"Climbing Mt. Fuji" a Japan Travel Page by KevinMichael

My brother & I set off to climb Mt. Fuji giving ourselves a full 3 days to do it.

First we traveled by train from Tokyo to a village close to Mt. Fuji's base. From there we took a bus in closer toward the top to what is called the 5th Tier. And from there our adventure begain.

We started ascending Fuji at about 5 PM hoping to reach the summit so that we could watch the sunrise from the top. And although there seemed to be a heat wave everywhere else in Japan, on Fuji it was raining and we were cold and wet. After 2 hours and wetter than a sponge in the sea, we decide to stop and rest in one of the inns. It was at this point that I was so glad that I'd brought plenty of money with me. The inn cost over 10,000 yen for the both of us. Because our clothes were wet we had to set them out to dry by the fire.

Because the weather was lousy, we decided to wait until the next day to start climbing again. Unfortunately, the weather didn't clear up at all. We bought rain gear and covered our soaked backpacks in plastic. Also, we put plastic bags on the inside of our shoes between the inner shoe linings and our feat. I figured this would help to keep our feet warm. And it did. Also, it somehow prevented us from getting any blisters at all.
(although it did feel kind of wierd).

We set off to finish the mountain starting at 12 Noon. At about 5:15, we reached the summit. We found some monks who kindly stamped our walking sticks.

The fog was thick and persistent so we gave up hoping to see the whole of Japan and started climbing downward at 5:30.

As it became dark, we whipped out the flashlights and batteries that we had purchased hours before.

We reached the 5th tier at about 11:30 at night. To our surprise there was someone waiting for us. As it turns out, his job is to do just that. He is supposed to wait for any straglers that come down the mountain after hours and take them to a hotel or hospital if need be.

The climb and the waterlogged backpack that I had been carrying had somehow caused one of my arms and my hand to become swollen. I also had a fever. So, my brother & I decided to stay in the Park Hotel not far from the 5th tier. It cost us more than 40,000 yen for the room. But, we both really needed showers and I needed a place warm to sleep for the night. So we paid up and stayed there.

We got up early and took the first train out of there from Kawaguchiko.

Although it's fadding, my walking stick still has the stamp indicating that I climbed to the summit.

My brother took his home with him when he went back to California.

Both of us still talk about our memories of this adventure.