Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano on Honshu, and at 3,776 metres the highest mountain in Japan. Its nearly symmetrical cone, snow-covered for about five months of the year, stands about 100 km southwest of Tokyo and can be seen from the capital on clear days. It straddles the border of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, ringed by the towns of Gotemba, Fujiyoshida, Fujinomiya and Fuji. The last eruption, the Hōei eruption, began on 16 December 1707 and lasted into January 1708, opening a new crater and a secondary peak, Mount Hōei, halfway down the southeast flank and raining cinders and ash across the surrounding provinces as far as Musashi, home of Edo.

UNESCO inscribed Fuji in 2013 not as a natural site but as a cultural one, a mountain that has inspired artists and poets and drawn pilgrims for centuries. The listing covers 25 places, among them the Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha shrine, dedicated to the Shinto goddess Konohanasakuya-hime, and the mountain is ringed by the Fuji Five Lakes. Three of them, Motosu, Shōji and Saiko, are the remains of a single lake divided by lava during the eruption of 864–866. Katsushika Hokusai's woodblock series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, from the 1830s, fixed the mountain's image around the world. At the northwest foot lies the dense Aokigahara forest.

The climbing season is short. Mountain huts and buses to the trailheads operate from July, and July and August are by far the busiest months; climbing between October and May is strongly discouraged after deaths in winter conditions. Four main routes, Yoshida, Subashiri, Gotemba and Fujinomiya, lead from fifth stations reachable by road to the summit, which counts as the tenth station. The Yoshida route on the Yamanashi side is the most popular, with the most huts. The ascent from a fifth station takes about five to seven hours and the descent three to four; many climbers go up overnight to see the sunrise, known as goraikō, from the crater rim, and come down the loose ash slopes of the Subashiri and Gotemba trails.

About 300,000 people climbed in 2009, and crowding has brought new rules. The first recorded ascent by a foreigner was made in 1860 by the British diplomat Sir Rutherford Alcock. A staffed weather station operated on the summit for 72 years until 2004.

Getting there

The nearest city is Fujiyoshida, about 11 km from the summit. By rail, the Fujikyuko Line runs 26.6 km from Ōtsuki to Kawaguchiko, climbing about 500 metres with the mountain in view much of the way; it is the only railway to the northern, Yamanashi side. In season, buses run to the fifth stations. Mount Fuji Shizuoka Airport (FSZ) is about 80 km away.