My friends and I successfully climbed Mt. Fuji from the bottom (Sengen Shrine) on July 26th, 2017. It was mentioned that we start from the bottom over a few bottles of wine and initially I was against it. However, what won me over was when my friend Brandon told me that this was the historical route the pilgrims used to take before cars were invented and since I love history that was what I needed to hear. 99% of hikers start from the 5th station which is in the middle of the mountain and where the road ends. There are a lot of shops, restaurants and tourist stuff at the 5th station but then you need to walk about half an hour to get to the actual trail.
