Mt. Fuji Part One: It All Started at Gogome or Station Five

“If you never climb Mt. Fuji you are a fool, and if you climb it more than once you are a fool.” Japanese proverb, author unknown

“I’m only going on this trip because you are,” Tiffany said as we rode on the bus from Fujinomiya in the summer evening.  “It’s 8:00pm and we’re setting out to climb a mountain, not just any mountain, but the highest mountain in Japan,” she reminded me, her eyes growing larger.  This, it’s pretty crazy….I mean you realize we’re all crazy, right?  I was talking to my grandmother the other day and she said that black people don’t climb mountains!” 

“Well, I guess black people don’t climb mountains….except for when we do!” I responded with a wink.

We both heartily laughed as she and I represented two of the three African American women on our programme that year living in Niigata prefecture in northern Japan.  With a hint of anxiety, I looked out the window at the night sky and admired the glitter of the twinkling urban lights below as the bus climbed higher and higher into the night.

Mount Fuji is considered a very sacred place and for many it is a pilgrimage to climb the mountain.  It was late summer, one of the last weekends of the climbing season, when 10 of us set out together to make this trek.  We were all participants on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and represented a broad spectrum of native English speakers from across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.  My colleague Jairaj had set up this excursion to be a bonding experience, for we had all been in Japan for merely a month.  Having spent my first month ever living alone and in a foreign culture, I was eager to get to know some of the other teachers on the programme.  Our collective goal was to watch the sunrise from the top of the mountain.

            It was 9:00pm when our bus dropped us off at Gogome station, the Fifth Station half way up the mountain.  Several groups of climbers were assembled at this base, as it’s one of the more popular starting points.  There were small shops selling everything from steaming bowls of noodles to walking sticks.  I purchased a walking stick, a traditional souvenir onto which you can get stamps branded on at each station to commemorate your achievement.  The walking stick that I chose had a Japanese and U.S. flag on the top and it was adorned with anti-bear bells, though I had never heard of any bear sightings on the mountain.  I figured that this experience would be a moderate hike to the summit.  After all Jimmy Carter had himself climbed the mountain just two weeks prior to our trip.  Based on our guidebook, we estimated that it would take 6 hours to reach the summit from where we were.