Mt. Fujiyama

Climbing Mt. Fuji, the highest and a sacred sight for most Japanese, had been in my mind for several years. But I needed to have a friend to join me. My assistant, Paul Draughn, joined me on a trip to the Orient in August 1966. We had visited Tokyo and then to Sapporo in Hokkaido before arriving at the foot of Fuji on August 12th. The plan called for beginning the climb at midnight so that we could reach the top at sun up to enjoy the rising of the sun. The climb started at around 2600 feet and the top is 12,395 feet.

Naturally we had flashlights and I bought a walking stick, which was marked with a brand at several sites along the way. There were several hundreds of other climbers, not a few who were non-Japanese. At several locations along the trail there were places to buy food and/or to rest/sleep. You could look up to see a string of lights moving slowly up the volcano.

As we hiked upward the scene in all directions was quite spectacular. The night and sky were clear so that you could see maybe fifty miles as the lights twinkled afar off. Our timing was just right, as we arrived on top just before the sun rose over the east horizon. Like the flag of Japan, the sun was large and bright red.

After waking around the cone on top, we deceded to hurry down as we had an appointment to play golf at mid-morning. Because of the crowded trail, we decided to try waking straight the lava ash slope. We found that we could run at top speed and plant our feet so that we more or less skied down for a considerabe distance. So we were able to get down in maybe half an hour.

We approached a taxi driver and told him where we wanted to go to our hotel near the golf course. He shook his head to say that he knew a more direct and quicker way. So off we went on a lumber road that shook us up and took a long time to reach the hotel. I suspected that the slow way increased the fare.

We were not able to catch a nap after a shower, as our starting time had required us to even miss lunch. To my surprise I played very well, as the Fuji climb had loosened my body so that I could really hit the ball. Our caddies were Japanese girls, who giggled a lot.