go up again, just to reach the true summit)

Just one week to go… bring it on!

Ok… I heard the bus to Fuji can be busy, so we’ve already booked our seats. It seemed really difficult to find any decent information on the bus, so I hereby provide this link:

Odakyu Sightseeing Service Center

The “welcome” email address provided under “location” has a good English-speaking service where they can tell you bus times, book seats etc.

Thats right, this year this goal will be completed. Now that I have lovely, long summer holidays there is nothing stopping me. So far work has been the biggest hurdel to overcome, but thats not a problem anymore!