I’d seen Mt Fuji before, a short glimpse from the shinkansen (bullet train) as I sped from Osaka to Tokyo. At that time it was covered in snow, looking like a very elegant white volcano – a season when climbing is definitely out. But when the next July came around and climbing season began again, I was ready to reach the summit of Mt Fuji.

Not only is Mt Fuji Japan’s most famous mountain, it’s also the tallest and by far the most beautiful. Many Japanese and tourists alike want to climb it (although as my Japanese friends told me, only once: after I’d reached the top I understood why). The official climbing season is short, only July and August, as at other times the temperatures near the top are too cold for inexperienced or unprepared hikers.

Since I lived in Osaka, a few hours away from the mountain, I joined a Japanese tour group to take the Fuji challenge. The bus drove us through the day to get there, and left us at a 5th station – these are part way up the mountain, at around 2000 meters, and include restaurants and car parks. From there, we all changed into our climbing clothes and set off up Mt Fuji, leaving about 6.00pm. After hiking for a few hours – slowly, because there was quite a crowd – we reached the 8th station and rested there for a few hours. This was really an experience, crowded into the narrow bunks head-to-toe with hundreds of Japanese climbers, including a few who snored rather loudly! During the climbing season these huts are often fully booked, so one of the advantages of joining a tour group was being guaranteed a place to rest.

In the middle of the night we were woken again and we continued up the mountain. The goal was to be at the summit to watch the sunrise sometime shortly after 4.30am, and I just made it. What a great experience to be standing in this beautiful, symbolic place overlooking the whole of Japan, bleary-eyed and exhausted, with fellow climbers cheering and yelling “Banzai!” as the sun slipped into view.

After the sunrise action was over, we had a chance to look around the crater top, and stock up on food and drink. Yes, there are some food markets at the top and, to my even greater distress, a vending machine. How anyone carried that up the mountain was beyond me, but I’d come to expect the impossible from the Japanese.

Coming down was nowhere near as difficult as going up, but Mt Fuji is pretty steep in parts, and my ankles took a beating. The bus ride back to Osaka was a lot quieter as all the climbers tried to catch up on the sleep lost during the night climb. I now fully understood what my students had meant: Fuji’s a climb that’s easy enough to do once, but too difficult to do twice.