An outlying neighborhood of Kyoto, taken out the window of the shinkansen.
One of the more "rural" areas we passed by on shinkansen.
As I said before, the shinkansen took us as far as the south side of the mountain. We then took a bus around the mountain to the northeast side, to a small town called yamanakako. Then there was about a mile or so long walk to our guest house with all of our luggage. The guest house was awesome. I have some pictures on my phone that I may put on a later post, but none in my camera. We slept on traditional futon (bedrolls) on tatami and it was surprisingly comfortable. The bathroom was the best part though. In traditional Japanese houses the room where you bathe and use the toilet are separate (seems kind of logical if you think about it). As such, the entire bathroom is dedicated to cleaning yourself and just has a drain in the middle of the floor. Our bathroom had 4 shower heads and a huge tub in the corner. You basically scrub yourself clean in the shower and then soak in the tub for awhile. It's supremely relaxing, especially after long days of traveling, hiking, and mountain climbing.
Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything online about bus service to the mountain trail from our lodging. So, the next morning we got up early and walked all the way (10 km) to the nearest train station to take a train to the nearest bus hub to take a bus to the mountain's fifth station (about halfway up the mountain). Fortunately, the walk was very scenic. Here's a couple pictures, but they don't really do it justice:
The intensely weird train we rode to the bus hub.
Note the decidedly normal looking conductor.
So, we took a bus about halfway up the mountain (pretty much everyone does this unless they're masochists or something). Finally, we started our climb. There are 10 stations (numbered 1-8, 8.5, and 9) and you start from the fifth station. At the 6th station I donated 1000 yen to conservation for the mountain and got a sweet pin.
Even from the start point we were up in the clouds. This is somewhere above the 6th station.
This is a bit higher, probably above the 7th station. Vegetation is sparse.
I believe this was above the 8.5th station. Maybe change the sign to say "fallen rocks?" This looked really ominous.
This looks like pictures sent back from the the Curiosity Rover doesn't it?
Very near the summit. The clouds parted for a moment. We passed the rotted remains of a hut at one point that was completely smashed by a boulder. We later learned that was 9th station. Hopefully no one was inside at the time. At this height the lack of oxygen was really apparent. I was breathing like I was sprinting and I was moving very slowly.
This is the gate at the summit. There's about 20 more steps before you're actually on top.
Looking right from the previous picture.
The shrine at the summit. You bet I got that stamp. It was 1000 yen (~$8). Usually they're 300 (~$2.40). Honestly though, I would have paid pretty much any amount for it.
Panorama of the caldera at the summit. Oh, by the way, Fuji is a volcano if you didn't know.
Victory!
Looking over the edge.
From here, we started to descend. We didn't linger long at the summit, as we didn't want to be descending in the dark and Ed was struggling with the thin air. We got him a can of oxygen, but he was still a little loopy.
Stephen and I were dumb though, and we wore stupid shoes. I mean, I didn't have any proper hiking boots, but I knew I was climbing Fuji so I should have bought some. The descent is supposed to be fun filled for prepared climbers, as it's just a bunch of crushed pumice. With the proper shoes you can slide down the mountain in under two hours. With sneakers, your shoes get destroyed and you have to stop every 100 feet to dump rocks out of them. So, the descent took us about 3 hours, except for David who went ahead and had enough time to eat a meal at the 5th station while waiting for us. Still got a couple awesome panoramas though:
Panorama taken from the slope a few hundred feet down.
Panorama taken from very near the 5th station at sunset.
That's all for now folks. Next time, Tokyo!
