A wise person climbs Mount Fuji once in their life, and a fool climbs it twice.

View from the 5th Station 

Sunrise from 12,388 feet

Well I was a wise person... and I will most likely be a fool. This weekend I hiked Mt. Fuji, Japan’s tallest mountain. Fuji-san stands at 3,776m (12,388ft), we started at the 5^th Station which is already at 2,400m (7,874 ft). 

So first a little background.... this whole story starts last year when I went hiking an made friends with an old Japanese guy who turned out to be a hiking guide. We kept in contact and we planned this trip to hike Fuji-san. 

I had a friend from work come along and she brought a friend. Our guide also brought a coworker with him, and she brought a friend. Sadly her friend ended up getting sick along the way and she was unable to finish the climb. But the rest of us did. 

Gotemba Sand Slope

I climbed a mountain

We started our hike at 7pm on Saturday. While we were hiking we saw stunning stars, a fireworks show (from a great distance) and not much else because it was dark... We hiked up until the 8^th Station (3,100m/10,170ft) and took a little nap at 1am. Around 2am we got ready and hike the rest of the way up the mountain. We made it just in time to see an amazing sunrise. After the sunrise a few of us took a hour walk around the crater. After hiking the crater we started our decent. We basically went down the same way we came up for the first bit. Then we took the Gotemba Sand Slope down the mountain. The sand slope was awesome because we basically got to run down sand and gravel and giant boulders. It was very fun! After our little run we hiked back to the 5^th Station where this whole trip started. I absolutely loved this hike! Yes, it was challenging. No it didn’t make me feel like death. It was the perfect challenge, with plenty of rewards. The beauty of that area was breathtaking! 

Our group (Me, Miho, Sangeeta, Neetu, and Yutaka our guide)