Locals warn Mount Fuji climbers to take challenge seriously

"Mount Fuji is not just any mountain,"

At the end itjust another mountain, popular one.

I always don't rest when I'm climbing just going straight to the top!

¨Do you know the old saying ¨Baka to Kemuri...¨?

Why is Shizuoka whining? Signs? Signs don't fix stupid. There are speed limit signs and stop signs all over this country. A lot of good they do. If anything, Shizuoka should learn a lesson from tourism superpower Hawai'i. Honolulu was smart enough to make Diamond Head access limited to folks who made reservations. Doing so filters out a lot of idiots. You see, idiots have trouble planning ahead. If they can't climb, they can't screw up on their ascent, descent or death wish. Also, Fuji is overrated and is ruined by litter. Japan should take better care of it's nature. That is why fellow genius filmmakers like Kurosawa stopped shooting nature scenes here.

I’ve done it 8 times and a 8th thus Saturday. Always a day trip

It’s steep but it’s not a technical challenge.

Wear decent shoes, have clothing that adjusts to multiple conditions. Take plenty of water.

It’s not Everest.

I, for one, am taking their warning seriously, and will not climb it this year. Just like last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before, and...

(Also, next year, and...)

It sounds like the foreigners are the ones who know nothing about the mountain. I haven’t heard of Japanese people doing this. In Japan people grow up learning about the dangers of climbing Mt Fuji. I can’t believe those two foreigners didn’t allow anyone else to use the toilets.

I once encountered a couple of ladies from an Asian country in shorts and platform heels at station 6. Not sure how much farther they made it.

Another time descending to station 6 at about 4 PM I encountered a middle aged German man climbing in dress shoes, slacks and a sport coat. He was already totally gassed and had sweated through his Y-shirt.

I had to tell him “You really need to turn around NIW. It only gets steeper and you are not in any way equipped for this.”

In Japan people grow up learning about the dangers of climbing Mt Fuji

Do they?

I've climbed that mountain twice and never even attempted to do the sunrise hike since I know how crowded the trail gets, it's just not worth it. In my experience, there will always been those "weekend warriors" who will try to overexert themselves all while being unprepared for the hike (see @EFD's comment), and that is not the management's fault. Mt. Fuji's height isn't at that dangerous level yet, but I will say that if your cardio is bad and you get winded easily at sea level, you will have a hard time climbing at this altitude. The best the management can do is to warn and let nature run its course for those who can't read.

Don't make a fool of any mountains if you climb. Mt. Fuji is not highest mountain like Everest. It is about 3700m high, very windy cold up there even summer. Every year many tour-climbers wearing sandals, shorts, t-shirts rush to the clinic there.

My friend had to cuddle with his brother all night, both grown men.

Nope. Not gonna happen, sadly.

I can't possibly count the number of people I've seen going up the mountain in cotton shorts or plain jeans, with ZERO rain gear nor warm layers. Or just bringing a tiny backpack with a laptop inside, or bringing a whole suitcase (I'm not kidding on that one), or a plastic bag from FamiMart instead of a backpack. Or simply trying hiking for the first time in their lives, that being Fuji.

There was this time during a rainy and cold day, the exact same time I actually had a mild case off hypothermia, a Japanese lady going up with her 6-7 years old girl.

She just wanted to gaman-suru the trail with the poor kid, even after warning her the kid could get a serious difficulties. She only turned back after we mentioned the police and child negligence.

Marc Lowe -

Best advice.

Many places of interest, sight-seeing, museums, other world heritage sites eg Yakushima, etc have limited entry based on crowd control, safety, environmental concerns, respect and so on.

In addition charging a "proper fee" for entrance of at

least ￥3000 + will deter some

and raise much needed funds to safely maintain and promote.

And as this is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, they need to

up the ante and demand local govts improve the situation or risk Fuji losing

it's status.

She just wanted to gaman-suru the trail with the poor kid,

That's terrible! I hate 'gaman-suru'. What does it actually ever achieve?

I refuse to even think about climbing until they give the go ahead for a Starbucks at the top

Never even considered / thought about climbing it and I lived in Japan four different times, lol