It took an hour of calling, but we were able to get a hold of the 5th and 6th stations of the Fujinomiya trail and verify that they were open. This might need a little explanation. There are 5 climbing routes on Fuji, and each route has 9 stations (at different elevations) that have huts where climbers can recuperate. The climb from the 5th stations take 4-7 hours (depending upon which trail you take), and climbing down takes ~3 hours. The official climbing season ends in August, and by September the bus schedules for the mountain are significantly reduced, and many of the huts close.
After saying goodbye to our hosts, we took off for Kyoto station and got more yen. I picked up some Yatsuhashi to bring home, and we mailed our post cards to various friends and family. I never used to send them, but after finding out how good it feels to receive them, I'm going to make sure to send at least a few on each trip (to those who didn't get any this trip, I didn't have your addresses memorized!).
From Kyoto station we were supposed to take a Kodama train (a step below the fastest bullet train) to Shin-Fuji Station at the base of the mountain, but it we accidentally got on a Nozomi train (the fastest bullet train)! Luckily it was going the right direction.
It was a simple mistake. Ghyrn and I were taking pictures, and when a train arrived at our platform (slightly early) we figured it was our train and there was a 5 minute loading time. Nope. About a minute after getting on, we felt the train move and the scenery outside began to whiz by at 186 mph!
We asked the conductor for advice, and were able to get off at Nagoya station to transfer to the right train. Phew! Normally it wouldn't have been too big a deal, but we were on a tight schedule to catch the last bus to Fujinomiya 5th station.
After getting on the right train, we commenced the picture taking, goofed around, and arrived at Shin-Fuji. The lady at the information desk (where we had to buy tickets) was a total mom and kept telling us to put safety first. "I can't recommend you to climb the mountain, but climbers do climb the mountain off season. Please be safe!"
We got some snacks at the station, and caught the bus up. It was a bit windy, and the bus driver drove like a maniac, but the views were stunning once we got above the clouds!
Minor setback 1: 5th station wasn't actually open. Just the bathrooms! Fortunately 6th station was only a 20 minute hike up, so we went there and found that they were open. Nice!
Minor setback 2: 200 yen to use the bathroom = pee in the grass outside the hut.
We were pretty starving at this point because it was around 5 PM and we hadn't eaten lunch, so we stopped next door and found a local dude eating some tasty-looking noodles. "Oishi desu ka?" [Is that delicious?] I asked. "HAI!" [YES]! The guy responded. He told us it was Fujinomiya Yakisoba, and we sat down and ordered some from the hut-keeper.
It was oishi indeed. Best mountain noodles I've ever eaten.
We introduced ourselves to our new friend, Katsuhiko Kimura, who had finished the climb earlier that day. He showed us a picture of himself at the top, and said it was freezing up there! Actually, there wasn't much talking - he had a translator on his phone and was typing in Japanese/showing us the screen. I'd type back and he'd translate it to Japanese again. It was cool and kind of funny because the translator wasn't quite perfect!
The last thing he typed before going outside was " Please take care of the body when preparing to climb," which I took as more advice to be safe :)
We took pictures with him, and went back to our hut to relax before our hike.
We're about to go to sleep at 7PM and wake up at 1AM to start the climb to catch the sunrise! I'm starting to hear some raindrops on our roof, but hopefully the rain clears before we start to climb. I'm really glad we brought our waterproof gear now :D
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