How we got to Fuji

1. This is how we organised our trip to Mt Fuji, based on the research I did in organising this trip. It is by no means a complete guide, but we managed to get there and back just fine. Your Mileage May Vary.

2. The motivation for writing this is in part because there is very little information in English about climbing Mt Fuji if you live in the country. Most of the information about getting to Fuji and back is for tourists — who will most likely pass through Tokyo — and thus most advice is for people who are coming from Tokyo. We were coming from Hiroshima, we had time constraints (just one weekend) and we wanted to do it on the cheap. Keep in mind that travelling in Japan is an expensive proposition at the best of time, and with our time constraints it meant we often took the fastest way, not the cheapest. Again, this is just our experience, so do your own research.

A Bit of Background

3. Most (sensible, and usually Japanese) people join a tour group who organises tours for daytime or nighttime climbing. If you choose the nighttime climb you’ll climb in the afternoon, sleep in one of the huts on the mountain (most likely on one of the 8th stations), wake up at 3am and climb to the summit to watch the sunrise. This is a good idea if you’re not so fit, or worried about altitude sickness, or you’re the sensible type that likes taking it a bit easier. You can do this without joining a tour group, but it does mean you have to try to book accommodation on your own — no guarantee whether hut operators speak anything other than Japanese. Also, from what I’ve been told, the huts book out pretty early, sometimes before the climbing season officially starts — so it pays to organise ahead of time. That said, I know that people have managed to find accommodation with no reservation whilst on the mountain, but that was at 1am and it was because they didn’t want to climb any more. Not sure the same could be said if you turn up at 7pm.

What We Did

4. We got a tip early on about an overnight stay package to Tokyo that included a hotel room and return reserved Shinkansen tickets, all for 32000 yen, which was unbelievably good value. Shinkansen tickets from Hiroshima usually costs 20000 yen one way, so this is a bargain indeed.

5. We also booked a direct bus from Shinjuku to the Mt Fuji 5th Station (Go-gome) for 2600 yen one way. The bus was scheduled to take about 3 hrs, but we got there in about 2.5 hrs. Booking that bus is a really good idea — we got the last tickets on our bus.

6. For the return trip we didn’t book the bus back, purely because we had no idea when we were going to be back at the 5th Station. We had no trouble organising a bus back to Shinjuku, but we had someone who could speak a bit of Japanese. As far as we could tell, the guy in the ticket booth didn’t speak any English. But, there are buses coming and going on the 5th Station, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

7. We stayed at a hotel at Shinagawa on Monday, gave us a chance to get a proper shower and some decent food. And a nice comfy bed to sleep in, which you will appreciate after the climb.

Options

8. There is another option, and that is to bypass Tokyo altogether. This involves getting the Shinkansen to Shin-Fuji station or Gotemba station, and getting a bus that goes up to the 5th Station. For more information, have a look at this PDF from the JNTO website.

9. More info can be found at Japan Guide and the Fujiyoshida City Hall. Good luck!

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