Climbing Mt. Fuji

Warning: This is a long post with lots of pictures.

We met a bus near our hotel in Shinjuku, then took a four hour bus ride to the staging area, Station 5. There are numbered stations as you go up the mountain. The summit is Station 10. Station 5 is where all the tour groups start, so it was a large crowd. The excitement was palpable.

There were lots of beautiful views. I mostly just saw this:

I was trying to make sure I didn’t twist my ankle on a rock. The button on my shoe identified me with my tour group. This is the group shot our tour guide, Owada, posted to his instagram. He’s in the lower left corner:

I did manage to take some scenery photos.

The trail was sometimes just a trail…

…but as we got higher, it felt a little more like rock climbing

There were a lot of people climbing the mountain. I was glad, because sometimes there were bottlenecks, and we would pause for a moment. Our tour guide really kept us moving, and I was grateful for a few seconds to catch my breath.

There were toilets at each Station. To use them, you had to pay 200 or 300 yen, so we had to make sure to have some 100 yen coins along with us. I didn’t use the toilets as much as I thought – maybe because I was sweating so much. The toilets were almost all co-ed. After you used the toilet, you were supposed to spray the bowl clean with the hose on the wall:

As we got higher, the landscape changed -fewer plants and more just rocks and cinder. It reminded me a lot of Haleakala.

We stayed at Station 8. It was a simple accommodation, but I was glad to lie down. We each had a bunk space.

We were separated from each other by a small shower curtain. (I’m not frowning – that’s my concentrating-on-taking-a-selfie face)

The bunk area wasn’t quite long enough. I couldn’t fully stretch out my legs.

It was not the most uncomfortable night of sleep I’ve ever had (that was the night I spent in New Orleans when I was helping my parents pack some stuff right after Katrina), but it was certainly toward the top of the list. I couldn’t quite stretch out my legs, and I was too warm most of the night.

Though it was an uncomfortable night of sleep, at least it was short. We laid down around 7pm, and up at 12:45am so we could hike to the summit before the sunrise.

The next part of the hike was brutal. It was almost all rock climbing, and there was no pause at all. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. I was panting, and was panicking at the thought of passing out or falling or something. I took only two pictures right at the beginning of this leg of the hike.

One of the trail ahead – everyone was wearing lights to help them see where to put their feet:

And one of the view. The glow in the distance is Tokyo:

When we got to the summit, I thought it was only a rest station. I laughed for relief and joy when I understood we were finally there. We sat with our tour group inside a shelter and had some coffee while we waited for the sunrise.

Seeing the sunrise from the top is why many people make this trek. It was fun to be next to everyone as they watched. When the sunrise happened, many people cheered and applauded.

I took a whole bunch of pictures of the sunrise. Here is the beginning:

And here is the end:

And then it was time for the hike down. There is a separate path for going down. It’s longer in distance, but slopes more gently. I was glad. I didn’t want to do the rock-climbing path back down. I think that would have triggered my fear of heights.

For the hike down, the tour group did not travel together. We were just supposed to be back at the starting point of Station 5 by 10:30am. We had about five and a half hours to get there.

I was glad to be able to go at our own pace. It gave me a little more time to enjoy the scenery…

…but I still had to look down a lot. The path was covered in loose gravel and stones that could trip you. And the constant downward slope kept smashing my big toes against the fronts of my shoes. They were pretty bruised by the time I got to the end. At the end of the trail, there was a little bit of upward slope. I was so grateful.

We made it to Station 5 with little time to spare. We checked in, and caught our breath, and then it was time to go.

Hiking Mt. Fuji was really hard for me. I think if I knew how hard it would have been, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place. But now that it’s over, I’m really glad I did it. Much of the experience is already starting to blur, so I’m glad I can record things here.

And in case there is any doubt about my accomplishment, my tour guide gave me an official document. I may hang it next to my other credentials by my desk at school: