My climb up Mount Fuji

Hello everyone,

Last Friday and Saturday dad and I (Elias) left our apartment to climb Mount Fuji. It is the biggest mountain in Japan. It is 12,388 feet, about 2,000 feet shorter than Mount Rainier. To get to the mountain we first went to the Aikoishida train station. A train took us to another train station, which finally brought us to a place where we could take a bus to the mountain. After talking with a lady, who knew very little English, we bought a round trip ticket for the bus to take us to the mountain and back (gladly we were able to communicate just enough so we ended up with the correct bus ticket). We had to wait a while for the bus so we sat by a nearby fountain and had some strawberry ice cream. Once we had boarded the bus and it had taken us to the mountain, we walked to the beginning of the trail.  Here I got a walking stick at the fifth station (which is the first station after the road ends). As we went up we paid for stamps that were burned into the wood walking stick, showing that we had reached that station. Here is a picture of me at the beginning of the trail.

We began the climb from the fifth station up Mount Fuji. Our goal was the first seventh station where we would spend the night. As we began our climb we noticed that the trail was very rocky. When we looked high up towards the top of the mountain we could only see part way up because of the clouds. After we hiked for a while it began to hail, very wet pieces of ice almost marble sized. When it was strong enough that we were beginning to get really cold and reasonably wet we decided to put on our raincoats. But as soon as we got them on it stopped hailing and the sky would lighten a bit.

These pictures were taken only a minute or two apart.

We would take off our coats so we wouldn’t get too hot but as soon as we put them away it started hailing again! We eventually got tired of this and stuffed our raincoats in random places that were a lot easier to get to. After we had hiked a while we made it to cloud level. It was awesome to be inside the clouds but we couldn’t see much in front of us and water began to collect in my hair.

We continued to hike through the clouds passing people along the way and we’d greet each other with a friendly ‘konichiwa’. At the beginning of the trail we could see the next station, but as we went up the mountain it became completely covered by clouds. We couldn’t tell how close we were, after a long steep climb it was suddenly in front of us, the sixth station, finally a break! We found the spot where we could stamp my stick, and after a water break on a bench, a bathroom break(which cost money), we resumed our hike up the mountain. Two stations later we made it to the first seventh station and walked into the warm hut to get our stamp and claim our reservation. We were shown the room that we were to stay in, which was basically a whole lot of wide bunk beds stuck together with walls between each one. We chose the one at the far right corner that had two futon mattresses and four sand (buckwheat?) pillows.

Seeing as we had literally nothing else to do we just napped and talked until it was time for dinner, which we had paid the hut to supply. They served some delicious and most importantly warm Japanese curry with rice and we were soon full and off to bed.

We decided to wake up at two in the morning so we could hopefully make it to the top of the mountain for the sunrise. We ended up waking up at around one in the morning, thanks to some leftover jet lag, and began our hike to the eighth station. It was very dark but the moon was full and bright, all around us we could see the dark clouds below us stretching as far as we could see.

Supported by my walking stick and a rope staked into the mountain, we slowly climbed towards the top. We then went through  the eighth, ninth, and ninth and a half station. The first one was empty the second and third couldn’t give us a stamp because it was too early. On our way to the tenth station the sunrise started, it began as a light pink glow and soon it brightened into a beautiful aura here is a picture.

On the way up we saw something weird, it was a pole and in almost every crack and cranny was yen coins of all sorts of values.

We also passed a few people along the way that were having trouble with altitude sickness.  This causes people to throw up, feel light headed and/or various other symptoms.  They had to turn back away from the summit and head back down to lower altitudes so their symptoms go away and don’t get worse.

Once we reached the top we got my stick stamped at a temple there. Instead of burning it in they stamped some red ink powder in with a hammer. We ate some of our food and looked at the amazing sunrise, now much brighter.

We also looked at the crater in the center of the mountain. It is huge with icicles hanging under some of the overhangs.

After a while we began our decent down a different trail than the one we ascended and came to our first station on the way down, but this one seemed more like a village! 

Dad and I went down a trail that was mostly sand which allowed us to basically run/slide down the mountain at an amazing rate! It was fun to be with my dad running down a mountain, trying not to fall, holding hands for support. It seemed to me that we were going down the mountain from The Hobbit and the dragon had burned all life from the mountain making it black and misshapen.

After a while we came back into the clouds and everything was dead and blanketed with a mysterious fog. It made it look like we were in a zombie movie because we were running down the mountain surrounded by dark black rock.

We eventually made it to a place where life began to appear, mostly tall bushes. Life was slowly returning, eventually I began to hear birds around me and I knew that the landscape had really changed and that the dragon was dead. We kept on thinking we would see the last station where the bus would pick us up and bring us home. But all we could see was an endless forest. It seemed that I would walk with dad practically forever through it and over it’s hills and valleys far into Japan. Eventually, we made it to an abandoned temple where we talked to a mysterious old man who could only speak Japanese. He had a stick like mine but with a golden sticker. After that we went into the trees and did some bird watching until we finally made it to the last station.

We got a stamp, tried some mushroom tea (which was really good), went on the bus, and finally we were on our way back home! We were really tired but not quite as tired as these guys 🙂

This was an amazing adventure with my dad that I will always remember! My muscles are still pretty sore but it feels good because it reminds me that I climbed a mountain.

Elias