Mt. Fuji is 12,395ft! Although most people don't start climbing it from the very bottom. Just like everyone else we started at Station 5. As you can see it's the main tourist attraction this time of year. The best season for climbing Mt. Fuji is in July and August AND we think the natives make enough money for the rest of the season during this time. In our opinion this Mt. was the most expensive one that we've ever climbed! The closer you get to the top....the more expensive it gets! When we first arrived we made a pit stop at the toilet. At that time we hesitated to pay $0.50 to use it. We quickly found out that was the cheapest charge for using the bathroom on this Mt.. By the time we reached the top it was $2.00 a person! But, I digress....
The plan was to start climbing Fuji at 8:30pm and reach the top by sunrise. This seems to be the most popular way to climb the mountain. So we figured while in Rome do as the Romans do, eh?
In total there are 8 stations and the summit. It took us about 3 hours from station 5 to reach station 8. We were making good time considering we don't usually climb mountains in the dark! We decided to take a rest for a while before ascending to the top. That's when people literally started coming out of the wood works! All along the way there are small "cabin like huts" that people can pay $70.00/person to sleep head to toe on a tatami mat floor for a few hours. We opted not to do that. Anyway, when we arrived at station 8 at around midnight....that's when all the people staying in the huts woke up. Everyone was getting ready for the hike to the top. We've never seen so many people hiking in one place. It took us 3 hours from station 8 to the top. We actually waited in line to climb a mountain at some points!
We watched the sunrise on the top of Mt. Fuji at 5:00am. It was beautiful to see God's handy work! It was also nice to see some sunshine for a change!
The object you see in the left of this picture is called a Tori Gate. Usually this Gate is placed at a site that represents the religion of Shintoism in Japan. Mt. Fuji is the highest point in Japan and is often highly revered. So it was no surprise to see a few of these placed on Fuji.
Here we are early in the morning! We came...we saw.... we conquered! 6 hours to the top and 3 hours later after this picture was taken we landed at the bottom! Of course, we spent a few hours on top looking at the volcano part of Mt. Fuji first! This mountainous part of northern Japan reminds us a little of CO. 
Remember all those people that climbed the mountain with us? Well, most of them made it to the top so see the sunrise! The top didn't have quite the souvenir shops that were on the bottom....but there were a few! You could even send a post card from the the summit. We DID do that!
AND.....we couldn't leave the vending machine out! Japan has vending machines everywhere. You will never go thirsty in Japan...not even on the top of Mt. Fuji:)
