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Published: July 10th 2006
Mt. Fuji!
The view from the visitor's centreI had booked a tour for us through JTB Sunrise tours, the same company who ran my trip to Nikko. We headed out early in the morning after-finally!- a Western-style buffet breakfast that included doughnuts and cherries. Since cherries are ridiculously expensive here ($8 for a quart, or more) I filled up on them.
We were lucky enough to have a fantastic guide for our tour, which really makes or breaks a tour (and also one of the reasons I hate organized tours- you never know who you're going to end up with). Our luck just continued from there: we arrived at the Mt. Fuji visitor's centre and had a clear view of Mt. Fuji. Our guide was so surprised! He said he had not been able to see Mt. Fuji from that vantage point for the past few weeks since, on average, the volcano is only visible 90 days a year. We posed for pictures and marvelled at our good luck.
We boarded the bus again to begin our ascent up to the 5th station of Mt. Fuji. The 5th station is the point in which you would begin a hike up to the summit. SInce it doesn't
Mt. Fuji 2
My mom, myself, and Heather in front of Mt. Fuji...most of the pictures of us together are spread between our 3 cameras... look like I'll be able to fit in the 7 hour climb to the top during the small window of July 1st to mid-August when the volacno is open for climbing, this is as high up as I'm likely to get. Just as we arrived at the 5th staion, the clouds that had been circling the lower half of the volcano made their way to our level. Everything was covered in clouds and at least 15 degrees colder. What had been a hot, humid and sunny day had become a cold and foggy one.
Mt. Fuji is 3,776 m and it last erupted in 1707 and lasted three weeks. Our helpful guide also pointed out that it has been predicted that Fuji will erupt almost 300 after the last explosion- so basically, now. We were given disaster prevention pamphlets in case there was an eruption and aslo to read about what geologists are doing to warn locals and prevent deaths. Because our tour was on such a tight schedule, they herd everyone through giftshops and look-out points. We were all given bells blessed by monks in the shrine at the 5th station and picked up some souvenirs. Since there
5th Station
Not much to see above the clouds wasn't much to see view-wise with the clouds, we were soon on our way back down the volcano. Halfway down, the clouds had cleared and we were able to look up to the summit to take some photos.
We had lunch at a hotel resort near the base of Mt. Fuji, across from a large amusement park called Fuji Q Highland, where I definitely will have to make a trip to. The rollercoasters were very steep and there seemed to be a lot of attractions there. After lunch, we continued with our tour of Lake Ashi for a cruise to the Mt. Komagatake Ropeway, or cable car up the mountain. The cable car ride gave us spectacular views of the Fuji FIve Lakes region, surrounding mountains, and Mt. Fuji. Again, our guide was impressed by the sight of Mt. Fuji as he had not seen it in the afternoon for this portion of our tour in over two weeks. The view from the top of Mt. Kamogatake was fantastic- even better than being at the 5th station and the visitor's centre. We had enough time to walk on the path at the top of the moutnimg, up to a
Fuji Q
The amusement park and the mountain dilapidated old shrine and see the clouds rise up over the mountains and valleys in the area.
So far this has been one of the highlights of my time in Japan.
Our tour once again dropped us off in Ginza where we were able to have a grilled Japanese dinner and relax before our last day together.
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