I remember coming back from Mount Fuji last week extremely tired, sweaty, and relieved. I swear a minute ago I was struggling to get past the 7th station with Angela. It's truly amazing that we both actually survived such a physically demanding two days given our lack of appropriate hiking gear and experience.
Note to anyone who climbs Fuji: Do not even think about doing it in regular running shoes/sneakers. In a matter of minutes, my black leather converse had accumulated so much dust I could etch out a smiley face on the front. Mount Fuji is full of volcanic ash and rock- you'll not only get this all over your clothes, but in your eyes, nose, and ears as well.
"Climbing Mount Fuji" blogs are all over the internet, and although they gave us a vague idea of the weather conditions during the Japanese climbing season (July-August), none of them really addressed the issue of amateur hikers choosing the tallest mountain in Japan as their starting point. Needless to say, I am so glad I managed to climb Mt Fuji given the weather conditions and my unfortunate immune system.
Angela and I left for the 5th Station on Mount Fuji around 9:40AM from Shinjuku. Two and a half hours later, we arrived at the 5th station unpleasantly surprised by how cold it was. I knew immediately I had not brought enough warm clothing. I felt slightly out of breath and started to wheeze due to the change in altitude as well. Clearly skipping out on the gym for the last semester has its disadvantages。
Researching on the internet gave us a vague idea of different 'trails' you could follow. Ideally, given our lack of experience, we wanted to take the easiest trail up to the top of Fuji. But we couldn't actually find the other trails and all the other hikers seemed to follow the Yoshida trail.
In hindsight, complaining about the mini slopes along the 5th station leading up to the 6th station is ridiculous at best. Although the 6th station was long and arduous (and boring, to be honest), we found ourselves most physically challenged at the 7th station.
The 7th station was, in essence, a rock climbing challenge without your mandatory harness and headgear. I found myself utilizing all four limbs throughout the length of the 7th station, which in total took us about a good two or three hours to plow through.
At each mountain hut, Angela and I would sit and rest, eat an onigiri or two.
The Japanese climbers, kitted out with hiking sticks, boots and leggings to match, stormed ahead of us in record time while Angela and I puffed our way through each rest stop.
We considered buying one of these cool walking sticks though. You get to stamp your way through each station until the very top. Upon discovering however, that New Zealand immigration would not allow you to bring any form of wood or bamboo into the country, we decided not to purchase these walking sticks. It's a huge pity, because even the mini walking sticks would have been a cute souvenir to bring home, as opposed to blurry photos and smelly sweaty clothing.
By the time we got to the 8th station, it was already starting to approach nightfall. At this point in time, we were both exhausted and discouraged. Our hut was on the very tip of the 8th station, and the 8th station was a steep, arduous walk. Although there weren't any rocks to climb over, the path itself was rocky and slippery, and the temperature drop was quite hard to adjust to. My silly oxygen can did not exactly help either because I was wheezing so much.
Although it took us another 3 hours of walking, and we were both nodding off in exhaustion, we finally reached our stop at 19:45. It took us a grand total of 8 hours to get to the top, an additional two hours longer than the 'average person' would have done. For any future hikers out there? Do not get the food. Save your 2000yen. Seriously. Nothing special about the food on Fuji. It was quite disheartening to be welcomed onto the 8th station with a measly looking curry.
It was hardly a 'hotel', and there weren't any proper beds either. But judging from the other mountain huts available, this is the standard bedding you would get at the price of 7000yen a night.
My wheezing and coughing did not exactly give the staff at Fuji Hotel a good impression. They tried to get me to step outside, which I strongly objected to at the time since it was freezing outside, and all I had to wear was a parka and a cardigan. Despite being guests at the "Fuji Hotel", we still had to pay 200yen to use the toilets. That amounts to $4.00 just to pee. Expensive pee. Do bring a ton of 100 yen coins with you- they were my saving grace on Mount Fuji. Along with the idea of seeing the sunrise from Japan's highest point.
After a long night, we decided to sleep at around 9pm and get up at 4am to see the sunrise. It was cloudy and extremely foggy, and most hikers decided to stay at the hut to see the sunrise instead of going up to the very top. Given that we hiked at the very start of the hiking season, there was still a ton of snow up at the top, and because it rained during the night, climbing up to the summit would have been extremely dangerous.
The staff at Fuji Hotel recommended staying at the hut to see the sunrise because the view was apparently the same. We were just a few kilometers away from the top anyway, so I did not feel too unhappy about not climbing all the way up to the summit. Not sure if we both wanted to anyway- Angela and I were physically and mentally drained. The thought of hiking up another additional 3 hours (usually it would take 1 1/2 but I'm not convinced we would have made it in that time) was intimidating to say the least.
The sunrise was breathtaking. So even though there were a ton of clouds blocking the view, being up at the tallest point in Japan and experiencing being above cloud level was worth all the sweat and tears.
We begun our descent around 5:30am, and reached the bottom around 11am. Obviously it took us a shorter length of time to hike down, although it was considerably harder in the 7th station. Rock climbing down anything is harder because your balance is compromised.
Needless to say- I definitely impressed many experienced Japanese climbers with my crab walking and sliding methods. One even commented that he had never seen anyone choose to tackle Fuji the way I did. Clearly an understatement had he known the lack of clothing and food I had neglected to bring for my hike. We ate our peaches on the hike down though! Japanese peaches this time of the year is heaven.
It was such a relief to get back to the 5th station by lunchtime. I still couldn't believe that so much had happened in the last 24 hours.
We actually survived Mount Fuji! Looking back now, I am extremely glad I had embarked on this crazy physical challenge now with Angela, rather than during my exchange. Joining a tour would have been a bit difficult considering I would always be lagging behind and begging for a rest stop every 15 minutes or so.
No wonder the Japanese say, "He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool." As great an experience as Mount Fuji was- I don't think I will be able to climb it again. Altitude sickness was not very fun.
But nothing like a good meal at Ten-ya to celebrate the end of a long hike!
All my love always,
April
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