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On Monday night, Jonathan and I climbed Mt. Fuji. It was his first time, but my second time (here's the post about my first time: Fujisan! I Climbed a Volcano!).

The forecast I saw for Mt. Fuji was constantly changing, but it consistently said that Monday night would be clear. It showed PM rain, night clear, and AM rain, but the rain was only supposed to be a few millimeters. As we rode the train from Iwata to Fujinomiya station it got cloudier and cloudier. It was raining in Fujinomiya when we arrived and started raining even harder while we waited for the bus. Shortly before the bus arrived it started to clear up a bit.

The bus took about an hour and a half to reach the 5th station of the Fujinomiya trail. It winds up the mountain through a really pretty forest. It got really really foggy and creepy looking (I guess the bus driver knows that route pretty well because visibility was sooooo low!). It was cool looking, but my outlook for the climb wasn't good.

We arrived at the 5th station and waited for a while to adjust to the altitude. The bus had taken us to 2,400 meters. While we waited, we looked in the gift shop and bought our walking sticks and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that we had packed.

The weather at the 5th station wasn't good. It wasn't raining hard, but it was misty and there weren't any good views. I was hoping the forecast was right and that it would eventually clear up.

Last time my friends and I started climbing around 8:30 at night and I didn't reach the top until about 4:45 in the morning and missed the sunrise. This time I was determined to see the the sunrise so we started climbing around 7:00. A man working at the start of the trail told us that we were kind of early and would reach the top too soon. He thought it would be better to wait and climb later since it was cold at the top. But based on how slowly I went last time we went ahead. 

The climb to the 6th station took only about twenty minutes and then the climb to the New 7th Station took about an hour. During this time we saw some people climbing down, but not many climbing up. Most of the time we were alone and when we turned off our flashlights it was really dark. We couldn't even see lights from the stations. It was kind of cool and creepy at the same time. The misty rain was really annoying though and was making me wet and cold. I really really hoped that it would clear up, but my outlook wasn't very positive.

While resting at the New 7th Station it cleared up all of a sudden and we got some really cool views! We could see cities and stars and it was so pretty! It was crazy how suddenly it changed.


We also saw lightning really far in the distance the whole night which was neat. 



Last time I was disappointed that I couldn't get any good pictures at night, but this time Jonathan got some really good ones. He recently bought a new DSLR. Most of the pictures in this post we taken by him.

For most of the hike we were by ourselves. We usually saw a few people at the stations, but it was mostly people who were spending the night there.

I have a diagram that shows how long it should take to hike between the stations. Last time my friends and I made good time between the first few stations but took longer and longer and longer between the later stations. This time, even with taking several breaks (often just sitting down right in the main path of the trail since there was no one else) we took about the same amount of time that's estimated on the diagram. We arrived at the 9th station before midnight. Maybe a little after 11:30?


I think we began hiking again around midnight. It took us about half an hour to reach Station 9.5. From there it's only supposed to take another thirty minutes to reach the summit. But 9.5 to the summit is really really steep though and we were already worn out from all the hiking so we took a ton of breaks and it took us over an hour to reach the summit. We reached the top around 2:00. It was really creepy up there and no one else was outside (I knew there were people sleeping in some of the buildings up there though). We sat in the doorway of one of the buildings, sheltered from the wind, but it was still really really cold. It was just a few degrees above freezing.

Between 2:00 and 3:00 a few groups of people reached the top and wandered around and asked me if I knew where the trail continued to reach the highest point, but I didn't know. They disappeared so I guess they found it.

Around 3:00 more people started arriving. It was getting even colder though and I started feeling sick. I was afraid it might be altitude sickness and I was really hoping it wasn't because I didn't want to have to go back down and miss the sunrise! Luckily I think I was just hungry because I ate a few Pringles and drank some water and felt better. I still didn't feel great though, but it was a good sign that it wasn't altitude sickness.

Sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 the sky started getting lighter, so we headed towards the east side of the summit. The view was so beautiful! I started feeling a lot better (I think the pretty view plus getting up and moving around really helped). We found a good place to sit and wait for the sunrise.











Haha, the old guy in the background is funny.


A little after 5, the sun appeared. Sooooo pretty!











After enjoying the pretty view for a while we headed towards the highest point. We passed by the post office on the way there and Jonathan sent a postcard to his parents. It's such a tiny little post office! It was in a different building than it was last time, but I don't think it was any larger. It's really funny because there are bunk beds right behind the counter! They have a short commute to work, haha.



Jonathan made the observation that Japanese people rarely wear bright clothing, but it's very different on Mt. Fuji!



That's the highest point in the background. I didn't go up there last time, but I kind of regretted it. There was a long line up there, but some people were just walking past the line. We figured out that the line was just for people taking a picture with a sign at the top so we got out of line and went to the top. The sign wasn't even really at the highest point. I think the highest point is right behind where Jonathan is standing.


There's a weather station at the top. I thought it wasn't used anymore but I just read that it was manned until 2004 and now it's automated.


The view from that point isn't any better than the rest of the summit, but you might as well go there if you've climbed the rest of the way. But if you don't make it up there it's not really a big deal.

We started our climb down around 6:30. It's horrible! It's steep in many places and even when it's not steep it's still easy to slip because of all the loose rocks and dirt. It's less tiring than climbing up so you don't have to take many breaks, but it's more difficult.



We didn't take many breaks on the way down and usually just briefly stopped for a few minutes at each station. At one of the earlier ones we stopped to eat a snack. We finished up the peanut butter cups I had made. So tasty! They were a really good snack for hiking Mt. Fuji. I took raisin breadsticks, dried fruit, Pringles, and peanut butter cups. The peanut butter cups and Pringles were the best snacks and helped a lot!




I gave this to Jonathan a couple years ago. It was kind of a joke, but he really likes it, haha. He meant to take a picture at the top but he forgot and took one on the way down.


One of the stations was getting a delivery. Those crazy vehicles drive stuff up the mountain!


We eventually got back to the 5th station around 11:45. It took us about seven hours to hike up and five hours and fifteen minutes to go down. Last time it took me about eight and a half hours to hike up. I guess I am in a lot better shape than I was last time!

When I got home yesterday afternoon I got some chicken and rice from Family Mart. It was my first real meal in a while! So tasty! I went to bed at 7:20 and didn't get up until after 7 this morning. I've been up a few hours now and still feel a little sleepy. I'm sore too!

There's a Japanese saying that says something like, "A wise person climbs Fuji once and a fool climbs it twice." At first I felt like it might be true when the weather was horrible. It just couldn't be as amazing of an experience the second time. But then the weather cleared and I saw a beautiful sunrise! I'm so glad I climbed Mt. Fuji again and actually got to see the sunrise. Though now that I've seen the sunrise, I don't think I'll climb Mt. Fuji again. If I just had to hike up that would be fine but I really hate the hike down! It was worth it for the super pretty view at the top though! :)

On Tuesday I began my journey to climb Mt. Fuji. I had my first glimpse of Fujisan that day from the train in Shuzenji.

Finally I arrived at Shinfuji station where I met up with three of my friends. We waited for several hours for the bus to take us to the Fujinomiya Trail 5th Station. We sat around in the station and ate some snacks. Then we walked to the grocery store to buy more food. They had a CD player playing an awesome song about onigiri. You would only understand if you were there, but here's a video anyway.


Then we headed back to the station and sat around and ate more food (we did a lot of eating that day).

After eating, we still had a while to wait for the bus. While waiting, one of my friends was attacked by a ninja.


My friend had a special video project she was working on for her friends back in Australia. The ninja attack was one of the parts of the video. It is too hard to explain the reason for this video, but it was a lot of fun.

At the gift store in the train station we went ahead and purchased our walking sticks. They are really awesome because we got stamps burned into them at the different stations (not train stations... I'm talking about the mountain huts) on Mt. Fuji.

The bus was about to arrive!

The bus took about 2 hours. The first part of it was going to a couple other stations. Then finally we began ascending Mt. Fuji towards the Fujinomiya Trail 5th Station. The 5th station was above the clouds. We rested there for a while to get used to the altitude and to attach bunches of glowing bracelets to ourselves.


The glowing bracelets were awesome just because they were glowing and colorful, but they really did help us to distinguish each other in the dark.

We began our climb at 8:30. It was easy to get to the 6th station. The rest would not be so easy though.

Here we are resting at the 6th station.


The order of the stations is:
5th -> 6th -> New 7th -> Old 7th -> 8th -> 9th -> 9.5 -> Summit!

At some point we took a video of our awesome glowiness.


The climb to the next station (old 7th) wasn't too hard. The climb from old 7th to new 7th and then to the 8th station was more strenuous and we had a lot of rocks to climb over. Plus, we were feeling the altitude more and took many rests. The views were beautiful. We could see so many cities. The lights were sparkling because they were so far away and they looked a little bit like they were on fire. We could see so far! We weren't sure what some of the cities were but we think we could see as far as Tokyo.

This picture was taken from the new 7th station (or maybe the old 7th station). You can kind of see the view of the lights below. It was soooooooo much better in person though.


The sky was super clear too since we were above the clouds. I saw several shooting stars!

The rest of the climb was really strenuous and I don't remember too many details about some of the stations or the climb in between. But here is a photo of me at the 9th station!

At the 9th station we realized we didn't have too much time to get to the top before sunrise, so we began taking fewer breaks.

We went past an area with snow. Crazy!

Haha, yeah the picture is terrible. Oh well... it proves I saw snow!

The sunrise began before we reached the top, but it was still beautiful even though we couldn't see the sun. This picture was taken at 4:01 but I have some pictures taken around 3:50 that have a little bit of light in the sky. The sun rises too early!




The climb to the very top was difficult. I thought once I could see the top I would be motivated to keep going quickly. But I was super tired and had to keep stopping. The top was so close and I knew that if I just kept going I could be at the top in just a couple minutes, but I still took breaks to rest.

I finally arrived at the top! We arrived at the summit around 4:45. It took us about 8 hours and 15 minutes to reach the top.


Yeah, that man is smoking on Mt. Fuji. I don't see how people were smoking up there and at the stations. I was having enough trouble catching my breath.



The sky was so beautiful! :)


The point up there on the left is actually the highest point on Mt. Fuji. I actually didn't go up there. I was just too tired! The building up there is an old weather station that is no longer used.

The top of the mountain has many things. There are vending machines but I didn't see them because they were at the top of another trail (I did see many vending machines along the way though at the stations). I did see the post office though! Unfortunately they were sold out of the special Mt. Fuji stamps.



On top of Mt. Fuji I received the top stamp. It wasn't the last one I got though. I had to get many on the way down because after the 6th station, the other stations had been closed at night.


The top stamp was the only one that wasn't burned in. It actually looks less special than the rest of the stamps. I thought the top one should be more special than all the rest. Oh well... it's still awesome! :) :) :)

The weather was perfect for our climb. We could see so far.

There's the Izu Peninsula!


I climed a volcano! Here I am by the crater.



We began our hike down around 8 AM. No sleep for us!


The hike down was really difficult. We didn't need as many breaks, but we went very slowly. It felt much more dangerous going down than it had going up. Going up was strenuous, but I didn't feel like I was going to hurt myself. The loose rocks made it very hard to go down. I slipped several times.




There was a crazy vehicle going up the mountain. It was just like a box on treads. Soooooo weird.


Here are some futons airing out at one of the stations. They kind of blend into the clouds!


We ate breakfast (or whatever meal you eat after staying awake for 24 hours straight) at the 8th station. I had curry rice. It wasn't the best curry I've had, but it was so awesome to have a real meal after just having snack food for so long. Yum!


At some point (maybe around one of the 7th stations) we headed into the clouds.


The view looking up was still super blue though!


Between the new 7th station and the 6th stations it began to rain. So I don't have too many pictures at this point. Here is a picture someone else took. As you can see, the visibility was pretty low.





We made it to the bottom around 2:15, just in time for the 2:30 bus. It had taken us about 6 hours and 15 minutes to descend.

I tried to sleep on the bus but I never really completely fell asleep because it was soooo cold! I was wet and that didn't help.

Then on the train ride home I sorta slept for like maybe a couple minutes, but it was very light sleep. But if you don't count that I didn't go to bed until about 11 that night. I was up for 38 hours! I would be tired if I had stayed up that long doing nothing, but I had climbed Mt. Fuji!

Here is my walking stick with all its stamps. It's the best souvenir ever. :)


Overall it was one of the best experiences of my life. It was long and strenuous, but totally worth it! Right now I am super sore. I saw old people hiking Mt. Fuji. They are probably less sore than me right now, lol.

You can see some more pictures on facebook. Click Here!