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So… Mt. Fuji.
Well, last week somebody brought it to my attention that a Swiss guy from my Japanese class just climbed mount Fuji. “What?!?!?! He climbed Mt. Fuji?!?! I want to climb Mt. Fuji!!!! How did he climb Mt. Fuji?!?!?” was my immediate boisterous reaction. I was confused because I’d read that you can only climb Mt. Fuji during 2 summer months which have been long since gone. It’s actually pretty crowded during those months and there are thousands of people climbing at a time.
Well, a friend calmly informed me that you can go whenever you want but there’s nothing open during this time of year on the mountain. Ok! Great! Soon afterwards Elizabeth sent me a text message saying the weather looked good and asking me if I wanted to go with her. Would I, David Lee Sulock, be one to turn down hiking the tallest mountain in Japan? I think not. I immediately accepted and she told me the plan for the weekend soon afterwards.
Saturday I had to wake up early to take a 2 hour bus ride to the base of this beast. It was me, Elisabeth (from Belgium), and Taiyo, a Japanese guy who has lived in France his whole life. I asked him if he wanted to come along around midnight the night before. There were approximately 7 people on the bus, including the 3 of us. This meant that I could move back and forth from side to side on the bus sticking my entire body out of the windows taking pictures like an American idiot. I did that for as long as I was awake, but I ended up sleeping the majority of the ride. This was my first time being outside of Tokyo though, or even being away from the subway lines, so it was nice to be able to see some new sorts of scenery.
From the bus:
The base of Mt. Fuji was extremely touristy with tons and tons of Japanese people coming and taking their picture with the monstrous volcano in the background.
High school students who looked especially cold and a couple other misc shots from before the sun set.
For better or for worse the whole place closed down around 5-6 pm. Pretty much all the lights of every touristy shop were turned off and everybody left. This meant that essentially me, Taiyo, and Elisabeth were some of the only people left on the mountain. Let me just say that it is reallllly pretty creepy to be one of the only few people left on the base of this huge, cold, windy Japanese mountain when there are basically no lights on except for the bathroom. There were a couple lights flickering on and off and the wind was pretty much constantly rattling doors and windows throughout the complex. The 3 of us ending up staying in a huge bathroom stall to stay warm and use its light for about 6 hours while we slept, talked, and played games.
These were taken with Taiyo’s camera.
Our plan was a pretty common plan amongst those that hike Mt. Fuji: To start climbing the mountain around midnight so as to be able to see the sunrise around 5:30 am from the top. Here we are right before we started. From left to right: Me, Taiyo, and Elisabeth.
This would have been a pretty fantastic plan had it not started raining around 8 or 9. We didn’t have much of a choice. We weren’t about to let a little rain stop us after coming this far, so onwards we marched hoping the rain would clear up after a while.
The entire hike on Mt. Fuji was unlike anything I’ve ever done before but this part was especially surreal. The only lights we could see were headlamps/flashlights for 2 hours as we climbed up a steep, rocky mountain that has chains lining the path that you are supposed to use to help yourself up. It felt like a sci-fi movie scene as we were pelted with heavy wind and rain, looking down at the ground in front of you the entire time to make sure you were stepping on the right spot. Only looking back to make sure your friends were doing okay. It was a cold hike, too. Around freezing temperature but with winds strong enough to make everything much, much colder than anybody would desire.
Everything was pretty much alright until an hour or 1.5 hours into it when everything we were carrying or wearing was completely soaked. My pants (I was wearing 2 pairs) were realllly wet, and in freezing temperatures with heavy wind it became pretty miserable after a while. Right on cue the only hut open on the mountain this time of year (and only open because of construction), the 7th station hut, appeared through the rain and fog. Thinking we were certainly defeated by the mountain we snuck into the boiler room of the building where we hung out for the next couple hours warming up, drying our clothes off, and sleeping.
Around 4 am the rain ceased and our clothes dried. We felt good again so we set off to finish what we had started and climb as high as we could to watch the sunrise.
We ended up far, far above the clouds when the sun rose, which was most certainly incredible as expected. We were in some light snow then but it wasn’t a problem until we tried to go up higher and discovered the snow had turned to ice and it had become considerably more dangerous. Deciding it was enough we turned around and slowly descended the mountain, enjoying the ridiculous view of the clouds we had from above.
We had to sit around for a while again to take the bus back to Tokyo. Overall though this was an incredible experience and I can’t wait to try to reach the top again next year when it warms up a bit. More pictures soonnnnn
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