富士山 ［Mt Fuji］

Fujisan! I originally posted the header to this message from 2,400m, from my mobile phone, just 376m from the peak of Mount Fuji! I forgot to attach the pic though, so here they are. The clear sky that allowed me to take this peak pic only lasted a few minutes, even then I had to wait for a while.

Firstly, disaster struck. I clicked away with my he-man rig of the Olympus E-3, with the SWD 12-60mm lens. After a few shots, I realised there was an error message, no memory card!!! My god, I carted the camera and 5 lenses up to Mount Fuji, 2,400m above sea level and after 4hours' driving and I have no memory card in the camera, bummer! Thankfully, my other half brought the road warrior Canon Powershot G7, a 10MP zoom compact that does everything except print the photos for you.

The drive there was a drag due to the Golden Week holidays in Japan. Traffic was a crawl from Gotenba. However, we managed to reach the base before they closed the route to Mount Fuji. I used the 新五台目 (new 5 stage/level) route from 富士宮 (Fujinomiya). From the 東名高速 (tomei highway), you take the 富士 exit and head toward 富士宮。You will see the right turn off to 新五台目 after about 15mins.

From base, its about a 27km drive to get to 2,400m. Here's visual proof that its at 2,400m.

The Japanese use 米 (kome or mai) or rice for メイトール or meters. Its also used to denote America. How convenient. Who's calling who rice boy?

The drive up was quite nice, not much traffic going the same way as most of the traffic were coming down. We entered the main gate to the climb at 3:45p.m. I saw 3 cars being stopped by a police patrol car, most likely for speeding. One was a black Mazda RX-8. The other 2 were hardly anything close to sports cars. Perhaps one of them was a 覆面 パトーカー　(fukumen patoka) or an umarked police car.

I slowly pulled away from the poor group and speeded up when I was out of sight of the police. Still, you then can't help but realise that 215ps heaving a body of 1,510kgs with 4 adults and a child is no easy feat. About 3km from the top, I was slowed down by an MPV and a 4X4 ahead. Anyway the climb was getting ever steeper and we were going to have ample time at the top so it didn't bother me much. Here's a view of the road just below the top.



However, even with a 215ps workhorse in the form of a Toyota Mark X 250G, the climb was arduos. The Mark X is an amazing car for the money. It sports a very efficient 2.5L V6 high compression overbore engine that puts out 215ps at 6,400rpm and 260Nm of tourque at 3,800rpm. Mated to a smooth 6-speed sequential shift ECT box, the Mark X is smooth as silk.

Shod on 18in alloys wearing soft 225/45 Bridgestone Potenzas, we're talking real grip !

Mine is the S-package model and has the extra sports mode suspension and traction control (which I leave off by default). The sports mode stiffens the damping of the dampers for sporty driving, whihc I usually reserve for high speed corners and highway runs. It stiffens the dampers to sufficiently give you a perceptibly firm, sporty ride, not to the point of discomfort though.



A very respectable performance indeed by any standards, even compared to sports bred cars like the Alfa 159. Just take alook at the spec here: http://toyota.jp/markx/spec/spec/index.html and compare them with Alfas, BMWs and Mercs of the same engine capacity and price range. No one can squeeze more power per litre from mass production cars than the Japanese. Don't believe me? Just ask Honda. And also Ferrari.

Of course these specs are for JDM spec (Japan Domestic Model) and is tested using Japanese grade high octane fuel. Only the JDM model cars can have a factory tuned 12:1 compression ratio in a family or executive saloon car. This comp ratio is higher than most production cars, even pure sports cars from Germany, Italy and France. Its even higher than the standard ratio of my S2000! Of course, on my S2000, the comp ratio has been increased by the use of Spoon head gasket, which raises it to approx 12.1:1.

Below is another view facing away from Mount Fuji. You can see that we're just about abve the cloud cover. Its beautiful....almost surreal.

And here's what the slope of Mount Fuji Looks like. Not a pretty sight but still awesome.

I had extended the zoom on my Canon Powershot G7 to max to get this pic. Another nice view of the sun and the clouds..This was taken at Auto Shutterspeed mode with the Aperture set at F8.0, the maximum this camera can muster.

The clouds seen through the bare, dry trees are just as beautiful.

Here's a close up of the peak of Mount Fuji. Its the max zoom the G7 can extend to. I was lucky to get some clear weather for just about 10mins when I clicked away. From July, Mount Fuji is open to hiking.

On the way down, it was about 5:30p.m. and became very foggy and not unexpectedly, traffic ahead of me was crawling. Had to slot into 2nd/3rd gear for engine braking, to save on the brakes.

And here's Chloe not wanting to leave, even when its all foggy and blur then....Such is the effect that Mount Fuji can have on people. So until we meet again, great Fujisan! Next time it shall be in my S2000!