Jo vs. the Volcano

Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan at 3776 meters high (12,388 feet).

Not long before this trip, Colleen emailed me to see if I might have any interest in climbing Mt. Fuji. Of course I said yes, and we started planning. We did a lot of planning. We had the boots, the back packs, the first aid kit, flashlights -- you name it, we had it. We did the research and planned accordingly. We were ready for any temperature... we were prepared to spend the night in a hut... we were even ready to poop in the woods if absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, there were two mighty forces that we were not ready for: The Tourist Information Center and Typhoon Nabi.

The trouble with Mt. Fuji, as with many mountains, is that weather conditions at the top tend to be extreme. Also among its negatives, the fact that it seems inclined to disappear after the early morning hours, hidden by clouds or fog. Throw in the effects of a typhoon over 900 miles away in Okinawa, and you've got less than ideal viewing/hiking conditions.

Now wait just one minute, you say, being the weather geek that you are. You know that Saturday in the Mt. Fuji area was actually sunny, beautiful and quite clear -- optimal conditions for viewing/hiking the mountain.

Yes, well, that's true. That brings us back to the first mighty force I mentioned. The Tourist Information Center.

Our plan had been to start the hike late Saturday, hike until dark, sleep in a hut for a few hours, rise at the crack to finish the trek to the top arriving just in time to see the sunrise.

OK, so we did get off to a late start on Saturday, partly because we were slow to get moving, but mainly because the friendly ladies at the Tourist Information Center are assasins of time.

We went in thinking we'd be there maybe ten minutes, get some maps, some info, and be on our way. Sadly, this was not to be.

"Mt. Fuji is closed."

This is the story they gave us, and no matter how hard we tried to explain that we simply knew this not to be true, that was their story and they were sticking to it.

OK. We played along.

"Well what if we just want to go to the Mt. Fuji area -- somewhere pretty with a nice view of the mountain?"

That they would help us with.

The Fuji Five Lake Region

One of the two friendly women helping us disappeared for a very long time and came back with a brochure of the Mt. Fuji area and attractions. Colleen and I had heard of the Five Lake Region and, knowing we weren't going to get there in time to start the hike that day, we thought it sounded like a nice place to stay. We asked them which part of the region they would recommend.

"Hakone!" was the unanimous answer. (The only sure answer we got that day.)

Hakone it was! Let's book a hotel in Hakone! We were directed to a third woman (not so friendly) who would help us book our hotel reservation. She quickly recommended ahotel, we agreed, and she placed the call and made the arrangements. We would be staying in a traditional Japanese inn in Moto-Hakone. Brilliant! Right near a lake! Sounds perfect.

But we still had to sort out our transportation to Hakone, and it was no easy task. Though there were many brochures on the subject, none of them gave actual time tables and routes or stops the train or bus would make along the way. They just showed cartoonish drawings of the line with no regard to scale.

Finally, with the Tourist Information Center employees still trying to convince us that Fuji was closed for the season, we decided we would be better off on our own. As we were about to leave, the least friendly of the ladies plunked down a baggie full of bright objects and flatly said "souveniers."



We had a similar problem with the man at the train ticket counter -- he must have attended the same customer service seminar as the ladies at the Tourist Information Center. It took about 30 minutes to buy two train tickets, and by the time we got them, the train was about to leave.

We barely made it before the train left, but at least now we were on our way. So we wouldn't get to hike the mountain until tomorrow. So we would miss the sunrise. It would still be a great time.

Without going into great detail, I'll just sum up the rest of the trip by saying that Hakone is NOT in the Five Lakes Region -- there is a lake there, but it is not one of the five. And not only that, our hotel reservations were not in Moto-Hakone, they were somewhere else in Hakone, but we didn't realize that until we were heading the wrong direction on the bus. After a boat ride across the lake (not one of the five lakes) and another bus ride, we finally found our hotel.

Now, all this confusion may lead you to believe that we were not having a good time, but that was not the case. We were managing to laugh at all the mistakes and inconveniences and still have a great time on our Fuji adventure.

The hotel was lovely -- there were even indoor and outdoor hot springs on the hotel grounds. Our room was simple but cozy with a little garden out the sliding doors. We had a dip in the indoor hot spring, then dinner in a local Japanese restaurant -- very tasty -- and then a dip in the outdoor hot spring just before bed. We thought it best to make it an early night since tomorrow we'd be climbing Mt. Fuji!