Guest Post: Steve's Adventure to Fuji-san

Today we are having a break from me telling you stories to have a guest blogger! Since we decided to try living in Japan for six months Steve thought it was the perfect opportunity to do something big and decided he wanted to climb Mt Fuji. The ever elusive and iconic mountain is very much a Japanese staple. I wouldn't have minded attempting it with him (though I do think I would have slowed things down somewhat), but with the girls that wasn't on the cards. Instead, Steve took a solo trip (we joked about it being the church Men's Retreat) to conquer the mountain and here he is to tell you all about it! 

Steve's Adventure to Fuji-san

I am now one of the lucky people who has summited Mount Fuji. What’s more, since I broke my hand at jiu-jitsu a couple weeks before – I did it one-handed.

(TL;DR - if you’re just interested in photos, check out the album here)

I left my house in Yotsugi at 7:30 to get to Shinjuku by 9:00, where I would catch a bus to arrive at the Mt Fuji’s 5th Station, Subaru line (route).

There was a point during the bus ride where I looked at Fujisan (san - 山 - means mountain) and honestly, when you’re in the foothills, it just looks like one big, never-ending hill to the clouds. The slope is continuous, and looks gentle.

I got off the bus at about 11:40. Online advice says to spend an hour and a half or so at the 5th station to acclimatize to the altitude, so I had ramen for lunch and looked around the sights at the 5th station - about 2200 meters up. It was quite a view. I didn’t expect a volcano to have as many trees in forestry and things around – who knew a volcano looks like a mountain?

At about 12:45 PM I figured I had acclimatised enough and was itching to head out. So I did. I had about four litres of water in my backpack and all kinds of changes of clothes for warm weather, wet weather, cold weather, windy weather.  And of course, a trekking poll (for my right hand only). And with that, I started walking.

The trail is well maintained, wide, and easy. After walking for around half an hour, I found myself at the first aid station at the 6th station. I heard supplies get more expensive the higher you climb. Water was about ¥200 down at the 5th station and ¥600 at the 6th station.

Half an hour further (1:45 PM), my first challenge: I looked down at my shoes and saw that my sole had started coming off. I’d been thinking so much about my hand and how I was going to keep it safe on this hike - but it turns out that the shoes are the real danger! Fortunately, I had thought of this in advance, and I packed some tape. I taped it up and went on my way.

I kept climbing. The trail got a little bit trickier with some rocky sections but still quite easy. At about 2:30 PM I passed my first Hut, at the 7th station, called Tomoekan and this was at at altitude of 2.7 kilometres. I had climbed about 440m vertically and walked about 2.7km.

By this point the vegetation was thinning out, but there were still some scraggly pine trees, and shrubs.

At about 3:00 PM things got worse – both of my shoes were losing their soles now, and I needed more and more tape to keep it attached; the rockier trails just kept ripping up the tape. I hadn’t worn these shoes for years, I guess that’s what happens. I looked at my roll of tape and hoped it would last the journey…

Another half hour passed, and the trail kept being rocky. I passed some bouldering sections now where I had to actually use my hands to help me keep my balance. Fortunately, I just needed it for balance and not to hold onto tightly - I could still do it one handed without endangering my left hand.

But here, my shoes were getting really bad. I was burning through tape quickly (the rocks shredded it) and I remember sitting on the side of the trail, out of people’s way, adding more tape, and thinking, “do I keep going up or do I turn around and go down?” I didn’t want to have a 5km rocky walk with no shoe soles.

I was probably 3 kilometres altitude at this stage and concluded that the rocky sections would be harder to climb down with one hand than it would be to go up to the summit and then come down the gentler descending trail. I finished taping and kept going. I asked the next hut for more tape, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any.

I kept walking (or scrambling) and came upon a sign that said 3,100 metres altitude.

This was significant; the hut I was going to stay in that night – Taishikan Hut - was also at 3100m elevation - and that’s where I found myself at 4:00 PM. I asked a staff member if there was anything they could do for my shoes and without a moment hesitation, they took my shoes, said that they will fix them, and that I don’t need to worry about it. This was great for me because it meant I knew I’d be able to summit. And it’s great for you - you don’t have to hear me talk about my shoes anymore. I didn’t realise how much impact my shoes falling apart had on my confidence in this part of the ascent…

Taishikan offered some absolutely breathtaking views - after dumping all my stuff inside, I headed back outside and took in the view. It started raining slightly – and that small sprinkle brought about a rainbow! I couldn’t believe my luck to have a rainbow at 3,100 metres above sea level. It felt like I was looking across at it, not up at it. 

I settled down to a dinner which was curry rice, a bit of fish, a little bit of veggies. It was time for bed at around 5:30 PM. I was going to need to get up at midnight to catch the sunrise.  The bed surprisingly private – I had heard these huts were just a big, shared bed, but this was good.

I had a terrible night sleep, as you might expect – probably only 2 hours total – and ended up crawling out at around 11:45PM. I had some of the breakfast rice that Taishikan provided, put on my warm stuff, my newly glued shoes (!!!), and set out again at 12:30 AM.

It was now dark, and I was wearing a headlamp. You’re going to have much fewer photos now for this part of the climb – and it was much different to 6 hours ago.

The trail started with some more rocky bouldering. After passing another hut or two, it turned into a sloping trail, that was much easier to navigate with my hand. By 1:00 AM I had reached 3,250 metres. That didn’t take long.

Another half hour later, at about 1:30 AM, I reached yet another hut, this time 3,400 metres up. My jacket didn’t last very long – it was way too hot, so back in the bag it went.

At about 2:15 AM I reached the 9th station, 3,600m. This one was interesting because they still had one of the early huts preserved - it basically looked like a hole in the ground. Thank you, modern huts!

Finally, at 2:50 AM, I went through the Torii gate and reached the summit – 3,770 metres up.

I had a rest here - there were benches up on the summit and it was good to just chill and rest and wait for the sun to come up. But I did get really, really cold while I was up there, and even with all my layers on and my gloves on and everything, I was still shivering. I had to wrap a towel around my bandaged hand to keep it warm.  Mr Classy, that’s me.

The shops on the summit of Mt Fuji opened at about 3:30AM.

And at 4:00 AM the sky continued getting more beautiful.  I loved seeing the clouds form and roll across the prefecture.

People were still making their way up the trail, even as the sky lightened. It was cool to see the headlamps make the way up the trail that I had just done.

The sun rose at 4:40 AM. It was heralded by a trumpet player in the shop behind me who didn’t hit a single note that he was trying to hit. Fortunately, they gave up quickly.

Besides the trumpet player, the sunrise was breathtaking. We could see the clouds form over the cities and forests nearby. And we were towering far over all that as we looked out see the sun rise in the distance.

Watching the sunrise isn’t the only thing to do on the summit though. There’s a one hour walk around the caldera... which I took two hours to do because it was just so cool, and I stopped so many times to take photos. It was fantastic, it’s hard to show the scale of it with their photos here.

I said earlier that I reached the summit… but that wasn’t entirely true. The summit is actually on the other side of the caldera here and is something like 10 metres above where I was when I watched the sunrise. But at 7:10 I reached the actual summit, 3,776m. Hurrah!

You can see this summit in photos above - that little mound at the back is the true summit. Unfortunately, they also built a weather station right there on that summit and it was built a long time ago. The weather station is quite large and is currently in the process of being demolished. What this meant was I couldn’t actually look out at the landscape from the true summit.

There was a big line to get a photo with the marker pole at the summit and so I just snuck a little sneaky one in here and went on my way.

On my journey around the caldera, I also saw a post office. That’s right, there’s a post office at the very top of Mount Fuji. I didn’t anything to post though, but that’s pretty cool. There is also this model-sized Mount Fuji which you can see in the photo below – a good bit of context for the whole thing – and the summit peak really stands out.  I don’t think it’s to scale – the top seems exaggerated – but you can see the shape.

Anyway, having navigated around the caldera, I began my journey back down the mountain at around 8:10 in the morning. Looking at the start of the trail, it was going to be a long walk, but a much easier one than the one up.

Much of the descent was like this - lots of switchbacks and screed/pebbles. I’m glad I didn’t have to walk with tape on my shoes for this part because it would have been extremely slippery. On the way down, I had to wait for an excavator to make its way up. There were a few crawlers going up and down at with various supplies and sometimes people.

I finished my descent pretty much spot-on Midday, treated myself to an ice cream, and some delicious thematic lunch.

Fujisan wasn’t done showing me some things though. Below you can see a photo from before I had lunch, and one from after, looking at pretty much the same spot. The weather turned completely around while I ate, and a thunderstorm hit. Given we were about the same level as the clouds, the thunder was deafening and sudden. None of the lightning was close enough to be dangerous, though. But - wow - the weather turned quickly. I’m glad this happened after I finished my walk.

I got on the bus at 2:00 PM and was back at Shinjuku Station by around 5:30 PM, after getting caught in Tokyo Traffic. This meant I was home by 6:30 for a much-appreciated rest.

Reflecting on it, it wasn’t a very technical or difficult trail. I personally never felt any effects from the altitude sickness, but I certainly saw people who did (including one girl who lost her lunch about 10m away from the true summit) – so I suppose my lungs were in working order for the high altitude.

There are plenty of opportunities to rest, plenty of stops, and people around to help. The vibe there was all positive. 

If you’re reasonably fit, able to carry clothing to suit all kinds of weather (including good shoes and tape for backup), and comfortable with bouldering around a little bit, you’ll be able to manage Fuji just fine. Honestly, you don’t even have to worry about carrying that much water because there’s so many places to buy water on the way – and the water didn’t get any more expensive as you went up the mountain. It was ¥600 at every single place.

The climb up Mount Fuji was stunning and I can highly recommend anyone do it if you get the chance. The feeling of being so high above the clouds, or hearing thunder coming from beneath you instead of above is unlike anything I’ve experienced (and I’ve been skydiving!) My highlight was walking around the Caldera though, actually being there and seeing the top of such a large and still working volcano. The sheer magnitude of the geology involved in such a thing is hard to conceive of, and not a chance I’m sure I’ll get again.

Thanks for reading! Back to your regular Japan and sewing program now!