SO I am wondering if anyone reading here has climbed Mt. Fuji. Would you be kind enough to share some details with us about that trip?

My plan is to climb Mt. Fuji next year. By doing some research I have found that August is a good time to climb the mountain as it is mostly free from snow and mild in temperature.

My goal is to arrive at the mountain around 6pm in the afternoon and start the climb up from base camp 5 at around 8pm. To the summit is is a roughly 6 hour hike that should not be done faster due to the risk of Altitude sickness. That should put us near or at the top around 2am. At that time we can either rest outside or rent one of the cabins on the top of the mountain. We want to be at the peak as the sun rises for what I imagine will be a spectacular view. Then we will hike around the crater (the mountain is actually a volcano with a crater at the top) which takes about an hour and then head down the mountain.

An alternative plan is to climb up the mountain during the day and watch the sun set, spend the night on the peak and see the sun rise before we begin our climb back down. This concerns me with the risk of Altitude sickness and potential expensive cost to stay in the cabin as it will be the busy season and will likely be very crowded.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like a good plan, i feel a little jealous as when i was in Fuji i arrived just before the season to hike

In that regards i can't offer much advice since i didn't actually get to do it, however what i did do and recommend you also do was renting bikes and cycling around the countryside along the lakes. Me and my friends cycled a good amount of kilometers and spent the entire day doing it just cycling, stopping and enjoying the scenery. The surrounding area is absolutely fantastic and beautiful place.

I also recommend staying in K's House Fuji, it's where we stayed for the duration. Excellent accomodation, friendly staff, lots of room with free pickup from the bus/train station. We rented our bikes from them as well

P.S There is a Public Bath/Hot Spring establishment just beside K's House, it was our first time on the trip using one!!

Thanks again, I was going to make a post to ask about bikes so you beat me too it! We are going to defiantly make a day just for biking and enjoying the countryside. (not to get too far off topic, but were the bikes the typical bikes you see in Tokyo with no gears and basket in front? If we are going to sped a day on bike I would need a 14 or 21 speed built for riding on both road and dirt surfaces. I was thinking about renting or buying a used bike in Tokyo with shocks and large tires for this purpose.)

Don't worry, they had mountain bikes with suspensions at K's house! The cycle would have been a hell alot harder if it were the normal bikes with basket in front

They do have the both types of bikes, obviously going for the mountain type bike will be the better option . I can't remember price, i think its somthing like 100-150 yen an hour but you can hire it for a full day for somthing like 700-800 yen

Ahhhh thanks, the only reason I asked is because of the hundreds of videos online that show bikers in Japan all show that same old school one speeds haha I would be dead after 10mins of trying to hill climb on those haha!

Haha! I would agree with that, it was hard enough sometimes just cycling on the mountain bikes, but well worth it! They only have a limited amount of both bikes, possibly 5-6 mountain bikes and the same amount of the basket ones. So if you have about 5 of you travelling it should be ok to have the same number of mountain bikes ( just make sure you get em ASAP before someone else ). If more of you are travelling i think some will have to stick with the basket bikes