Life Threatening Experience hiking Mount Fuji

Conquering Mt.Fuji has been the goals of many of those who love Japan as it represents the entirety of the country. Being the tallest mountain in Japan, not only are you able to gaze upon the holy sight of the Sunrise \[Go Rai Kou\], but you can also have a bird eye’s view across the main island of Japan, form Tokyo’s bay all the way to Nagoya. But like all other mountains, you will be in trouble if you do not plan well ahead for your hike. For me, it was not reserving accommodation for the night during my hike.

You might be thinking that how stupid do I have to be to skip a reservation for logging. The reason I thought I didn’t need to reserve one was because, 1, I thought I didn’t need one, and 2, one of my friends told me that they were able to camp outside for the night at the submit when they hiked Fuji the previous year. Believing that, off I went to solo-hike Mount Fuji (Fujinomiya Trail).

I started the hike from the fifth Station at evening. Even though it was around late-August 2023, the wind at the sixth station makes it almost impossible to move on without three layers of clothing (it was below 10 C). Plus, your body sweats because it was not a walk in a park, it’s a rocky hike on Mount Fuji. By the time I arrived at the “new seventh station”, I was extremely drenched in sweat that I had to change the innermost wear. But there came my “Oh….Crap” moment as only reserved personnel are allowed to go in and out of the stations. Even the toilets are not accessible to those without reservation. So, I had to change (rinsed the shirt and wore it again) in the open gusts of chilling wind and was also looked at as a shirtless maniac which was no fun. However, the view from this height was extremely peaceful that it momentarily cleared my thoughts.

As I reached the next station which is called the “old seventh station”, I had to change(rinse and put on) the clothes again due to my sweats from the rocky hike and it was then I realized it might be a good idea to book a reservation at one of the upcoming stations. But to my surprise, the phone call to each station told me that they were fully booked for the night and wouldn’t even accept check-ins after evening. Staring at my watch pointing pass 7pm, that was when I realized that I should have made a reservation beforehand. Faced with the choices of giving up or keep pushing, I chucked in some bread, protein bars, two bananas, and an apple as I calmed my mind. Then, I decided to keep on pushing thinking that I didn’t come here to give up half-way.

Continuing with my hike, the surroundings slowly became too dark to navigate properly without some light source. At this point, my only source of light was the moon but quite surprisingly, my eyes gradually adapted to better see the surrounding, at least the trail was visible. It was not long before I reached the eighth station and had to change into my only extra shirt due to the sweats. On top of that, I had been holding the urge to urinate as the last bathroom break was nearly 4 hours ago and not soon after reaching the nineth station, I could hold it no longer. As worse as it got, the bathrooms were locked with no-one at the front-desk of the station to ask help for. But luckily, one of the loggers came out to use the bathroom with whom I followed along. If it weren’t for him, I would have had no choice but to resort to using water bottle that I brought. After dealing with that, I continued with the hike and found an interesting dead tree along the way.

I don’t know what it stands for, but I am guessing that it was for making wishes. It was past 9PM at that point with chilling breezes constantly blowing at me. Each step took harder than the previous ones on the rocky trail and my whole body was getting tired from carrying the extra weight of ration and clothes. But all the fatigue became nullified when I thought about how close I was to the summit compared to a few hours ago, and the name “David Goggins” came to my head. After a short photo break and imagining him criticizing me for being such a “Bitch”, my climb progressed noticeably faster. And then finally, I reached the summit.

It was such a relieving and rewarding moment when I was faced with an even terrain, feeling that I’ve made it to the top. But something bothered me. The fact that there were no lights on any of the Inns or accommodation facilities felt a bit off. It was past 10PM at that point and was reasonable that no one seemed to be outside on the summit. With that weird feeling in mind, I proceeded to wander around the top until I stumbled upon a mini cave big enough for a human to sit inside. It was more of a shelter-like cave without the other end and quite boldly enough, I decided to settle down there for the night. But little did I know that the real “Struggle” was about to hit me in the face.

A few moments after I sat down and enjoyed the beautiful city-view from the cave, everything began to feel abnormally freezing. It took me a while to realize that I was losing heat because I haven’t been moving for the last few minutes. I looked around my surrounding only to see pitch black cliff into the crest and at this point, I was shivering from the cold to the extent that I was curling up to find warmth all alone in a small cave on top of Mount Fuji. Then, a freezing gust of wind suddenly blasted from behind, robbing me of my scarce warmth. The cave I initially thought had only one opened side apparently had another opening at the top from which the gust of wind blew from. As it became clear that it was impossible for me to stay there without some shelter, I gathered up my things and decided to go to the Inns to ask for help. It was not an easy walk with the chilling cross-winds constantly blowing all over the summit but I gradually made it. I knocked on the doors but was greeted with silence. So, I tried again……and still got no responses. But I kept on knocking again and again, hoping that someone would answer back. To say the truth, it was at that moment that I really experienced the feeling of helplessness and felt the fear for my life.

Thankfully, after 30 minutes of knocking on the door, I could see a dim light starting to flash towards me and it was clear that someone had noticed my call for help. It was then that I felt extremely relieved, learning that the struggle finally has come to an end. However, as soon as the person opened the door, he was furious, stating that I was causing a disturbance for those resting at that facility. To make things worse, he ousted me to go down the mountain and shut the door. As I was surprised and shocked by that happening, it took me quite a while to process and think of what to do next. So there I was, shocked and shivering in the cold, uncertain of what to do next. But to the grace of god, the same person opened the door again and called out to me. Before I could set foot into the Inn, the guy demanded me 10,000 yen in cash as the fee for the accommodation which luckily, I barely had enough to hand over to him. I cannot express enough on the feeling of salvation I got after getting into that Inn and laid down under a warm blanket. The struggle was finally over.

The next morning, I was woken at 3AM by the sound of other hikers getting ready to go see the rising sun. After finishing breakfast, I followed the group and was able to witness the holly sunrise from the highest point of Mount Fuji.

Key lessons learned

-Make reservation for accommodation the next time I go hiking Mount.Fuji

-Don’t blindly trust other people’s stories and think that I can achieve the same thing.

-Do not forget cash.

So, the next time you go hiking Mount Fuji, please be aware of the possible dangers that can come along.

Thank you for reading thus far.

by AmBiCat23