Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji

I looked out the window of the bus and there it was. Covered in mist, towering above us all — Mt. Fuji, the mountain that we were about to climb.

DAY ONE- CLIMBING UP MT. FUJI

When we woke up, we had a fire in our bellies. A hunger to climb. And so we would.

We found our way (not without trouble) to the bus meeting point. We would be taking a tour with a company called Willer Travel. We were with an experienced guide who climbs Mt. Fuji three or four times a week in the summer. We were originally going to do it ourselves, but we thought that, to be safe, we should go with a group. This tour seemed to be the best reviewed. The bus was a great way to get to know fellow travelers. We boarded the bus, settling in with a fellow climber who had come the week before, but had not been able to climb because of heavy rains. We got very lucky with the weather. It was slightly misting when we went up to the 5th station, the lowest rest stop (station). The bus took us to the 5th station and we had to walk the rest of the way. A station is a spot to go to the bathroom and eat a little something. As you get higher up, the stations also function as hostiles, places where you stay and bunk with many people in a room. It reminded me of the overnight trip at my school- groups slept in the same rooms. At the 5th station, there is a cafe where we got lunch. That cafe had a discount given to us by the tour group. Lockers were in the same building for any unnecessary items that we didn’t want to carry with us. Then, we started the climb…

PREP FOR THE CLIMB

We would be renting hiking shoes and gear from the rental shop that is connected to the people who organized the Willer Travel Mt. Fuji tour, which we were taking. We had prepared for the trek by getting snacks like slow burn bars and calorie mate. Both of those are nutrition supplements to fuel us on our way up and down. We made sure to bring along with us a change of clothes and winter gear for the high altitude. As you get higher, it gets colder. It would be very hard to admire the spectacular sunrise if you were turned into an icicle. You also need plenty of coins, as you have to pay to use the toilet, about 200 Yen per use.

We started the climb with excitement. There was a tune playing in my head, “we’re going to climb Mt. Fuji, we’re going to climb Mt. Fuji!” It started raining, which was really great. It cooled off an otherwise sweaty and hot walk. About an hour’s walk later, we reached the 6th station, where we used the restroom (you start needing to pay for the facilities around here). We snacked on a slow burn bar and some sports drinks before continuing the climb to (you guessed it!) the 7th station. It took us about 1 hour and a 1/2 to get to the 7th station,where I started to feel not-so-great. The climb had been hard and the air was thinning. I wanted to keep going, so we went at a slower pace with another guide. I took plenty of breaks and had plenty of water (not too much- bathrooms were every hour, so I decided not to drink a lot). We finally reached the 8th station after four hours of hard climbing. What I was not expecting was a very rocky part of the path that we had to rock climb at a slope. It was a little slippery and pretty exerting, but with plenty of time to stop and take big breaths, we made it up, only 1/2 an hour later than the rest of the group.

We were wearing the rain pants and rain jacket we had rented and they are essential to climbing because of the unpredictable weather.  The outside of our jackets were dripping wet, so once we got to our overnight mountain hut, we were dried off with leaf blowers before entering (yeah, that’s how wet we were). It felt really good!!!  We took our filthy hiking boots off and got out of our wet rain gear. Ahh, the feeling of being dry!!! We settled down in a big room next to all of our fellow climbers in the tour group. We slept on the floor with pillows that felt like hacky sacks.  We were placed in a slightly curtained off room with an Australian Dad and his two sons, ages 10 and 12. We were called down for a boxed dinner (it was not so great, but we were on a mountain, so what can I say?). We finally lay down for some sleep. The rest of the group was going to wake up at 1:30 AM to climb up to the summit to see the sunrise, but we instead planned to wake up at 4:20 AM to see the sunrise from right outside our sleeping hut. When the group would come down from the summit, we would join them on their stop for breakfast at our hut. Our tour guide warned us that the climb up would be very hard and going up to the summit at 1:30 AM would mean it would be pitch black which could be very dangerous. Our guide also told us that the sunrise from our hut was the same view as you would get from the summit, and perhaps a little better because it would be less crowded and easier to get to. We decided to sleep in (if that’s what you call waking up at 4:20 AM instead of 1:30 AM). We were tired, but ready to wake up for the sunrise.

DAY TWO- CLIMBING DOWN MT. FUJI

Unfortunately, none of us slept that well. The Australian Dad was snoring right next to us and the guide woke us up to remind us about setting our alarms. We were very tired, so when the alarm rang at 4:20 AM, only my father shot up. None of us wanted to go- we were so tired. When my Father did convince us all, it was truly worth it. When we walked out, we were met with such beauty that I can’t use words to describe it (I’m still going to try in the next few sentences, but all the attempts don’t get even close). There was an orange tinge to the sky. You could see the sun slowly rising to push the moon (you could still see it) out of our view. It was awe-inspiring. Like looking out an airplane window and seeing the most amazing sunrise ever. You’re just so awestruck that you can only manage to laugh. It was like that for us, except for the fact that we were laughing louder. I mean, we had just climbed Mt. Fuji!!! It was definitely a once in a lifetime thing! We could see two of the five Fuji lakes. All of the aching in our bones was washed away by the sunrise. We were still tired after “sleeping in,” but we pushed through. We got our gear ready and were careful not to forget anything. When we were joined by the other group that had decided to summit, we ate breakfast. Many members of the group who went up to the top came down a little sick… one boy threw up multiple times from mountain sickness. You rush up to the top, so you are not adjusted to the altitude. We got into our gear and started the descent, which was going to take about 3 hours. That was a lot shorter than the climb up. Finally, we started the descent.

The climb down was a bit scary for me. If you slipped, then you would drop right down the mountain. That thought kind of disturbed me. We used our hiking sticks to balance ourselves. It was an hour and a half climb to the 7th station and then an hour to the 6th station. Not much to say there… we were just walking and drinking a lot of water. After 3 hours, we reached the 5th station. Instead of eating at the first cafe that was discounted by our tour group, we went to one across the way. We had really worked up an appetite, so food was more welcome than the day before. This one had an amazing cinnamon toast that reminded my Mom of a Cinnabun product. It was a lot better than the first cafe and it was cheaper than the discount. As we boarded the bus, I felt very satisfied. I had climbed Mt. Fuji. I had pushed through to the end. When my muscles are sore later, I can be thinking, “Hey, at least I’ve climbed Mt. Fuji.” One of the things I remember most was when I started the climb. My first comment was, “this backpack feels just like the one I take to school.” I had come so far from that first moment. I had learned that sometimes getting to the top isn’t what counts. Everyone who came down from the summit was miserable. We had stayed at the hut and paid attention to what we thought was best for us. We didn’t make it about summiting, we made it about climbing and having fun. That was what made climbing Mt. Fuji such an adventure. Now I have not only climbed Mt. Fuji, but discovered something about life. The bus took off to get back to where we started-Shinjuku in Tokyo, but we broke off at the Kawaguchiko bus station.  We caught a taxi to our next adventure…

Parent Corner

You might be wondering how we wound up climbing Mt. Fuji? I know I’m still wondering about that one. I think I read about it on the internet and then asked the kids. We figured if they were into it we would do it. Why I would make this decision so lightly, I’m not sure – maybe blame it on my total IGNORANCE. A quick perusal of the internet led me to believe that 87 year old Japanese grandmas make the climb, as well as toddlers and everyone in between. People wrote about climbing in converse sneakers with no previous hiking experience. I’m here to tell you that none of that is the reality. At least it wasn’t the 2 days we spent on the mountain.

Luckily, since we were climbing with an 8 and an 11 year old, we decided to use a tour company. Based on internet research we went with Willer Express. The reviews were good and the price was reasonable. We also decided to rent our equipment through their company (hiking shoes, walking sticks, rain jacket, rain pants, head lamp, and a backpack to put it all in).

When we began the hike there was a light mist in the air. The tour guide told us to put our rain jackets on. She did not mention putting on our rain pants. Within the first half hour it started to rain pretty heavily. Our legs got soaked. This actually felt amazing because it kept us from getting hot. And anyway, our rain pants were packed into our backpacks and we couldn’t stop to put them on since we didn’t want to lose our group. Luckily at our first bathroom stop one of the secondary tour guides, Pasan, came over to us and told us we should take a moment to put the rain pants on. He even helped us get the rain pants on both the kids.

Even though the main tour guide had said the group would be going very slowly – she compared it to a zombie shuffle complete with arms stiff in front of us – she actually kept up a pretty fast pace. We consider ourselves a fit family. On vacation, as you can tell from this blog, we are used to getting an average of 25,000 steps a day (thanks fitbit!). But given the change in altitude and the age of our kids (which we okayed with the tour company prior to booking), we needed more breaks than the tour guide was taking. We were very lucky that Pasan, the same tour guide who kept us dry, stayed behind and helped us complete the first day of climbing. At one point he even carried our son’s backpack for him. We never could have done it without Pasan.

When the altitude sickness wasn’t getting us, we really enjoyed the hiking and climbing parts. It was fun scampering up the rocks using your hands as well as your feet in places that were nearly vertical. The view as we ascended was amazing. One moment you’re in the clouds and then suddenly you realize you’re above them climbing as high as airplanes fly. We were also treated to the biggest rainbow any of us had ever seen. We were also lucky on the descent. Because it had rained the day before, the trail was not dusty. It was just perfect for building up downhill momentum and using your balance to stay on your feet. When we made it back down the mountain it felt amazing.

In case you are thinking of climbing Mt. Fuji, none of this is meant to discourage you. We are really glad we did it, we just had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. In an ideal world, climbing Mt. Fuji should take at least three days so you can properly acclimate to the altitude and actually enjoy it. That is what was missing from most of the climbers – joy. Many of the people in our group who summited were really not feeling well and had an especially tough time on the descent. There was a feeling of just needing to get to the top so you can say you got there. We opted for enjoying our time on the mountain. I personally was feeling pretty altitude sick, but those few extra hours we spent at our mountain hut instead of climbing to the summit helped me adjust and I felt great at our 4:20 AM sunrise wake up. The four of us will always have a special memory of watching that sunrise together.

Now for some nitty-gritty details in case this is something you are thinking of doing. The bathrooms on Mt. Fuji are not as bad as I thought they would be. Because it’s Japan where bathrooms everywhere are spotless, the toilets on the mountain are a huge step up from a porta potty. The mountain hut seemed like it would be a bizarre sleeping situation with a bunch of strangers all sleeping on the floor in a large room, but everyone in the group was very nice, so the only unsettling part was all the loud snoring. The food situation was not good, but since the altitude sickness really made my stomach feel ill, I’m not the best person to judge it. I just really wished I had brought some yogurt with me. It seemed like it would be a refreshing meal, so maybe take some if you go? As for the tour company, they have excellent reviews and might be just right for the average person, but if you are inexperienced and are climbing with kids you may want to hire a personal tour guide who will go at your pace. Bottom line is this really is a bucket list item, but best done in a way that you and your family can really enjoy it.

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT ADVENTURE- THE GORA KADAN HOTEL EXPERIENCE IN HAKONE!!!

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Dora