Mt. Fuji

The week went by pretty quickly this week. It was a no lesson week for the kids lessons so it was pretty quiet. We all noticed the difference today around 4pm when the first group of kids came in and the lobby erupted. It was nice to have a little extra time to get some other things done, but I was happy to have my kids lessons again today. Teaching adults just isn’t as entertaining. I finally got the little monster whom I complained about last week to behave himself (somewhat) and speak some English today. I was pretty beat all day but that small win was a little motivating.

This weekend’s adventure was climbing Mt. Fuji. I have spoken with several people about their experience making the climb. Almost everyone said it was nice to have done it, but it was not fun at all. A few people had really negative things to say about it afterwards. After talking with some students about it today, one even told me that she made the climb 4 years ago and still hates Mt. Fuji. She said she cant even look at it. This is one of my most fluent students, so it wasn’t like she didn’t understand what she was saying either.

Personally, I thought it was an interesting experience. It was everything I expected hiking in a major tourist destination on a holiday weekend in Japan to be. Physically, it was not the most difficult hike I have ever done, but it was a bit trying in other ways. It was the last day of climbing season (June-September)on the mountain, and it was a 3 day weekend (unless you work for the same company as I do where you have off on Monday anyway). There were tons of people there, and there were several times when we got stuck behind a larger slower group and had to be patient and wait for the trail to widen so we could pass. For the last 200 yards before the summit we were basically at a stand still. The line was so backed up I started to get cold from not moving. We would wait for a minute, then take a few steps, wait for another minute then take a few more steps. We were hiking to see the sunrise from the summit, but as the sky began to lighten up in the east I began to worry whether or not we would make it to the summit in time to sit and watch the sunrise. We did make it eventually, but I was beginning to lose my patience towards the end.

Those lights are all people

Since we were hiking to see the sunrise, we did most of our hiking at night. Which is something I have always thought of as a big no-no in hiking. Apparently, it is the norm at Mt. Fuji. Our bus arrived at the highest station accessible by normal automobile, the famed “5th Station”, around 5:30pm. We saw the sunset and grabbed some food taking our time to prepare before beginning our trip.

the 5th Station

We ended up starting our hike around 7:15. It was completely dark at this point and it was kind of exciting to be hiking at night. I was dressed like I was going skiing in Canada in January, but within 15 minutes I shed down to a T-shirt. It was about 40*F and I had a decent sized pack to carry so I wasn’t struggling to keep warm as long as I stayed moving. The first hour of the hike was pretty easy, not much more than just walking up a little hill in a park back home in Maryland. The night was pretty clear though so we could see lots of lights from the small city below. The stars were pretty nice too. I always find it difficult to find places where you can see stars as well as I can at my parents farm in PA. I guess Mt. Fuji was better, but being so high up away from major light pollution, I was expecting it to blow the PA stars out of the water. Maybe the enlightened conversation of a pack of hillbillies passing the jar around makes things a little more “beautiful”, but whenever I see nice stars I always think of nightly shit shooting on the farm after finishing up evening chores.

So after the first hour of leisurely strolling up hill we go to a bit more difficult terrain. Nothing too crazy, just a steeper path, and loose gravel that kept sliding out from under your foot every step. I kept a good pace for a good bit of that portion, despite the protest of some of my group. It was kind of hard for me to walk slow on the gravel and I really just wanted to get to the top.

We passed several other small groups along the way, which wasn’t hard since the path was so wide. However, once we got farther up, the path turned into more of an outlined route of extremely minor rock climbing, which was much thinner. It was harder to get passed people at this point. We caught up to the rest of the people on our bus who left about an hour before us to follow the guide. There were several small dormitories/snack bars every several hundred meters. They were nice resting points, but they were where we caught most of the big groups. There were a few unfortunate times where we waited to long to resume our journey and were stuck behind them when they made the first move.

Koichi and a BUNCH of other Japanese hikers

We were told that it would take us 5 hours to get to our “lodge” where we would sleep for a few hours before continuing the journey and another 3 hours from there to the summit. We made it to the lodge in about 3.5 hours, well ahead of the rest of our bus. We had some food and hot tea there, then went to our bunks, which were incredibly cramped, for about 3 hours of sleep.

We were supposed to leave from the lodge at 2:30 and reach the summit by 5:20 for sunrise. We thought it would take us less than the expected time to hike the last bit, but we left on time because we thought the crowds may slow our pace a bit. Which they did. As I said we were at a stand still for the last hour or so. It was annoying and there was a point were I was getting stressed out that we would not make it to the top in time to see the sunrise because of this stupid crowd of people. It was not anywhere near my ideal hiking experience, but we were all joking around together so it made things a little better.

We finally reached the top around 5:15. We found a nice spot to sit and enjoy the view of the sunrise. I had some trail snacks in my bag so we had a little celebratory feast. I introduced everyone to Oreos covered in peanut butter, which were very well received.

The Fuji crew.

The sunrise was pretty nice. The Japanese tour guides were starting chants of “Banzai” all across the mountain top. It was pretty cool. My Japanese friends said that the guides were saying this sunrise was one of the best they had seen in recent weeks and they started the chant because they were excited for it.

Yuu, making sure you get a good pic of the sun, and Koichi trying to eat it.

The hike down was a bit of a chore. Hiking down hill for 3 hours was a major pain on my feet and knees. I had a few blood blisters on my feet when
I reached the bottom, but it was all good, nothing too surprising.

After we hit the bottom we got some souvenirs then headed to the bus. The bus tour we purchased included the stay at the lodge at the top, a small meal there, a visit to a hot spring after the hike, and an all you can eat buffet style lunch. It was all well worth it. The trip to the hot spring was exactly what we needed after the long hike. The meal after was a good refueling, and it helped put me to sleep for most of the ride home.

We arrived back in Kyoto around 8pm. Koichi and Yuu headed home, but I had to head to Greg’s to get some clothes I had left there after a night of partying on Saturday night. I finally made it home around 1030 and went to bed after watching an episode of “House of Cards” one of my new favorite shows.

I woke up pretty sore this morning, and had a normal day at work. I am happy to be home now though. I need to get some sleep tonight. I am still recovering from the hike.

My mom and Aunt are coming to visit for about 2 weeks starting this weekend. I will meet them in Tokyo after work on Saturday night. I am definitely looking forward to showing them what I have seen in Japan and exploring some new places too.

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for reading.