the next day, friday, was another early morning. we caught our bus at shinjuku at 7am and settled in for the 2-hour ride. on the trip we made friends with a canadian guy named michael, who was planning on climbing the mountain that day. he told us of an american he met in the tokyo streets who’d done it about a week previously, and who had said it was certainly doable. in fact, this american had made it up the mountain in 3 hours (much less than the average 5.5 – 6 up), and had not, of course, been eaten by the forest, fallen hundreds of feet down ice cracks, or been blown off the mountain by winds. this report confirmed my suspicions that the mountain wasn’t all that bad, and made my dad more willing to try for the summit if we got the opportunity. the rest of the ride we talked to michael about various things and had a decent time in the cramped seats. i also got this picture of fuji from the bus, unfortunately the only one of the whole mountain, since it was dark when we were again far enough away to see the whole thing: [view of fuji from bus window]. as you can see, there was a layer of clouds covering the top of the mountain. what you can’t see is that these clouds were swirling very visbly around the mountain, like a miniature hurricane. and they were going fast. it was actually quite unreal, and made me wonder what it would feel like on the summit, in those winds and clouds, if we tried for it.
in talking with michael, we also discovered that there was a bus from the 5th station back down to fujiyoshida, so that, if we were to try hiking the mountain, we could get back to tokyo on our own (one of the logistical problems we faced had been getting down from the mountain, even if we could convince the takahashis to drive us to the 5th station. we were under the impression that no buses or taxis ran from the 5th station back down to the fujiyoshida station out of season). unfortunately, the last bus down from 5th station (5th station, remember, is about halfway, elevation-wise, up the 12,376 ft. mountain, and it is where the summit hike begins. you can drive up to it.), we were told, was at 4pm. we figured that the soonest we could start climbing was probably 10am, and if we wanted to catch the bus we’d have to go up and down in no more than 6 hours. seeing as the average up-hike alone takes 6 hours, my dad was doubtful that we could possibly make the last bus. i was game for trying anyway.
the bus ride ended soon enough, and we met mr. takahashi and his wife and fujiyoshida station. there we tried our best, standing in the wind which was abnormally strong even at the foot of the mountain, to persuade them to take us to the 5th station and then let us climb up the mountain. eventually, after showing them that we were well supplied with gear, food, and clothing, they acquiesced, and my heart rejoiced! it didn’t rejoice too quickly, however, because my dad reminded me that we’d need to be down by 4pm, whether we had summited or not, to catch the last bus back to fujiyoshida (so we could get back to tokyo). i agreed, and settled for going as far up as possible.
