Fuji Part 2

Just after 8am the hostel shuttled us back to the train station, good service. By 9am we were moving along the tracks. A short ride brought us to a town right at the mountain’s base. We followed a map to find our point of entry. Usually the location of a mountain is rather apparent, but it was foggy, we needed our map. One, two three stoplights, buy umbrellas, four stoplights, take a right into a shrine. We walked under the great structure and entered an old growth boulevard of statues and enormous trees.

The shrine could have been a destination all its own, but as we had an agenda, we found our trail. And finding only required asking a few locals. We were starting at the bottom, very few people do this, and so the trail was less apparent. Somewhere in our planning it was read that although nearly everyone busses up to station five and then hikes, starting at the bottom is regarded as the “purist” approach. The words sank in.

At 10am the mountain was underfoot. The introductory slope was gradual, mostly drawn out investigations of how beautiful a forest can be. Quite. Within a couple hours uneven pacing separated Jackson and myself from Kat and Mark. Choosing the proper hiking buddy turns out to be an important step.

Fuji can be attacked from multiple sides depending upon environmental preferences and geographical conveniences. There are different trails, but along each is a series of stations for resting and refreshing. Ten stations to each route. One being toward the bottom, ten on the top. We packed water accordingly. At 2pm Jackson and I reached station five, and awaited the other two. All stations leading to this point were either crumbled shacks or non-existent. We had been ill informed. Fortunately station five was overseen by a friendly fellow who let us dry our soaked garments over his wood stove. A newer station five that draws all the bus traffic, was located just off to a side trail, and so we were the first hikers he had seen all day. We all bought a warm lunch to avoid paying the 1,200 yen resting fee.

Moving on at 3pm, we emerged from the woods. Trees became rocks, and we traded our umbrellas for climbing gloves. After the sixth station the crowds appeared. Were it a sunny day, we would have seen them hours earlier. We passed many people that were either too tired or too polite to pass themselves. The mountain, as it had been all day, was still held by the clouds. We could see the mountain beneath our feet, sometimes the face before us, ridges left and right, but for everything else, was whiteness.

We had reservations for a lodge just after station seven, and yet at 6pm we found ourselves at station eight. Fortunately they had space available, we were in no mood to backtrack. So at 3,100 meters above sea level, we settled in, and looked for a place for our perpetually wet clothes to dry. The place was not there, and/or was spoken for. The lodge fed us a simple meal of rice and curry, and at 7:30 we went to bed. Kat set her alarm for 1am.