Immediately after getting off the bus we had to put on our rain gear (which, at the time, was minimal but adequate). The weather stayed overcast for the first part of the hike, but about an hour in it started to rain again. We passed the 6th station and the Original 6th station, and kept going, but the higher we climbed, the harder and stronger the rain and wind became. We had reservations at the Original 7th station to eat dinner and stay at a lodge for the night, but the last hour getting up to the 7th station was so brutal that we decided to ask the lodge there if they had room, and they did. Completely soaked through down to our underwear, we undressed in the hallway and got into our night clothes, and were assigned a space in a hallway of futon mattresses. The box-like space we were put in was designed for ten people but the four of us had it all to ourselves so we had plenty of room. We spent some time trying to dry off what clothes we would need for the next day by holding them near the small heater in the room, and then went to the dining portion of the lodge to eat dinner. All the lodge could offer us was either cup noodles or a pork and vegetable miso soup. Luckily we still had leftovers from lunch earlier that day so with everything together it made a passable dinner. I got the soup, which was actually quite good, and then had a rice ball courtesy of Rodney and his girlfriend, and then a little bit of leftover yakisoba which Cheryl and I had packed for lunch. I went to bed at around 7:30 pm with most of my clothes hanging from the few shelves and cross-beams we had available in our cubby.
The next day we woke up at 3:00 am and talked to some hikers outside to see what the weather had been like. It was windy, but the rain had pretty much died down, so we decided to continue our journey to the top. After a quick breakfast we set off at about 4:20 am. We got nice pictures of the sunrise as we climbed from the 7th station to the Original 7th station, but soon the mountain got really misty. It didn't legitimately rain, but the strong gusts of wind continually blew the mist into us, so we got just about as soaked as we would have been if it had been raining. And as we climbed higher the wind only got stronger. We passed the 8th station and made our way to the Original 8th, but the climb got rougher and the weather worse. We were all freezing and wet when we stopped at the Original 8th for a rest, and Rodney and his girlfriend decided to turn back. The time estimate to the top from the Original 8th station was 80 minutes, but with the weather as horrendous as it was, we really didn't blame them. Cheryl and I bought some gloves for 300 yen a pair at the 8th station (cloth, so they kept us warm for about an hour, after which they were completely soaked through) and then slowly picked our way up to the 8.5th station (yes, there's an eight-and-a-halfth station). Cheryl had a wooden hiking stick that she bought at the bottom. It's a great souvenir because at each station you can get a stamp branded into the stick with the name of the station, the elevation of the station, etc. So we got a short break at the 8.5th station while they heated up the brand to stamp her stick and then started the final push to the top, which took about an hour. The last 600 meters were absolutely miserable. The wind was strong enough to knock you over if it happened to gust when you were in mid-step, and the mist meant that each gale showered you with more tiny little droplets of water. I had two t-shirts on and my rain jacket, so I stayed mostly dry but was still shivering my way up the mountain. Cheryl was wearing two t-shirts, a fleece, and a 100-yen rain jacket that we bought together the day before the trip, never thinking it would be that wet. The 100-yen rain jacket is probably the true champion of the trip, though. As prone as they are to rips it stayed together and kept Cheryl mostly dry and, from what she told me, reasonably warm. Even more impressive, it lasted the entire duration of the trip. The last 600 meters involved a lot of stepping up on big rocks, knee-height or higher, so the going was quite slow.
Luckily when we reached the top the mist pretty much went away, so while the wind was at its strongest (knocking me off balance multiple times while we were up there), we weren't getting any wetter. Unfortunately every shop at the peak was closed so there was nowhere for us to get out of the wind, sit down, and rest, and worst of all, Cheryl wasn't able to get the final stamp on her hiking stick (but we have pictures to prove we were there!). The fog/clouds even parted for just a few minutes - long enough for us to get some great pictures from the top looking out, and even a couple of the massive crater (Mt. Fuji is a volcano). I was particularly excited to see the crater since, when I climbed Fuji as a kid, my mother wouldn't let me anywhere near there. XD
After perhaps 20 minutes at the top we started back down the mountain. The descending path is different from the ascending one. It's composed of a lot of switchbacks and small loose rocks/gravel so that you don't have to take any big steps down. The wind was still strong (It completely and irretrievably blew away my hat around the Original 8th station), but it slowly got weaker as we descended. After the 7th station the path changed so it went straight down the mountain side and was composed of a very fine gravely ash so that every step we took slid down about 6-inches. It was pretty tough on the knees. But eventually we did make it back to the 5th station where we had to wait about an hour and half for the next bus. The shop there has a great system going: We were welcomed with a hearty "おつかれさまです～" (Otsukaresamadesu, which has no good English translation but basically means "Thanks for your hard work!"), then offered a place at a picnic table and given complimentary mushroom tea. The staff was very nice and we had a long time to wait so we bought some ice cream and houtou (a hearty thick-noodled soup with lots of vegetables), and did some souvenir shopping. After the hour bus ride and 1.5 hour drive back to Cheryl's place we treated ourselves to a relaxing bath at a nearby hot spring and then dinner at a rotating sushi bar.
Just like the last post, I don't have access to all of my pictures from where I am (Starbucks, at the moment), so I'll do my best to get them on here when I arrive back in the States in early August. Until then, I'm sure Cheryl will have some available for viewing on Facebook.
And I'll end with a bullet-list of Mt. Fuji information that might be interesting:
- I didn't drink beer on Mt. Fuji, but almost every station sells it. The cheapest beer on Mt. Fuji is, I believe, at the Original 7th station (about halfway up), for 600 yen, which hilariously enough, is about the same price as some beers you can get at restaurants in Fujisawa.
- Many people know that Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan (3776 meters or 12,388 ft.), but even I didn't understand just how tall it was (relatively) until I came to Japan. In my head I imagined people measuring the height of a lot of tall mountains in Japan and then coming to the conclusion that Mt. Fuji was the tallest. No. If you see Mt. Fuji from a distance you flat-out know it's the tallest because it absolutely towers over everything around it. By the 8th station (or maybe earlier) you can look out and easily see that you are higher up than every other peak in sight. It's truly an impressive mountain.
- The lodge that we stayed at was surprisingly clean and well-managed. The most interesting part was probably the fact that the toilets were flushed by hand, meaning there was a bucket of water next to the toilet with a big scoop in it, so you just scooped water into the toilet to flush it.
- Even in July, there were still large slabs of ice on the mountainside (none that we had to walk over, luckily).
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