Traveling to Japan in August 2024 and planning to Hike Fuji.
My partner and I’s plan is to have three days in Kawaguchiko (2 nights). We want to hike Mt. Fuji in one day. We are planning to hike during the day and I really want to avoid the huts for sleeping. It looks like the first bus from Kawaguchiko station goes to the Subaru 5th station around 6:30am, meaning our hike could start right at 7:30am. Last bus back to Kawaguchiko is at 18:40. Is 11 hours enough? For context, my partner and I are from Northern Utah and hike/exercise fairly regularly. I also have been to Machu Picchu and experienced minimal altitude sickness there while hiking.
Also any great hotel recommendations near Kawaguchiko station? We would like to stay close to the station to make getting to the bus before and after the hike a little easier.
by capybaralover98
12 comments
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Hi,
Just popping in to say it’s quite possible. I did something like what you are describing with my buddy in 2016. We may have even taken a slightly later bus but we hit one of the early ones for sure.
We had enough time to get our hiking sticks branded a few times at way stations, hang out at the top for a while (maybe an hour or so?) And make it back in time for the bus. I don’t remember what hostel we stayed at but I’ll try to find the name and edit the post or PM you if I can find it.
Enjoy!
Ron Ishida (Youtuber) just did this. It’s possible, but he also got lucky in getting to the last bus back. He started earlier than you did.
https://www.allthepeaks.com/post/mount-fuji-yoshida-trail-bullet-climb-yamanashi definitely possible but if you miss the last bus, the toll road closes at night you have to wait until 3am when it opens again and taxis start running.
I would take the last bus up on a night and spend much of the evening at the 5th station. Begin the climb late night and reach summit for sunrise. Get back down the mountain in the early morning, get back to hotel and nap for a few hours. (You would have been climbing this time anyhow so you aren’t kissing time really)
Doable, if you’re young and fit, but very ambitious. I started from station 4, went to the top, and returned to station 4. I was 31, and I think it took me something like 14 hours. Can’t remember exactly how long the breaks were.. it was almost 30 years ago.
I did it in 12 hours; we left from the 5th Station at 4:00 AM, made it to the summit at noon, and back to our tour bus just before 4:00 AM. We had a private bus for our group.
I did this in July and it’s EASILY doable!
It obviously depends on your age and fitness, but I’m in my early 30s and from Vancouver, Canada and am used to day hikes. Fuji would probably be on the lower end of the scale in terms of difficulty unless you get altitude sickness (I got a headache).
I came from Tokyo and didn’t start the hike until about 10:30 am. I went up, did the crater loop hike, are cup noodles, and came back down by 5:15 pm. The last highway bus back to Tokyo was 5:30 but sadly I didn’t bring enough cash (bring lots) and there were no atms up there.. there are buses that go back to kawaguchiko that run later though and work with suica, so I still make it back to Tokyo by 9 pm ish.
Also, you DO NOT need to rent gear if you’re just doing a day hike of Fuji. When I started, I saw Japanese tour groups that looked like they were ready to tackle Everest… made me nervous that I was just in a pair of shorts, hoodie, and runners but I was fine! The rocks coming down were annoying and I slid a lot, but it’s not really worse than any hikes I’ve done in BC in just runners… Bring a good rain jacket just in case it pours though (I came back in thick thick fog) and a change of clothes. I want to say I went up from Subaru 5th station to the summit in about 3.5 hours?
Another word of advice: do the hike on a weekday to avoid the worst of the crowds!
Let me know if you have any other questions because when I was preparing to do this, there was irritatingly not that much information on it. Vast majority of guides and blogs were about doing the sunrise bullet hike or staying at a hut which I also didn’t want to do.
Yeah if you hike regularly and have good weather conditions it’s pretty easy. You need 4 hours up. An hour to go around the crater and 2,5 hours down. We arrived at the bottom with 2 hours to spare.
I did it last July in almost perfect weather. If the weather is different it might be a lot more difficult.
im sure NOTHING can go wrong when some guests attempt something that is rarely done and theres a whole industry around NOT attempting it…
Definitely doable! My dad and I did something similar back in 2017 although it took us longer than expected mainly because I don’t hike regularly and went at a slower rate. We left at like 5ish am from the hotel and made it back like 22.00ish. It was harder to breathe near the summit for sure, but given your track record with hiking I’m sure you would have no issue!
I did take carbonic anhydrase inhibitors beforehand to mitigate some altitude sickness but do some research on that.
Definitely hike on a weekday to avoid crowds. We hiked in July so it was kinda chilly on the summit with some snow left. Also on the way back we went down a different trail and it was nearly pitch black – so maybe bring some light source if you end up hiking down at night.
Also back then we barely had reception to call for our hotel shuttle (konansou – onsen hotel cuz mom didn’t wanna hike) to pick us up from kawaguchiko station so maybe that’s something to keep in mind too.
Also I’ve heard they might have queues for climbing up Fuji soon – not sure when that’s getting implemented tho
Did this a few years back started real early in the morning was up and down in 1 day