It was during the month of July that I and my son Alex set out for a holiday to climb Mount Fuji, Japan. Luckily for me and Alex on that morning, the sky was clear and we managed to get some few pictures of the almost perfectly cone shape mountain top. It was so amazing with unrivaled magnificence. It was about 43 minutes into the journey from Shin-Fuji Station by bus.The station had a bee hive of activities due to the many tourists around especially during this season.
The well maintained roads and the clean environment is what I liked as we approached the foot of the mountain. We alighted from the bus and I held Alex by the hand and maneuvered round with our tour guide into the Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine. He explained to us that the Japanese people since the ancient times have used Mount Fuji as the center of mountain worship. During that explanatory session,Alex was busy taking photos of the shrine. The architecture involved in designing the shrine was great considering it was built long ago.
We consulted with Alex on the route that we should use to climb the mountain and settled with the Fujinomiya course since it was the shortest. We entered the changing rooms and dressed appropriately for the event. With Alex being around, snacks were a must to carry and about two liters of water. Alex came out of the changing room properly dressed and really psyched up for the climb.
“Hey mum, look.”Alex shouted. On turning to his direction, there stood a monument of Sir John Rutherford Alcock reading that he was the first foreigner to reach the summit of Mt. Fuji. It was interesting and Alex took a picture then we continued walking. The path was covered with gravel and sand making it difficult to lift our trekking shoes for the first part of the winding course.
We made our way up and to our surprise, we managed to view the crater of Mount Hoei-zan below us. I focused my binoculars and the sight was so awesome. I requested Alex to give me the camera and took some photos of the crater. Alex was now getting tired with every step. We rested for some time and refreshed ourselves then continued with the journey.
The path became rocky and at some point beyond the eighth station we managed to get Mt. Fuji First-aid center. Alex was examined and he was fully exhausted. We took lots of ‘selfies’ with him at that point then waited for him to recover. We were happy that at least we had accomplished our goal despite having not reached the peak.
We slowly descended to the foot of the mountain with one task ahead when we return next time when Alex is grown up; to reach the peak of Mount Fuji, Japan.