In my opinion, every good vacation needs a hike. For Japan the choice is almost a no-brainer, Mount Fuji. The climb for Mount Fuji is a two day climb where you can spend the night at one of the many stations dotted over the paths up the mountain. Some people do a single day bullet climb but it’s highly recommended against. We would be using the Subashiri Trail which starts with a tree-lined forest before turning into a rocky trail up and has a gravelly sliding path down. We chose this as it is one of the less crowded paths, with a fair option of mountain huts, and amazing views. The trail would take us to the 8th station in about 3.5 hours where we had planned to stay and then the second morning, a 100-minute climb would get us to the summit. There are some other trails such as Gotemba and Yoshida and I recommend the https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/ website if you want more information (my understanding is at the end of this blog).
For the climb up Mt. Fuji by the Subashiri trail we took a train to the nearby town of Gotemba. This station also has many luggage lockers, which was quite handy for us. From the station there is a bus service that takes you to various trail heads. We reached Gotemba the night before our climb and stayed there right next to the station in Hotel Toyoko INN Gotemba Ekimae. There are a number of nice eating places around the station and we had a nice dinner at Itori Bistro.
The next day unfortunately the bus ride didn’t work out, due to a little thing known as Typhoon No. 7. The typhoon was centred around the coastal area and was forecasted to graze Fuji before sling-shotting off into the sea. So, a proper wrench was thrown in the works. This is a very important travel note, flexibility and knowledge of the situation; when travelling it is almost inevitable that one will face complications such as these but it is good to be able to ideate different plans and alternates using all the available information.
Let me tell you the story of how the start of the day went. After popping our stuff in a locker at the Gotemba Station, we set off to the spot we had found the bus stop the last night only to discover that it was not operating due to Typhoon No. 7. Due to this we had to track down a cab that we would take use to get to the Subashiri Trail costing 7000¥. Upon reaching the Trail Information Centre, the officials told us not to climb. After a lot of discussion, we managed to convince them to let us climb to the old 6th station at least (about a 2-hour climb). All stations have “old” and “new” instances.
So as the rain ebbed slightly, we began the climb to the old 6th station. The early part of the trail was through a rather thick forest which was damp and dripping water onto us as we hiked through. Just past the beginning of the trail is a small Shinto Shrine where we offered a quick prayer and spotted some hopping frogs crossing our path. After the forest thinned, we reached an incredibly barren, rocky and gravelly area that we needed to clamber over which was quite slippery and exposed us to a lot of rain and gusty wind.
From there we got back to some tree-lines path and managed to reach the new 6th station in a surprisingly short amount of time. We were still pretty energized and didn’t need to take a long rest there. After catching our breath and getting some water away from the driving rain, we pushed on.
The path from here turned steeper getting from 2450m (new 6th station) to 2700m of altitude at Seto Kan (old 6th station) where we were told to stop on day 1. During the rest of the path up to there we considered picking up the pace and trying to make it to the 7th station. When we finally reached Seto Kan, the rain had picked up its intensity and we decided not to go on. So, we took off our wet stuff, dried off and moved to our three-person bed in the hut. There was a slight problem with the payment for this hut as we didn’t have nearly enough cash. The manager was very helpful and with her help we managed to purchase the night stay on their website. Lesson learnt, always carry spare cash when hiking Mt. Fuji.
That evening we worked out when we would be leaving to get a good view of the sunrise. The plan was to leave at around 2am to reach a good spot if not the summit in time for the sunrise at 5am. The Subashiri trail is on the eastern slope, so the sunrise is visible from much lower stations. The map provided at the TIC was a great help in working this out. After preparing for the rest of the climb and enjoying some almond chocolate we found at the hut, we napped till we were woken up for a pretty early dinner of rice, beans and some eggs.
We rested till about midnight before getting up and preparing for the climb. For the climb we decided to start with a lot of light layers that we could take off as we went up. Then bright and early at 2:08am we set off. With the city lights visible far away.
The going was hard, there was complete darkness with only our headlamps to get by, through some incredibly steep sections while freezing and still not fully warmed up. The climb to the 7th station was tough but only had a 100m altitude gain. While the distance was quite short the steepness is super high. Also, nowadays due to new regulations at Fuji Mountain, huts cannot help those climbing till just before 5.30am and generally you are not allowed into the huts. So, after shivering our way past the 7th station we tried to pick up the pace. We did sit down for a few and munched on some energy bars before moving on.
By now we were fairly warmed up and the energy bars seemed to help us find our stride. During this time, I realized that in the dead of night as the sunlight barely peeped over the horizon, we were pretty much the only people awake on this mountainside. We reached the new 8th station as the dawn broke in earnest and the sun peeked over the clouds in the eastern horizon. From the height we were at we could see the lakes around Fuji and the sea at a distance. At this point I was fully energized and got to the original 8th station in great time where I waited for my parents.
Then together, we watched the sun finally rise over the clouds while enjoying some Snickers and water we bought from this station. From here I decided to simply keep moving and left my parents climbing at their pace.
From here the steepness of the climb increased by a lot and it took a long time getting up to the top. Along the way I passed the 9th station which was engulfed in rocks and destroyed. The entire path up to the end was a steep zig zag and I had to take tons of breaks along the way but made it in little under half an hour. Finally, I reached the top and looked out over the eastern shores of Japan from 3776m.
The sun had fully risen so while snacking on another Snickers bar, I got some pictures with the totem pole at the top. I met some very nice people who helped me with my pictures and waited for my parents. It’s a surprisingly lively place at the top of the mountain. There are also places where one can ‘brand’ wooden poles or frames.
After a short rest, bunch of picture-clicking and some breakfast we began the climb down. Subashiri is a very fun trail downhill with soft sandy and gravelly slopes. It is the path used to get bulldozers up the mountains. It is a much faster way down but also more taxing on the knee joints. After very little time, this slip and slide path brought us to 8th station. Note the weight of your backpack can mess with your balance and make sure that you are carrying only the most essential things for the climb.
This 8th station is an important junction where the Yoshida and Subashiri trail split. We needed to take the Subashiri trail as our bag was in the Gotemba station locker. The people we were walking with had some confusion and started heading the wrong way. It is important to pay attention to the signs in the area and remember which trail to take.
The track which took us to the 7th station was slightly less steep. Here we grabbed a snack and took some rest as this would be our last break for a while. The path from here would have the sharpest descent taking us to the 5th trail station directly. At this point we began to use a method to climb down that involved going slightly sideways, letting your first foot slide and sink forward in the loose gravel until it stops and then bring your other foot around. While fun this part of the climb did turn out to be a rather repetitive with the seemingly unending gravel descent.
It took sooooooo long to get back to somewhere that was not gravellier and all three of us were incredibly excited that we had reached the end. Unfortunately, we had only reached the “Sunbashiri Trail 5th Station”. We had another 30 minutes to go through the forest to the Subashri 5th Station from where we had started our hike.
So, after a Pocari Sweat and some chocolate, we were back at it. As I exited the trail passing the small shrine, my energy level soared and I was easily able to finish with energy to spare. We decided to not wait for the bus and instead found a cab back to Gotemba station.
All in all, Mount Fuji is an incredibly fun climb and one I truly recommend to anyone with interest in hiking up mountains.
So let me give you some information before sending you off. There are four trails going up Mount Fuji, Subashiri (the one we took), Gotemba, Yoshida and Fujinomiya. The Yoshida trail is the easiest trail and the most used one to the point that there are restrictions on the number of people allowed up the trail on any given day. Fujinomiya trail is the shortest in all aspects and you can get there from Shinkansen station Kodama. This has made it quite a popular trail. Gotemba is the least used with the largest distance and altitude change and for a part on the way down also uses the bulldozer paths. It also has but a few mountain huts. Once again check out https://www.fujisan-climb.jp/en/ for more info.
Tips for the climb –
- Take cash, with lots of 100–500¥ coins and notes to pay for water, snacks and use of the toilets
- Make sure to practice hard in both climbing up and down; we had practiced climbing up a lot but climbing down can be challenging as well.
- Take proper hiking equipment (headlamps to climb before sunrise and sticks to stop yourself from falling on the way down)
- Carry a headscarf or neck warmer to protect your face and hair from kicked up dust.
- When climbing up the eastern slopes, which are Subashiri, and Yoshida, you can watch the sunrise with lot less crowd from lower down.
- If using the bulldozer tracks watch out for, well…bulldozers.