I recently climbed Fuji-San in a day starting from Tokyo and wanted to share my thoughts on the climb and advice for those looking to do something similar. I climbed the Yoshida trail, which is the most popular way up and down. It took me about 6 hours of climbing time.
There is a lot of negative press about climbing Fuji in a day largely because many pretty stupid people try to do it without the proper equipment and unrealistic expectations. If you are planning on a one-day climb, it’s best to do it as a day-time climb meaning you won’t see the sunrise. Every year, quite a few people die as they underestimate the difficulty and coldness of the mountain especially during night. That said, waking up early and doing it in a day is very doable especially for those in shape. More on the logistics below.
Getting there and getting ready: If you are coming up from Tokyo, want to climb in a day and want to avoid some of the crowds, here are my tips:
It’s best to drive. The earliest bus from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko leaves at 5:15am. You then need to take another bus to the Fuji Subaru Line 5th Station (the trailhead) which
means the earliest you can start climbing is maybe 8am. The train is very similar. This is
what most people do, so there will be large crowds. If you drive and aim to get to the
parking lot at around 5:45am, you can be on the trail at 7am and beat the crowds. The
parking lot is called Fujihokuroku and costs 1,000yen per car. I left Tokyo at 430am and
made the 6am bus from the parking lot. You cannot drive to the trailhead. The bus runs
every 30 minutes and takes about 45 minutes. By doing this, I was on the trail at 7am-ish
well ahead of the crowds.
Buy a hiking stick. It’s fun. The shops try to get you to buy one with a flag on it, but just tell
them you don’t want the flag and it’s cheaper. Get the normal size one as you’ll run out of
room on the short ones. Mine was 1,500yen.
You need to pay to access the trail. It’s 2,000 yen per person. They only allow 4,000 people a day. Here is the website to reserve ahead of time, which I highly recommend.
If you do this hike in a day, you do need to be aware of the altitude change. You will basically be going from 0 to 3700m in a few hours. A good trick is to take some aspirin as you start your hike. Helps prevent the effects of altitude.
The Hike. It’s only 6.8km up. It’s basically switchbacks up after a little bit of an easy start. The trail is quite wide, so with the exception of a few places, I didn’t find the crowds a problem at all given I was essentially ahead of the main groups. Many of the huts won’t be up and running yet, so to get the stamps on the hiking stick, you need to peek in and ask. Pretty much every hut gives stamps. Most places offer two stamps for 500yen, but some give you 2 for 300 yen. I didn’t sit down once on the way up. To make it quick you need to keep moving. I find walking a little slower to rest is about the same thing and you are still moving. It took me about 3 hours up. At the top, there’s a very cool loop around the mountain you absolutely need to do. It’s only about 30 minutes but there’s a lot more on the top than I expected. The official top is on the opposite side from the Yoshida Trail at the Fuji Weather Station. I then had a quick break and lunch and then started my way down.
Going down was honestly harder than going up. First, make sure you go down the right trail. From the top of the Yoshida Trail ascent, turn left and the descent trail is about 50 meters away. The trail follows the road used by bulldozers to supply the huts. It’s very steep, sandy and if you don’t have on the right shoes, you will fall. Lots of people wear gaiters, but I don’t think you really need to. It’s not that bad. In the steep sections, running in mini switchbacks across the road definitely helps. I jogged the whole way down, but that’s just because I like running downhill. It was about 90 minutes down.
Once you get to the bottom, to get the bus back you need to walk down to the lower parking lot close to wear the bus dropped you off. It also runs every 30 minutes. And finally, drive home. Dangozaka rest area has a Starbucks which helped keep me awake!
I made it back around 4pm (including some Tokyo traffic) which means you can definitely do Fuji in a day!
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