Mt. Fuji is only open for climbing for two months in summer, July and August. People say there’s not much to see up there, but I felt I ought to climb it at least once for the memory, so I went with a friend. The most famous way is to climb through the night and watch the sunrise in the morning, but we were short on time (it’s not marked on the calendar, but right now it’s Obon, Japan’s holiday season), so we decided to climb during the day.
The view from the foot of the mountain
The clouds didn’t look good. You need a clear day for good views, but I wasn’t in a position to pick my day. If you come by car, you have to leave it in the parking lot and take a pricey shuttle bus, 1,700 yen round trip, up to the 5th Station halfway up the mountain. It was hot at the parking lot, but by the time we got to the 5th Station it had turned cool.
The trailhead
We had to walk downhill for quite a while. I wondered if this was really the way to the trailhead, but it was. The people coming out now were probably on their way back down after watching the sunrise.
Scenery on the way to the trailhead.
Even though it’s only halfway up, it’s 2,300 meters, so alpine plants grow here.
Finally, the trailhead
Shall we get going?
So many people.
Scenery
Mt. Fuji itself is nothing special, but the view looking down on the clouds is a work of art. It made the climb worth it.
I thought we’d climbed quite a way…
But there’s still a long way to go.
We finally made it to the 7th Station.
Looking back, getting to the 7th Station was really easy. You just keep going up…
There were shrines here and there, too.
Continued in Part 2.