FUJISAN

It's just past 8am on this overcast Sunday morning in Tokyo. At this moment exactly one week ago, I had been awake for nearly 7 hours during which I had summited Mount Fuji, watched the sunrise, climbed back down to the cabin where we spend the night, had breakfast with other hikers, and quickly began our descent when we heard the beginning mumbles of a thunderstorm. Needless to say, climbing Mt Fuji was an incredible adventure and while I've had a great weekend so far, I would happily have spent it having a second go at Fujisan. San is one word for mountain in Japanese so that's how people refer to it here. San is also what you add after an adult's surname, like "Mr." or "Mrs." The mountain has such a strong presense in Japan and seems to inhabit a special place in the hearts of the Japanese, so it strikes me as poetic and endearing that people are kind of calling it Mr./Mrs. Fuji. Now I'll attempt to recap that memorable weekend.

We woke around 6am on Saturday morning to take a taxi and then two trains to the station closest to Fujisan. Arriving there around 9:30am, we met up with the hiking guides and the other 10 members of our group. This particular hiking package was marketed for families so of the 15 hikers, there were 7 children between the ages of 8 and 12. Kids always add energy and excitement to the mix, and these kids were especially spirited. Near the station there was a huge playground with a mini-zipline, two awesome slides, and a bunch of monkey bars. The moment we caught sight of these inanimate objects that bring universal joy, the children and I ran over and began sliding and climbing and jumping and I knew I was in the right group.

So kawaii!!

After a short drive to the base of the mountain, we hopped on a bus full of hikers and their backpacks and headed up to the fifth station. It is possible to climb from the bottom, but if I'm not mistaken three of the four possible trails start at the fifth station, including the most popular trail called Gotemba. We opted for a less popular/crowded trail called Fujinomiya and we began to climb just before noon.

Here we go!

Onigiri (triangle shaped rice ball) snack break

About every 30 or 40 minutes we would take a five-minute break and rehydrate, refuel, and adjust to the altitude. At first I wondered if it was necessary to stop so frequently, but no one in our group felt altitude sickness until we were about 3,500 meters high, and I think it was because we rested along the way. Around 5:30pm we arrived at the eighth station where we enjoyed a hot meal of curry rice, watched the sunset, and went to sleep at 7:30pm. It was quite cold at the station, especially after sundown, but fortunately the cabins on Mt Fuji have some heating and our sleeping quarters was basically a room full of pillows and blankets with no designated beds so our body heat certainly helped.

What a glorious sunset

Around 1:30am we were gently woken up by the sweet hiking guides and reminded that we had all wanted to reach the top before sunrise and to do so we had to leave by 2am. Somehow no one in the group had trouble waking up or needed much convincing and we hit the trail before 2am. The last two and a half hours were the most challenging for me, and I think for the group as a whole. During a couple of moments of doubt, I turned to my snack pack in which my host mom had surprised me with chocolate covered almonds (just the kind of thing my real mom would do!). Fortunately the altitude hadn't seriously affected anyone until this final stretch, but that started to change in the last hour and a couple of the kids started to feel a bit sick. On top of this, it was literally freezing cold; there were massive piles of snow beside us and we had to hike over ice using clampons. However, as soon as we reached the top we forgot our woes for we had made it! In Japanese, yay is yata so many "Yata"s were heard and lots of high fiving.

My host brother and I are holding mini flags that his mom gave us before the trek.

The campsite by morning

Since it was so cold, we didn't stay too long at the top. We went to the absolute highest peak and then hiked back down to the cabins to rest, have breakfast, and change into our raingear because some ominous clouds and thunder suggested a storm may roll through. I had thought we'd take the same route going back down the mountain, but instead our guides led us down a different path, the popular Gotemba "osunabashiri" trail which means "sand running". A fairly straightforward name, this trail is steep but made soft by brown sand/dirt so we ran! Or at least the kids and I did. 

This was the most fun part of the whole hike, in my opinion, so if you have the opportunity to hike Mount Fuji please make your way over to this trail on the way down. The hints of storm made it all the more fun because when huge gusts passed through we stopped and leaned into the wind and it supported us, much like at the Pali lookout on Oahu. It's an incredible feeling to be overcome by the wind and reminded of nature's might.

Finally, we ended our hike with a jaunt through a forest. One of the guides who spoke little English turned to me as we reached the trees and excitedly exclaimed, "grand finale!" It's funny what words and phrases seep into the catalog of universal commonplace terms. After all, that phrase is French but somehow he knew that we'd both know it.

Back on the bus, feeling oh so gratified and exhausted, we ended up at an onsen, a hot spring turned public bath, where we all thoroughly showered and enjoyed a clear view of Fujisan from the large window beside the bath. Altogether I would say it was slightly less difficult than I had anticipated, but I think that's because I set my expectations very high, which helped to make the hike attainable throughout. There's a saying around Japan that a wise man hikes Fujisan once and a fool hikes it twice. Call me a fool, but I would gladly hike this mountain again when I return to Japan. I hope this outline provides a basic understanding of what it entails to climb Fujisan, and I hope it encourages you to do so if you get the chance!

Here's a video from the summit! I'm on a bhangra (Punjabi folk) dance team at Princeton and we're making a video of members dancing all around the world, so this will be my contribution: