Conquering the mountain that is Fuji…

This was a very stressful trip. The story is that a couple of my friends joined this group called the Tokyo Gaijins who were planning to climb Mount Fuji. The group organized the trip for 15000 yen a person and they got a chartered bus to Kawaguchiko Gogome (the 5th station) plus insurance and other supplies (like oxygen cans and energy snacks). I missed the signup deadline but they said I should get there on my own and climb with them. I probably didn’t do as much research into the trip as I should have but I did find out there was a highway bus heading from Shinjuku station to Gogome for 2600 yen one way. The plan was to meet them at Gogome before 5:30pm on Saturday, at which time they would start the climb for the summit and make it there for sunrise. I gave myself over 5 hours to get there (it usually takes 1.5 hours to Shinjuku, and the bus ride was supposed to be 2-2.5 hours). Let the journey begin.

I left my train station just before 12pm on Saturday and made it to Shinjuku by 1:20pm or so without any problems. At Shinjuku, I was looking for a Keio booth because the bus I was supposed to take was the Keio Express Bus. I found a booth and asked the lady there, in Japanese, if she spoke English. No. I managed to say “basu” (bus) and “Mount Fuji” and she took me to another booth that could get me there. Booth #2. Luckily the guy there spoke a little bit of English. I said I wanted to get to Fuji today by 5pm. He said all the buses were booked for the next two weeks and that I could reserve a seat for the 15th of September. I told him I was meeting friends there today and asked if there was any other way there. He said I could take the train and he started looking through all the train times and which route would get me there for 5pm. Then his manager or co-worker came and told me I should go to this Information Desk on the 2nd level because they deal specifically with foreigners. Booth #3. I asked the lady if she spoke English and she said a little. Obviously not the booth I was looking for. Anyway, I told her I was looking to get to Mount Fuji and she directed me to a Keio place across the street. Booth #4. I asked this lady if I could get to Mount Fuji today by 5pm. She said no. She said buses to Mount Fuji only leave in the morning. I asked about trains. She said there are no trains that will get me to Mount Fuji. I asked about taxi. She said taxi would be very, very expensive. I asked what was the closest station that I could take the train to, then taxi from there. She said, “no train, highway bus. To Kawaguchiko.” I was a little puzzled because that’s where I wanted to go but anyway… I asked how I would get to Gogome from there and she said “local bus.” The bus was scheduled to leave at 2:10pm and estimated to arrive at the first station of Kawaguchiko by 4:10pm. I was somewhat relieved.

The bus made it to the first station at 4pm.

I went into the station and asked if I could get a ticket to Gogome. The local bus wasn’t leaving until 5:35pm. My friends were starting the climb at 5:30pm. I asked how much a taxi was going to cost and she said “10,000 yen” (around $100 CDN). I ran into a couple other foreigners that were on my bus and asked them if they were waiting for the local bus and they said yes. So I couldn’t split a cab with them. I called my friends and they said not to pay for the cab and they’d climb extra slowly so that I could catch up. Lucky for me, there were 2 German guys, who I saw at Shinjuku, and when I told them my dilemma they said I was welcome to climb with them. We finally made it the fifth station by about 6.30pm and started the climb by 6:45pm. I had an hour and 45 minutes of climbing to make up. Oh yea, everyone’s pictures taken at the fifth station all turned out with water droplets because there was so much mist/cloud up there.

These Germans were soldiers. They were powering up the mountain and it took so much effort to keep up with them. I thought I was in good shape but I was the one calling for rests. It was also good to be climbing with a group because it was so dark. Unfortunately, pictures of the moon didn’t turn out too well.

After less than 2 hours of climbing, I caught up to the Tokyo Gaijins group. I felt like a celebrity. Apparently my friends had been telling a few people about my situation and how they were worried about me climbing by myself. So, the Germans powered off before I had a chance to thank them and I never saw them again. The Gaijins’ climbing pace was a little more suitable for me.

We finally made it to the summit by about 3:30am. It was cold, the air was thin, and everyone was tired. Along the way we ran into another one of the girls from the Toronto group who lives in Hiroshima. Quite a coincidence. But anyway… that night it a little bit of a blur because I was so tired.

Around 5am, the sky started to get lighter and the sun started to poke through the clouds. It was amazing. The journey up the mountain was worth it. After the sunrise, we wandered around the summit a little and looked at the crater. It was massive but it’s hard to judge from my pictures.

Then around 6am we started the journey down. And it seemed never ending. We walked for about 4 hours down this loose red gravel type of surface and people were slipping and sliding. We made it back to the bottom and my friends asked the Tokyo Gaijins’ trip organizer if I could catch a ride back with them. He said no. They asked him if he knew when the local bus was coming and he said not until the afternoon. So he re-thought his answer and let me on the bus for 3000 yen (less than I paid to get to gogome).

I don’t think I would climb Mount Fuji again but seeing the sunrise from the summit is something I recommend to everyone.

I conquered Mount Fuji. (But I did start about half way up.)