If you’re looking to start your Mt. Fuji hike as early as possible without having to spend the night, here’s how.
Popular tourism destination though it may be, there’s still a certain amount of planning and determination required to hike to the top of Mt. Fuji. As a matter of fact, just making it to the mountain itself from the Tokyo area can require some research, especially if you’ve got a time you want/need to arrive at the summit by and then have to work backwards through your various lodging and transportation options to figure out when and where to start your in-total trek.
But all that’s gotten quite a bit simpler this month with the introduction of a new overnight bus that takes you from the heart of Tokyo all the way to the start of the Yoshida Trail, the most popular route to the top of Fuji. With the Yoshida trail having opened for this year’s climbing season at the start of this month, as of July 3 bus operator Fujikyu Bus now runs a nightly bus that leaves from Busta Shinjuku, the bus terminal adjacent to Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station, and arrives at Mt. Fuji’s Fifth Station the following morning.
The bus departs at 11:25 p.m. and goes directly to Mt. Fuji, arriving at 2 a.m. That gives you around one hour to acclimate and take care of any final pre-hike preparations before the Yoshida Trail opens at 3 a.m.
By starting your hike at a time that’s still hours earlier than trains and most other public transportation is running, you not only get to enjoy more tranquil, less congested conditions on the trail, but you’ll also have ample time to complete your hike at a personally manageable pace, since you’ll have an entire day’s worth of daylight ahead of you (sunrise is as at about 4:30 a.m. in the Fuji area in midsummer).
Another reason to try to beat the crowds is that the Yoshida Trail is capped at a capacity of 4,000 entrants per day, after which no new hikers are let in. While that one-day limit wasn’t reached during the 2025 season, with the number of hikers coming to Mt. Fuji increasing every year, there’s no telling if it might get hit this summer, leaving would-be hikers who arrive later in the day out of luck and with no option but to turn back before even starting their ascent.
The bus fare is 5,800 yen (US$36) if purchased at a convenience store or the bus terminal, or 5,500 yen for those making an online reservation through the Highway Bus.com website. This makes the Fujikyu overnight bus from Shinjuku to Fuji about 1,000 yen more expensive than the company’s daytime buses that run the same route, but taking into account that the overnight bus saves you the cost of a local hotel or rental/hired car that you’d otherwise need in order to be on the trail so early, it’s still a pretty attractive deal.
The overnight bus is scheduled to be offered through to the September 9 departure/September 10 arrival, ending on the final day of the 2026 Yoshida Trail hiking season.
Related: Highway Bus.com
Source: Fujikyu, Fujisan Keizai Shimbun
Top image: Fujikyu
Insert image: Pakutaso
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