Up the wrong side of Fujiyama

By Mike Femal

We started the day on the Izu Peninsula in a ryokan onsen on the Sagami-nada Sea. A ryokan is a traditional Japense inn and an onsen is a communal hot spring bath. This ryokan was very traditional without air-conditioning and providing thin futon on tatami mats for sleeping. The onsen was split men and women into separate areas. It had one pool that was very hot and one that you could cook in. Neither of these aspects are really my thing, but I was an overall neat experience. Between the onsen relaxing sore muscles and the fatigue of running around Japan, I had slept pretty well on the ½” futon and small buckwheat pillow. Our goal for today was to get some great views of Mt. Fuji.

Izu Peninsula

We had driven along the coast to get here from Nikko the previous night. Today we drove inland to gain some elevation and get a view of the sacred mountain Fujiyama. It was great for Atsumi-san to drive us around. She is a fearless driver and drove like a demon to get us to the next location. We got our first glimpse of Fijiyama on the hairpin turns coming up through the center of the Izu Peninsula. Our destination was lake Ashinoko for scenic views of Fujiyama. Unfortunately clouds were obscuring our view by this time and we could only catch glances of the summit through the clouds.

After visiting a few tourist traps on the lake, we headed to the Owakudani (Great Boiling Valley). Fujiyama was even more obscure from here, and after a brief walk through the sulfur springs area, we took a break. At this point Atsumi-san gave up on the concept of getting us a great view of Fujiyama and offered to drive us there instead. Jesse and Atsumi-san entered a destination into the navi system and we were off. The navi built into the car had not given us the best directions on this trip. This was not to be it’s finest moment. After shifting to smaller and more remote roads in the general direction of Fujiyama, it directed us on a two-track dirt road with warning signs about a military bombing range ahead.

Fujiyama in the mist

As we had been going down smaller and more remote roads, the trip had seemed to contrast my visit to Fujiyama 10 years before. I turned on data roaming on my iPhone and checked out where it thought we were. Here we were on the south side of Fujiyama and there on the north side was the big toll way going up to the 4th station. Well that did not seem to promising. When I switched to smaller scales I noticed a road going up the south side. At that point we switched from the car navi to iPhone navigation. I found the iPhone GPS system does not track all that great went you are changing your attitude allot, but it did a pretty good job. We knew we were not taking the standard path when we passed the toll booths that had been stripped off their foundations years ago. The road kept going and we followed it up the hairpin curves. I downloaded travel info on driving to Fujiyama and it complained about all the parking lots being full. There really were no parking lots on this side and we only pass one or two cars going up. Then we reached the end of the road. The other side of Fujiyama has a huge lodge, big parking lots, and a huge wide path up the mountain. This side had a gift shop and a path going up wide enough for two people.

We decided to walk a little way up to see what it was like. We had jackets, but none of us had hiking boots. Atsumi-san even had 3 inch wedges on. We were just going up a short way. Then we were just going to that next ridge. We could see a tori up at the top where the trail ended on the summit. Then we spotted the 6th station and decided to go a bit farther. Sherry was hoping to get something to drink and I was sure there would be vending machines there. Well the 6th station was closed and the trail ahead was also closed. The whole group was ecstatic to have made it. We took some pictures, and started back down.

Tori on Fujiyama

While Sherry had been looking forward to something to drink at the 6th station, Jesse had set his hopes on finding a bathroom. We noticed Jesse was getting ahead of Atsumi-san on the train ahead of use. Half-way down we did not see Jesse at all. The call of nature had forced Jesse to run down the trail to the 5th station where the facilities were open. As we stood at the 5th station we saw the clouds close in on the summit. It had been clear when we had climbed up and now nothing was visible. As the fog / clouds moved in, we started back down the twisty road.

Mist on Fuji