Japan (Day 1) – Climb Mt Fuji

Sun 19/07/2009

The Airport Bus from Jason’s place was so convenient. The only problem was that I didn’t understand a word the driver said so when we did arrive at the airport, no one was flying international so I ended up at the domestic airport – thanks driver. I think there was a free bus shuttle service which runs around the airport but I didn’t want to wait around so instead I had to walk about 15-20 minutes to the International Airport with all my gear.

Check-in was straight forward but the only thing that left me a little baffled was when the check-in desk clerk said “please take a seat for 5 minutes while we inspect your bag”. The problem wasn’t checking of the bag but it was how do you know if they have checked it and you were good to go. After about 15 minutes I did see a crowd gather to the side of the check-in desks and it was at this spot that you were able to see customs checking your bags. If you can spot your bag on the desk then that would mean your bag had a problem. I didn’t spot my bag there so just to be sure I confirmed it with one of the check-in managers. Why couldn’t they just tell all passengers before-hand? What if a passenger goes into security and their bags had something suspicious inside? Do they need to come out again or would they just not see their luggage on arrival at the destination?

I fell asleep for most of the flight over to Tokyo and almost missed breakfast. The tail wind coming into Tokyo was very high so it made landing quite difficult. Just before we were about to touch down, the pilot (so I think) had to move the wing slightly upwards before balancing the plane to land. I could see many people hold their breathes or holding tightly on to their front chairs and praying nothing was going happen to the plane. I wouldn’t be surprised if even a little bit of wee came out.

The train to Tokyo and in between was sheer madness. I thought the tube trains got busy but I have to say this is even worse. The sheer number of people moving from one platform to another, cramming into the train, it’s just crazier then I’d ever imagined. My destination was Shinjuku where I was to board a bus and travel a further 1.5 hours to Kawaguchiko for my final destination for the day. Trying to find the Express Bus Terminal at Shinjuku is an adventure in itself and made worse only by the gear I was carrying and the amount of people rushing in all directions. Shinjuku train station is almost like a mega-city in itself and trying to find anything is near impossible. I was walking up stairs, across different terminals and even surfacing to the main streets all to find buses that either go to the airport or somewhere local in Tokyo. It was only until I asked for help that I eventually located the bus terminal to Kawaguchiko.

The journey from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko takes about 1.5 hours at a cost of 1700 yen which is quite cheap. You can take the train there but it is about 3 times more expensive and takes an hour longer.

I stayed at K’s House Mt Fuji hostel and it is quite a clean hostel compared to most hostels I’ve been to. While checking in, I managed to find 2 people to climb Mt Fuji with. I looked at the weather forecast and thought tonight was the only night possible to climb to the summit and see the sun rise.

• We started the journey at 6pm and walked to the bus stop.
• The bus left at 7pm to the 5th Station which took about 50 minutes.
• We began walking to the summit at 8pm.
• We were all under dressed and weren’t prepared for the weather conditions as we climbed higher and higher.
• There were too many people climbing to the summit, I would say about 1000 people and lining up behind one another and climbing meant the hike/climb will take twice the time.
• Stupid American teenagers pushing in and it was annoying that they were so loud and causing a fracas. I only hope they froze once they got to the summit as a number of them too were under-dressed.
• If I had the chance, I would knock every one of those little shits back to the 5th station. Americans already have a bad reputation as travelers, these freshman’s add to that bad rep.
• Climbing wasn’t difficult as you couldn’t go at your own pace. Until someone moved up and took a step, then you can take a step and go up. This was repeated for about 10 hours until the summit.

smiles