Climbing Fuji-san

I made the mistake of showing XDirtPushr this fantastic time-lapse photo of people climbing Fuji-san at night – it’s a white snake of light all the way up the outline of the dark mountain. And then a picture of sunrise on the summit. You would really think I would know better, but apparently not. So I’ll give you three guesses what I “get” to do next week.

Fuji-san happens to be the highest mountain in Japan, but more spectacularly it sits all by itself in the middle of the largest flat plain in Japan. It’s an almost perfect volcanic cone that appeals to everything in the Japanese psyche. Climbing Fuji-san is a religious experience for them - ideally you climb at night (or late afternoon and camp overnight) so that you’re on the summit to watch the rising sun from the highest point in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Oddly enough, it’s also something that most people only ever do once in their lives. The fact that Fuji-san is 3776m (12,388 ft) above sea level and you can only drive half way might have something to do with that.

I’ve been reading up on the climb itself – depressingly enough it comes with way too many warnings (hypothermia, dehydration, exhaustion, getting lost, falling off a cliff, and paying far too much money for a cup of soup and a bug-ridden sleeping bag to name a few). On the plus side are the view from the top, the walking stick that you get marked at each station along the way (the top is station 10), and the ability to send a postcard from the top. To me, this isn’t really a good trade, but when I asked why we’re apparently going to climb this mountain anyway, the only answer I got back was “because it’s there.” MEN.

Little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mt. Fuji