観光地の土産屋？高速道路のサービスエリア？そんな感じの河口湖ルート5合目ですが、白く冷たい雲がファーッと流れて行くのを見るとやっぱりココは標高2305m。ステージ上のドライアイススモークみたいだけど。
「メロンパンが〜、ただいま〜、焼き上がりました〜」という土産屋のウルサイ店内放送にもメゲず
金剛杖（1,000円）という白木の八角形の杖を購入。この杖に各山小屋で焼き印（200円）を押してもらいながら歩く事も今回の楽しみのひとつなのです。買った時に既に押してあった焼き印は
こんな感じ（左が相棒ので右がワタシ用）。違う店で買ったので焼き印のデザインが違ってます。
すぐに登山をスタートするのではなく、トイレに行ったり、馬を見たり、写真を撮ったりして体が標高2305mに慣れてくるのを待ちます。なんだかんだと50分くらいウロウロしてました。写真に撮った乗馬料金表、ブレブレで読めないのでザッと書き出してみると
写真モデル代：300円
5合目〜泉ケ滝 片道：3,000円
5合目〜6合目 片道：6,000円
5合目〜7合目 片道：12,000円
7合目〜5合目 下山：11,000円
獅子岩〜5合目 下山：10,000円
夜間及び風雨の時30％増
この料金を見て「高いっ」「ウマがかわいそう」なんて言っていられるのも今のうちだけだったりなんかして。
The 5th Station for the Lake Kawaguchi route was a typical Japanese sightseeing place. Lots of people, many crap shops, and very noisy. I was disappointed! But when I saw the cold and white clouds drifting in the wind, I realised that we were standing on Mt Fuji, not in a city, even though it was quite similar to stage dry smoke!
When we were at a gift shop, an assistant kept announcing that they had just baked melon-pan (sweet bread), which really annoyed us. So we just bought octagonal walking sticks called
Kongo-zue (¥1,000). I had heard that we can ask for a burning stamp at each hut and I was really looking foward to collect as many stamps as possible. There were already stamps on our new sticks, reading
[Mt Fuji][5th station]. C and I bought sticks from different shops, so the stamps design are different.
To make our bodies get used to the high altitude, we were hanging around at the 5th Station for about 50 minutes, going to the toilet, taking photos, checking out the horses etc. I took a photo of the price chart for riding horses:
Posing for photo fee: ¥300
5th Station - Izumigataki (single): ¥3,000
5th - 6th Station (single): ¥6,000
5th - 7th Station (single): ¥12,000
7th - 5th Station (down, single): ¥11,000
Shishi-iwa - 5th Station (down, single): ¥10,000
An additional 30% fee ist charged at night or in bad weather
You might think that the prices are ridiculous, or feel sorry for the horses. But you might change your mind later.
