20 years

It's been 20 years since we did the climb!

So many good and bad things happened since then

To climb Mount Fuji, there are many rules in place these days

Summer is here!

fujisan

Today is 2/23 or Fujisan Day...our favorite mountain in Japan.

It is also the Emperor's birthday...tomorrow is a holiday observing his birthday.

(photo taken at Oshino Hakkai in 2016)
 

the trip back

For our trip back to Tokyo, we picked up some bento at the Kyoto station.

Satoshi's chirimen sansho bento.

My nori bento.

Loved my bento and gave some to Satoshi, he said the rice in my bento was tastier than his because it had “stuff” mixed in.

I looked at who made both of our bentos and it was the same company in Kyoto, Nomura Tsukudani.

It rained the night before and luckily it stopped when we made our way to the train station.

It was cloudy at the start of our ride but we were lucky to see Mount Fuji.

Enjoy this short video. 

Hoping we can all travel soon.

14 years

14 years since we climbed Mount Fuji.

Unfortunately due to the pandemic, they will not be opening up the mountain for hiking this year.

Hopefully next year will be a better year (for everything).

p.s. over the weekend there was tons of rain and flooding in parts of Kyushu, please keep everyone there in your thoughts.

tokyo-gotemba

From where we live, it takes almost 2 hours by train to Numazu.

Here, we transferred to the Gotemba line and rode from Numazu to Fujioka.

About 3 minutes from the station is a lookout area called Fujimidai where you can see Mount Fuji.

Pretty majestic! and the weather was beautiful, yeah?!

We then caught the train from Fujioka to Gotemba.

For the areas we wanted to visit, the woman at the Gotemba Station information counter told us to catch the free bus that was heading to the Onsen Kaikan and to get off at the stop for Chichibunomiya Park.

From this stop, we walked to the Higashiyama Pond Fishing Area...

where Mount Fuji was visible and there were many people fishing.

And then a couple more minutes to the Former Kishi Residence.

Which is where current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi used to live.

Loved how the living room and dining room had big glass doors that open up to the garden.

We were hungry so we went in search of lunch...there was a soba shop which kind of looked like a chain type and a kamaboko shop across the street...

We went to the kamaboko shop...Suzuhiro which is a kamaboko maker from Odawara (Kanagawa Prefecture)

We tried their takoyaki...the outside made from kamaboko filled with tako (octopus) and topped with a wasabi cheese sauce (top of the photo).

Ototto Rice...rice and kamaboko skewered and deep fried (bottom left).

Assorted Veggie Kamaboko...potato, pumpkin, gobo (burdock) & carrot, renkon (lotus root)...my favorite was the pumpkin and potato (bottom right)

These are called "kamaboko" but we call them satsuma age.

After refueling, we walked to the Heiwa Kinen Koen (Peace Memorial Park).

Which has a spectacular view of Mount Fuji and will be beautiful when all the cherry trees which line the path up to the lookout area are in bloom.

From the park it was a short bus ride up to Otome Toge (Otome Pass)....I had thought we visited this pass back in 2015, but the actual Otome Toge is a little farther up the hill.

Satoshi hiked up the hill to Otome no Kane (bell of the maiden) and took this shot of Mount Fuji.

The woman at the Gotemba Station information counter had said we would be able to eat lunch here, but it was closed for renovations...Thank goodness we had already eaten!

We caught the bus back down to our hotel for the night...Rembrandt Premium Fuji Gotemba.

I had heard about this hotel from a television show and it had been on our "to go" list for awhile...the building kind of reminded me of something that might appear in a Ghibli or science fiction movie.

Thankful Satoshi was able to get us a room with a view of Mount Fuji.

Dinner was an assortment of Japanese-French...my favorite was the beef tongue which was super tender and the lemon marmalade that came with the pork.

I'll continue more of our adventure tomorrow.

Suzuhiro
1074-12 Higashiyama
Gotemba, Shizuoka
Phone: 0550.81.4147
Hours: 9:00-18:00

Rembrandt Premium Fuji Gotemba
2571 Fukusawa
Gotemba, Shizuoka
Phone: 0550.82.9600

we're back

We're back from a short trip...if you are following us on social media, you know where we were...

I need to sort through pictures and gather my thoughts...but will post something soon.

Stay tuned.

snow

Yesterday Mount Fuji has it first snow on its peak...according to the weather dude, the snow on Mount Fuji is 22 days late and 26 days late compared to last year.

Still nice to able to see Mount Fuji.

mount fuji

Not sure how much you enjoy seeing Mount Fuji, but if you get excited about seeing Mount Fuji as much as we do, here are a few of our "secret" spots to view Mount Fuji.

Click the links to view short videos...

Tamagawa Sengen Jinja...about 3 minute walk from the Tokyu Tamagawa station.

The rooftop observatory deck Domestic Terminal 1 at Haneda airport.

No humidity is key to viewing Mount Fuji.

Good luck!

the climb

In order to climb Mt. Fuji, you could start from the VERY bottom, or you can take a bus up to the 5th station of your choice. 

There are 5 routes up to the top of Mt. Fuji: Gotembaguchi, Kawaguchikoguchi, Fujinomiyaguchi, Subashiriguchi & Yoshidaguchi. (The Kawaguchikoguchi & Yoshidaguchi routes merge together at the 6th station.)

We chose the Kawaguchiko route, which is supposedly the easier of the 5 routes. The 5th station starts at 2400m (about 7874 ft), the very top of Mt. Fuji is 3776m (about 12395 ft). 

It is supposed to take about 6 hours to climb from the 5th station up to the top.

We got to the 5th station at about 10:30, in order to get acclimated to the altitude. 

During that time, we had lunch and waited around for about 2 hours. 

From the 5th station, you could see unkai (Japanese for sea of clouds), which was really beautiful!

And in the back of a rest area at the 5th station, you could see Mt. Fuji and it looked really close! At the 5th station, most of us bought our walking sticks. 

These sticks are made of wood and at most of the huts along the way you can get it branded with the hut's stamp, showing you your accumulated "mileage". 

I debated whether to get one of these sticks, but am glad I did, it really did come in handy!

Our climb started at about 12:30, the weather was nice, overcast, a bit on the chilly side, but not hot or humid!

The first 100m seemed like walking on a flat trail, then the hill started to g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y get steep. 

A lot of times, you feel as though you've been walking for hours, but you've actually only gone a few feet, you could tell that the altitude started to take its toll on everyone.

The 6th station didn't have a stamp for our sticks, so we were a bit bummed, in fact the 6th station is just a post for the Safety Guidance Center--oh, if you "gotta go" along the way, be prepared to pay to use the toilet--most cost about 100yen, some 200 yen!

At the 7th station, there were a LOT of huts, here we picked up a LOT of stamps (each stamp costs 200yen)along the way and getting these stamps really helped encourage me to trudge further up the mountain.

During the stretch between the 7th and 8th station, the path tends to get rocky and very steep, at times the walking stick gets in the way and you feel as though you are just crawling your way up! (I realized I am afraid of heights!!)

Looking to your right you see clouds and the city below, looking to your left all you see is clouds and the slope of the mountain! 

At every hut, we stopped to take water breaks, bathroom breaks and snack breaks and just breaks to rest our calves. Because the trail is rather steep it really took a toll on our calves!

The sun set and we had to take out our head lamps. I really freaked out climbing at night and realized that I have night blindness. 

The wind picked up a bit and it started to get really cold, there were even drops of rain or maybe it was snow!

Since the light from the lamps were only limited to where it was shining, it was very difficult trying to figure out where your feet and hands should go next.

At about 22:00,(about 10 hours after we started), we finally reached the 8.5 station where we would be "sleeping" at Tomoekan. 

This hut is one of the largest on the 8.5 station area, the bedding accommodates your group so that you don't have to sleep with people you don't know. Can you imagine 10 of us sleeping in these quarters? Talk about sardines!

Dinner was instant curry with rice and some tsukemono (pickles), not the most delicious, but it was a hot meal.

Even if I didn't feel like eating, I tried to eat the rice for the carbs.

After "dinner", we all crawled into bed and tried to rest. It was so cold and we all had to share blankets--I don't think most of us slept very much (I know I didn't), plus some people in our group started to get sick from the altitude.

At about 2:00, we got up to get ready for the last leg of our climb to the top. (They don't wake you up, so bring something that can wake you up q-u-i-e-t-l-y!) 

Three people in our group didn't feel very well and decided that they would wait for us. So the rest of us made the trek up the last 300m. 

The last 300m was the hardest and steepest. It was quite scary because it was still dark and because it was really windy and cold!

Just before we reached the top, the sun started to rise at about 4:30. We stopped and sat where we were to view the sunrise. What an awesome sight!

We then continued up to the top and got the last of our stamps, the one that says you made it to the top.

Another thing you can do from the top is send a postcard to someone, it will have a special postmark on it. We sent a card to ourselves.

The only thing is that if you go up the route that we did, you'll have to walk another 20 minutes to get to the post office. 

Let me tell you, that this path is scary! In some places it is very narrow and there are no guardrails. If you are afraid of heights, look straight ahead! You can actually walk all the way around the lip of the crater, but we didn't have time and boy, were we tired!

The next task was to get back down to the 5th station. Our route was the Subashiriguchi route. It was supposed to take us 2.25 hours to get back to the 5th station and was supposed to be one of the easier trails. 

We started at about 9:00. The path was quite soft with cinders and sand. At times, you had to walk at an angle or dig your heels into the dirt, so that you wouldn't slip or fall head first and roll down the hill.

Can you believe that the only way to get supplies up and down the mountain is with a bulldozer?

Unfortunately, someone in our group fell a couple of times because of their knees and another fell and scraped their elbow/forearm, which needed stitches. 

Luckily, a hut, Taiyokan, offered assistance with manpower and a rescue sled. This made getting them down to the 5th station a LOT easier! (Thank you!)

Finally at about 16:00, we all made it down to the 5th station. We were all very tired, very dirty and dusty. Going down the mountain was way harder than going up, it took its toll on all of our legs, since we had to brace ourselves.

But, we were blessed with decent weather and we all went up and came down the mountain safely. 

I'm glad my Aunty invited us to join them on this adventure. Satoshi and I are happy that we had an opportunity to do this, although I don't think we'll be doing something like this again anytime soon.

I'll write about some foodie things on this trip in another post.

Right now, my legs are still sore and I look like Frankenstein walking....

Have a good weekend!