Mt.Fuji Climbing 富士登山

Mount Fuji (富士山, Fuji-san) is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776 m (or 12,388 ft). The official climbing season is from July to August. Climbing is still possible until the middle of September if it does not snow and take note that shops and huts are likely to close towards the end of August. There are officially four routes for climbing Mt Fuji; Kawaguchiko-guchi route(north), Subashiri-guchi route(northeast), Fujinomiya-guchi route(southwest) and Gotenba-guchi route(east).

Climbing possible to people of all ages. A leisure hike to the top of Mt.Fuji will take no more than 8 hours with adequate stops in between. There are approximately 300,000 people attempt the climb annually. Many tour operators offer both day trips and overnight trips with or without professional mountain guides. Overnight trips are very popular as many would want to watch sunrise at the summit.

Sunrise is expected around 4:30-5:00 during the time of the year. The temperature at the summit and at the foot of Mt.Fuji can be more than 20 degrees celsius apart. A walk round the summit would take you almost 40 minutes.

Kawaguchiko-guchi route
The altitude of the 5th station's start point is 2305m. (7560ft) Time required to reach the summit is approximately five and a half hours. Although this route is the most crowded, there are a lot of mountain huts along the way. Please be careful closer to the peak on descent at the 8th station so as not to use the Subashiri route, but instead keep to the Subaru route.

Subashiri-guchi route
The altitude of the 5th station's start point is 2000m. (6560ft) Time required to reach the summit is approximately five hours. By using this less crowded route, you will be able to enjoy the tranquillity of the mountain, but as this route connects to the above Kawaguchiko at the 8th station, please be sure to pay attention on descent.

Fujinomiya-guchi route
The altitude of the 5th station's start point is 2400m. (7872ft) Time required to reach the summit is approximately four and a half hours. This route is the easiest of the four routes, but it is a little difficult to see the sunrise, in which case extra time should be allowed to reach the summit in time.

Gotenba-guchi route
The altitude of the 5th station's start point is 1440m. (4723ft) Time required to reach the summit is approximately six hours twenty minutes. As the starting point for this route is considerably lower, please keep in mind the additional time necessary to reach the summit. Due to the fact this is one of the less popular routes simply due to the distance, please also be aware there are only few mountain huts on this route.

Cherry blossom blooming forecast

So far, there hasn't any forecast released by the Met office yet. The above data shows the average cherry blossom blooming date with the line starting from Kyushu and moving eastward towards Hokkaido. And in year 2007 last year, the first day of blooming (kaika) was observed on March20 in Tokyo, and March25 in Kyoto. The full bloom (mankai) will usually be one week counting from the day of the first bloom.

The Japan National Tourist Organization, JNTO did a very good job by collecting pictures of Sakura trees at various observation points almost every few days and storing them as datas on their website.
URL:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/seasonal/sakura2007/index.php http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/seasonal/sakura2007/fixed_archives.php