The Yoshida Trail on the north side is the most popular route, starting from the Fuji Subaru Line Fifth Station at around 2,300 metres — saving you more than half the climb. Most people ascend overnight to reach the summit for sunrise (goraiko), spending a few hours at a mountain hut before the final push. The official season runs from early July to mid-September; outside this window trails may be closed and mountain huts are shut. A daily cap of 4,000 hikers on the Yoshida Trail applies since 2024. Bring layers — temperatures near the summit can be close to freezing even in August.
Climbing Mount Fuji
A story
The mountain opens for climbing on 1 July each year, and within weeks the Yoshida Trail is so busy that climbers queue at bottlenecks near the summit. The Japanese have a saying about climbing Fuji: "A wise man climbs Fuji once. A fool climbs it twice." Whether this refers to the physical exhaustion, the crowds, or the anticlimax of arriving at the top in the dark is left to interpretation.