Japan (Mt. Fuji)

Bob & I took advantage of our layover in Tokyo en route back to the USA. We decided to add a day in Japan & go for a day hike to the top of Mt. Fuji; the tallest mountain in Japan!!! It took some coordinating plus luck to pull off this adventure. We rented a car, drove 3.5 hours (which turned into 4.5hrs with traffic) and nearly missed the shuttle bus to the trailhead. The weather just happened to be absolutely beautiful for our hike and summit. Yay!! BTW: The following day was a complete downpour of rain so we were really lucky with our day.

Mt. Fuji

August 21, 2018

12, 389 ft.

The summit!

The start.

The hike. I may look mad but I wasn't. Bob may look happy and he was. :-)

The hike up was...

  - Steep

 - Beautiful

- Crowded (kinda)

The Fjuinomiya Trail that we were hiking is not as crowded as the most popular Yoshida trail. We avoided that one because we heard it's crowds can be ridiculous making our summit much tougher to do in a day (due to hiker traffic jams). Approximately 100,000 people hike Mt. Fuji a year & it's only open for hiking 2 months out of the year (July and August).

Here is a post I pulled off Instagram to show you the line of hikers on the Yoshida trail. BUSY!!

Mt. Fuji is famous for having these huts along the trails to the top. You can stay at these huts overnight if you make a reservation. They also have a gift shop, food, drink and a place to sit to enjoy the views. Each hut is a place to take shelter if bad weather comes.

These folks were having a rest & taking their time. We had to keep pressing to reach the top by dark & still hike down before the last shuttle bus left.

Which way do we go?

If only we could read Japanese. ;-)

Amazing view around every corner.

A neat Mt. Fuji tradition is getting a Hut Stamp on your walking stick as you pass through the various huts (including the summit hut). You purchase the Mt. Fuji walking stick at the bottom and then with the official hut stamps you have a memorable walking stick & souvenir. Bob & I didn't get the walking sticks but we did buy Mt. Fuji flags to hold at the top of the peak.

This was right at the rim of the peak.

And here are our flags!

Official Mt. Fuji post at the tippy top of Mt. Fuji.

The sun was going down...

and the temps were getting colder. We bundled up & started hiking down.

An amazing thing on our hike down; Mt. Fuji casting a shadow to the east.

Gorgeous!

PS: It turned dark for 1/2 of our hike down but with our headlamps we kept a good pace. We caught the shuttle bus back to our car and found a hotel room in a nearby town. We went to bed exhausted and happy!!!!