Yamaguchi Sanso

Mountain lodge at about 3,010m at the original seventh station on the Omote-Fujinomiya route up Mount Fuji, in Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture. It stands where the gravel path from the new fifth station tops out above a corridor of rock, roughly halfway along the Fujinomiya trail and at the turning point between ascent and descent. This is the old seventh station, one of the few huts built entirely by hand, and it keeps its Showa-era look inside old stone retaining walls. On clear days the futon are always put out to air, so guests sleep on bedding warmed by the sun. The sleeping quarters have one-, two- and three-person beds, every sleeping space is partitioned, and lights go out at 20:00 as a rule. The toilet is an environmentally designed bio-toilet outside. The dining room is open 9:00 to 14:00 to passing walkers as well as guests, serving beef bowls, chuka-don, Fujinomiya yakisoba, oden and stewed offal. Dinner is curry rice, changeable to chuka-don or a beef bowl except on designated dates, and breakfast is a bread set handed out before bed. Guests get free luggage storage, a mobile battery to hire for 100 yen, free earplugs and masks, and Wi-Fi. The shop sells its own goods, including year-stamped kongo-zue staffs and a hand towel designed by the owner's wife. From 3,010m the view takes in the sea of cloud below, Hakone and the Izu peninsula, the lights stretching from Boso to Omaezaki, and sunrise over Hoeizan.