coming soon!

Jeff climbed Mount Fuji to 12,300 feet (3,700 meters): 10 hrs. up and 4 hrs. down. Jeff's climbing buddy was Tim from WI who he met on the way to the volcanoes. Mt. Fuji is actually 3 volcanoes merged together. The weather was aweful but Tim was able to get a shelter at the "Fuji-san Hotel" (better described as a "shack" shelter) on the side of the mountain where Jeff had a beer at 3,200 meters.

Mount Fuji aka Fuji-yama

I had decided to visit Mt. Fuji today and as I woke I was incredibly pleased to see that there was not a cloud in the sky - this would be the perfect day to go to the see one of the most famous vistas in Japan.  I had read that the best (and easiest) way to get to Mt. Fuji, or Fuji-san as it is known in Japan, would be to catch a bus to Kawagachi-Ko from Shibuya station.  Obviously it is far too cold at this time of year to even think of attempting the climb, indeed the mountain is now closed after some well documented deaths of western tourists in the early 90s but some excellent scenes are still accessible at this time of year from the surrounding countryside.

As I sat in the bus on the way to the mountain (as efficient as their trains - what else would you expect?) I began to realise how much the mountain dominates the landscape.  It can be seen from the middle of Tokyo on a clear day and as our bus sped along the expressway the mountain loomed ever larger over the mountains skirting around its base, its unmistakable profile draped in snow at the top.  The climate of the area around the bus changed as we got closer to the mountains, with snow becoming more of a feature of the vista.

I got off at Kawaguchi-Ko stop and made my way towards the cable car up to the Mt. Fuji viewing platform.  Kawaguchi-Ko is towards the north of the volcano and is one of the five lakes that surround the mountain, mainly towards the north and east, and has been shaped by the lava flows that extended along the plain many thousands of years ago.  The last eruption of Mt. Fuji was in the 1700s but that was mainly gas and dust, a potentially more dangerous volcano but since then I believe it has been relatively quiet.

The scene from the viewing platform was phenomenal.  The graceful lines of the volcano were clear on the horizon and the mountain soared upwards to its full height over 3000m being gently buffeted by delicate white clouds.  The ground around the volcano was also covered in white snow - it was a real wintery scene with that washed out light quality so typical of the winter months.  Looking at this view you begin to understand the Japanese love-affair with this mountain - it really does command respect and is such a dominating presence on the landscape.

To understand the history of the mountain, and also to get further insight into the geology of the area (I did geology at university for a couple of years so I'm fairly interested in it) I went to the Fuji visitor centre which was about a half hour walk from the viewing platform.  It was very informative and contained some fairly good english signage and had information of all sorts about the mountain including the geological history, human history, plant and animal information and information on the walking routes up the mountain.

On my way back to Tokyo a middle-aged Japanese man sat next to me on the bus.  As we got close to our destination we struck up a slow conversation - my Japanese being practically non-existent and his English being understandably rusty at best it was slow going at times but yet again he showed the Japanese quality of being welcoming and beyond helpful.  He offered me nuts to eat and waited for me to get off the bus at our destination to make sure I knew how to get to my underground train.  Really I can't speak highly enough of these people - I don't think I have met a more helpful nation!

if you want to climb take it slow and steady ... its a longer walk down then up

text coming soon

It is crazy to climb Mt. Fuji for the first time and then you might think that you will never love climbing mountains! Well, I should start with a nice compliment about Mt. Fuji...yeah.

We took a night express bus from Tokyo to get to the half of the mountain, and started climbing around 10:30pm. It took us around 5hours to get to the summit. The last one and a half hour, there was a "trafic jam" on the way, as you know climbing more up narrower the path gets to be. And it was middle of summer but sooooooo cold around summit! We were freeeeezing the last few hours! I love to take pictures but what may I have gotten, I did not take so much. It was too cold!! After I installed them into my PC back home, I saw none of my pictures are there. I took only some pictures of sunrise and clouds at summit. It seems people climb for the sunrise, but for me sunrise was not as much as impressive but the clouds down beyond your eyes were really nice! There is a big volcano at the summit and it took us around 30mins to walk around it. We though we did not have to do it, but the first and the last time to be there. Why not?

Mt. Fuji is definitly beautiful by taking a look from a place far away, but you should not be close to it. It is not pretty at all. There are few trees and especially the path down is terrible with a lot of sands which would be blown off constantly when people walk. My face got to be totally black with the sands when we got to the bus stop at the half of the mountain, which was disgusting. Well, but it is a good experience. I should climb Mt. Fuji as I am a Japanese! It is kind of funny that climbing Mt. Fuji is so popular amoung foreigners but Japanese people are not interested in it. We've seen a lot of foreigners climbing Mt. Fuji. Half of them were not Japanese I thought. Oh well. It is good that I had friends to climb with and THAT was fun. Sheers Mt. Fuji!

Do stay in a hotel nearby the foothills of Mt.Fuji, Fujinobo was the name of our hotel and we had our windows facing the mountain view. It was spectacular.