Mt. Fuji 18/19 July 2008

Postcards, museum, highest point.

I`ve been to the highest point of most places that I have visited. After almost a year living on Shikoku I have hauled myself up its two highest peaks of Mt. Tsurugi and Mt. Ishizuchi.

Roll on Mt. Fuji. Travelling through the night on a bus which stopped every 3hrs, I managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before the 5am morning light demanded that we pull back the feeble cotton curtain to reveal Mt. Fuji 3776 m.

A 40min bus journey to station five and we are already halfway up. Past the hundreds of parked coaches, station five at noon is a bustling mountain village. Its inhabitants are a mixture of fresh climbers preparing for the `up` and the war weary stumbling in from a night on the summit, pale, red eyed and grubby with volcanic ash, clutching trophy sticks branded with souvenir stamps.

Reaching station seven in underestimated time we felt confident. We were to bunk down before resuming our climb to the summit to watch the sun rise. Squashed together in long rows I tried to sleep for six hours, impossible. Outside the views were already fabulous, we were high above a soft layer of clouds, excited mumbles of fellow climbers sounded more giddy at this altitude which added to the atmosphere as the sun ducked down behind Mt. Fuji`s steep contours.

9.30pm. Head lamps on we set off for the summit, on paper an estimated 5hours hike. We scoffed to each other “we`ll be up there in no time, how boring it will be waiting for the sun, lucky I brought my book” how wrong we were. From that moment on the steady stream of climbers became a torrent. After 5hours we were still nowhere near the summit and queueing, one step, wait, one step, wait, in front and behind a looping stream of headlamps twinkled. Like a great animal migration cold wind could not deter us, some drops of ice rain fell and we did our coats up a little more, trudging behind the boots in front, silently and considerately.

At last the sun rose and a gorgeous rich amber light ebbed across the cloudscape. We reached the summit at 6.30am, nine hours, the longest queue I have ever been in.

In conclusion.

If you really want kudos, you need to start from the base station one, then you should forget the stick and get souvenir stamps branded directly onto your legs.

Climbing Mt Fuji is very popular especially on national holidays.