Day 11 (Aug 9) - Ascending up Mount Fuji

The purpose of staying up late last night was my intent of waking up near noon. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get any shuteye on the volcano, thus hoping to get as much sleep in as possible. I ended up waking at 7 AM, which is about an hour and a half later than what I normally been waking up during this trip. I tried to drift back to sleep, with some success, for the next time I looked at the clock, it was around 9 AM.

We stayed inside our room, only to go out to shop for lunch at Don Quijote, which was about a 2 minute walk from our hotel. I tried not to eat as much as I would normally had, since toilets were scarce on the mountain.

After lunch, we rested till it was time to leave to catch our bus to Kawaguchiko. We initially wanted to take a direct bus to the 5th station (Fuji Subaru Line) since we had an unpleasant experience in 2015, while waiting for the bus at Kawaguchiko (long story short -- we had to stand on the bus for the hour, making our feet sore for the climb). Unfortunately, all buses going to the 5th station were full, so we were left with the next best choice. As we approached Kawaguchiko Station, it started to rain quite heavily. I didn't view this as a positive sign of our climb.

The bus to 5th station was about 30 minutes away, meaning that we were able to secure a seat on the bus by waiting near the front of the line. I was a bit apprehensive since a whole bunch of people came and decided to stand near the front of the line. As the bus approached and let us board, a few of them tried to budge us. =/

Fast forward about an hour later, we reached the 5th station at around 5:30-5:45 PM. We hung around the station for about an hour -- checking out the souvenir shops (I bought a water-proof cover for my backpack, and a few more Calorie Mate Blocks), heading to the shrine to make an offer of safe passage (collection box was closed) and dressing for the climate. I put on all my layers, since it was feeling a bit chilly.

We started our climb just before 7 PM. Our first stop was to donate 1000 yen each to the conservation effort on the volcano. This year, they gave us carved... plaques/tokens as a sign of gratitude.

The initial climb from the 5th to the 6th station was relatively straight forward without much of an incline. 6th to 7th station started to have a bit of an incline, but it was mostly zigzagging up dirt paths. The climb from the 7th station onward started to become tricky as the incline became a lot steeper and you had to scramble over large boulders. The night was relatively clear, and the path wasn't too busy, so we were able to make good progress. Unlike 2015, I didn't feel any exhaustion at all, and the hiking poles I brought with me this time (from 2014, but didn't use in 2015) helped immensely with the climb. Taking longer breaks (15-20 minutes) also helped with fatigue.

 We made it to... the third or fourth station by midnight. At this point, it seemed like there were more people climbing, but that's for tomorrow's post!