Fuji at 2 AM

Mount Fuji is one of those Japan bucket-list things. It’s been sacred for over a thousand years, apparently first climbed by some monk nobody remembers back in 663. These days hundreds of people go up every year, and they all do basically the same thing: they time it so they can watch the sunrise from near the top. That means catching a hut halfway up around midnight and then starting again in the dark, probably 2 AM.

There’s a fast bus from Shinjuku in Tokyo that gets to the fifth station in maybe two and a half hours. From there different routes branch depending on how much time or difficulty you want. The Yoshida Route from Kawaguchiko is the one most people take. The basic requirements never change: decent shoes, layers for the cold, water, some money.

I watched a video about it once, one of those how-to things, and it stuck with me. Not because I’m desperate to climb it, but because of something mentioned in passing. Nearby is Aokigahara, that forest everyone talks about—you know the one. The dark reputation. So there’s this mountain that’s been sacred for over a thousand years, almost holy, and then right there close by is this place with completely different energy. That contrast is strange.

Haven’t been there. Probably will at some point. I’m just curious what it’s actually like standing in the dark with a few hundred other people, all shuffling up a volcano, waiting for the sun.