{"id":651,"date":"2022-08-10T09:59:42","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T00:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.6worlds.net\/blog\/?p=651"},"modified":"2022-08-10T15:57:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T06:57:37","slug":"mount-fuji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.6worlds.net\/blog\/2022\/08\/10\/mount-fuji\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Fuji"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mount Fuji is of course the iconic Japanese mountain. Its symmetrical cone which rises up 3776 meters above sea level is visible from Tokyo on a clear day. It has appeared in countless images ranging from Hokusai’s famous one hundred views of Mount Fuji to the current Japanese 1000 yen bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I had the opportunity to climb it with friends. I had never seen images of the mountain up close, only the typical distant views so I had no idea what to expect. We approached from the south, taking the route from Fujinomiya in Shizuoka prefecture, since that is the easiest to get to from western Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fuji city station, first sighting of the mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bus takes you from the Fuji City station through Fujinomiya and then up the flank of the mountain to a trail head at 2000 meters above sea level, which is where most people start. On the way the bus stops at the true entrance to the mountain, a shrine built at an artesian well where cold clean water bubbles out of the base of the mountain. You can step off the bus and wash your hands in the cold water or pray at the shrine for a safe trip up and back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fujisan sengen shrine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bus continues up from there, winding its way up steep switchbacks to the fifth station on the mountain. Routes up mountains in Japan are typically divided into ten roughly equal sections, each of which is marked by a sign, or in the case of Mount Fuji, by a refuge or hut located there. All of the four different routes up the mountain can be started from their very beginnings in nearby towns or by driving up to the highest road access at their respective fifth stations. From there the trail climbs steadily upwards towards the summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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start of the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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station 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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on the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you can see from the images, the landscape is forbidding — Mount Fuji is a huge pile of volcanic rock. The entire hike from the fifth station is above treeline, and as you ascend, what little vegetation that can grow in the spaces between volcanic rocks thins out and eventually disappears. For much of the year the mountain is covered in snow although by August most of the snow has disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n