Original 8th Station Tomoe-kan — Local services in Fujiyoshida

To book a spot in one of the wooden huts on Mt Fuji on your own is a herculean task, many don't accept foreigners booking via web to begin with so those whic do have their servers crashing on the day the huts are open for booking. I had stayed up till midnight for slots to be released to no avail. Tomoekan is one of the rare ones on Station 8 which accepts web bookings and when I finally managed to load the page in late afternoon, it was fully booked on the original day I wanted to stay and had to readjust my entire itinerary around the climb. ||Anyway, it rained the day I ascended and upon arrival, was "warmly welcomed" team of 6 who vigourously towel cleaned and dried my head to ankle and ended the cleaning with a thorough blow dry. Was given 2 bags to put my shoes and everything I was wearing except the most inner layer of sweater and track pants. No jackets, socks, windbreaker pants/tops allowed in the hut cus they're terribly afraid of guests dirtying the interiors. I was assigned a corner sleeping bag in a zone full of old ladies and a middle aged couple. They were nice and quiet folks who rested while I fidgeted around the tiny space. Standard dinner set I had was ok. I don't expect much on a mountain and this definitely wasn't my maiden mountain climb. BUT, I do find the place very low quality in terms of service and infrastructure as compared to some other mountains in say, Taiwan, Tibet, EBC, Europe or even Malaysia wilderness. As mentioned by a previous reviewer, the toilets were stinky, even smellier than those I used at the beginning of the trek (which were supposedly more frequented than up here on Stn 8?). ||Breakfast was miserable - they were already prepared way before I even had my dinner and so the bentos were left out there from mid afternoon the day before till all guests ate them the next morning. Place became noisy when groups came in and guests were unconsiderably noisy or had loud briefings. That was also when I realised there were inconsistencies in info we received. I was told to pay 100yen per trip to the toilet, a group of Americans that had their briefing when I was lying in my sleeping bag were told toilet was available for use for free, while the Japanese trekkers were told it was 100yen per stay. The Japanese couple and I were told to collect bento breakfast before we attempt our summit at 1am and while the group was briefed that they can come back to collect theirs after their attempt. ||Wee hours. Saw two trekkers being chased out though they hadn't finished their cup noodles they bought from the hut cus "it is time our guest are preparing for their ascent and they need the space". I had my fair share of "unwelcomeness" later that morning. I was rudely stopped from re-entering the hut after I came down from the summit in the wee hours because "I was dirty". I wanted to take off my rain coat, jacket etc as per what I did when I checked in, but was told that I'm totally not allowed to step in at all. Subsequently had to stand out at the doorway and engage in this frustrating 30min conversation with this non-English speaking crew to let him know my stuff were all still at my sleeping bag and there was no way I would leave Mt Fuji without collecting my belongings first. Had to use Google Translate on them and even that didn't make it easier for me. None of the crew was interested to service a guest who had left and returned from the summit, perhaps to them it was a done deal the moment a guest had stepped out of the hut. Some lazed around, two kept themselves busy sharing a task which could be completed by one. Guests who had just woken up because weren't planning to hit summit and were having their cold bento breakfast were staring at me, who was left in the lurch without my belongings. Finally one of the crew fished out my bag but everything else which were still on my sleeping bag were not brought out. I couldn't pack my bag on clean space and had to bear the stares of guests staring at me packing up in the middle of the doorway. I almost had to stop myself crying when I was having my bento breakfast in the cold. Cold stale bento on a cold morning trying to think very hard what else was on my sleeping bag was wonderful way to end the climb. ||I didn't want Tomoekan to earn another cent from me after all these terrible service and went down to Fujisan Hotel which is 30seconds away from Tomoekan to buy hot water and the Fujisan staff were so much more welcoming! Not only did they usher me in without a care of my sandy shoes, I was told to sit and wait in the hut while they filled up my water bottle. I must have looked terrible because the staff offered me more water than I paid for and accompanied me for the next 200m down the mountain to ensure I was safe. ||Tomoekan was such a disappointment for me, the worst mountain hut I've ever stayed in alllll...

To book a spot in one of the wooden huts on Mt Fuji on your own is a herculean task, many don't accept foreigners booking via web to begin with so those whic do have their servers crashing on the day the huts are open for booking. I had stayed up till midnight for slots to be released to no avail. Tomoekan is one of the rare ones on Station 8 which accepts web bookings and when I finally managed to load the page in late afternoon, it was fully booked on the original day I wanted to stay and had to readjust my entire itinerary around the climb. ||Anyway, it rained the day I ascended and upon arrival, was "warmly welcomed" team of 6 who vigourously towel cleaned and dried my head to ankle and ended the cleaning with a thorough blow dry. Was given 2 bags to put my shoes and everything I was wearing except the most inner layer of sweater and track pants. No jackets, socks, windbreaker pants/tops allowed in the hut cus they're terribly afraid of guests dirtying the interiors. I was assigned a corner sleeping bag in a zone full of old ladies and a middle aged couple. They were nice and quiet folks who rested while I fidgeted around the tiny space. Standard dinner set I had was ok. I don't expect much on a mountain and this definitely wasn't my maiden mountain climb. BUT, I do find the place very low quality in terms of service and infrastructure as compared to some other mountains in say, Taiwan, Tibet, EBC, Europe or even Malaysia wilderness. As mentioned by a previous reviewer, the toilets were stinky, even smellier than those I used at the beginning of the trek (which were supposedly more frequented than up here on Stn 8?). ||Breakfast was miserable - they were already prepared way before I even had my dinner and so the bentos were left out there from mid afternoon the day before till all guests ate them the next morning. Place became noisy when groups came in and guests were unconsiderably noisy or had loud briefings. That was also when I realised there were inconsistencies in info we received. I was told to pay 100yen per trip to the toilet, a group of Americans that had their briefing when I was lying in my sleeping bag were told toilet was available for use for free, while the Japanese trekkers were told it was 100yen per stay. The Japanese couple and I were told to collect bento breakfast before we attempt our summit at 1am and while the group was briefed that they can come back to collect theirs after their attempt. ||Wee hours. Saw two trekkers being chased out though they hadn't finished their cup noodles they bought from the hut cus "it is time our guest are preparing for their ascent and they need the space". I had my fair share of "unwelcomeness" later that morning. I was rudely stopped from re-entering the hut after I came down from the summit in the wee hours because "I was dirty". I wanted to take off my rain coat, jacket etc as per what I did when I checked in, but was told that I'm totally not allowed to step in at all. Subsequently had to stand out at the doorway and engage in this frustrating 30min conversation with this non-English speaking crew to let him know my stuff were all still at my sleeping bag and there was no way I would leave Mt Fuji without collecting my belongings first. Had to use Google Translate on them and even that didn't make it easier for me. None of the crew was interested to service a guest who had left and returned from the summit, perhaps to them it was a done deal the moment a guest had stepped out of the hut. Some lazed around, two kept themselves busy sharing a task which could be completed by one. Guests who had just woken up because weren't planning to hit summit and were having their cold bento breakfast were staring at me, who was left in the lurch without my belongings. Finally one of the crew fished out my bag but everything else which were still on my sleeping bag were not brought out. I couldn't pack my bag on clean space and had to bear the stares of guests staring at me packing up in the middle of the doorway. I almost had to stop myself crying when I was having my bento breakfast in the cold. Cold stale bento on a cold morning trying to think very hard what else was on my sleeping bag was wonderful way to end the climb. ||I didn't want Tomoekan to earn another cent from me after all these terrible service and went down to Fujisan Hotel which is 30seconds away from Tomoekan to buy hot water and the Fujisan staff were so much more welcoming! Not only did they usher me in without a care of my sandy shoes, I was told to sit and wait in the hut while they filled up my water bottle. I must have looked terrible because the staff offered me more water than I paid for and accompanied me for the next 200m down the mountain to ensure I was safe. ||Tomoekan was such a disappointment for me, the worst mountain hut I've ever stayed in alllll...

From the advertisement it seemed like a reasonable place to stay because of proximity to the summit and the convenience. We were not expecting a 5 star resort by any means. We tempered our expectations because we were both backpacking Mt Fuji and did not need anything special. However, upon arrival the staff seemed unfriendly. We were staying one night to catch the sunrise on Mt. Fuji so we both purchased two spaces. I wanted to make a freeze dried meals because we did not want to wait until they wanted to feed us as we have been hiking all day. Unfortunately, we were told we could not use a jet boil because they said it’s too dangerous while they have kerosene heaters in the middle of the room and a spot with flames for burning on stamps. Asking for something small like a spoon so we can eat the food that we packed seemed like it was pulling teeth and they asked us not to eat until 5 pm when they started serving dinner. I did not think there was a time standard on when I can eat the food that I packed up 3/4 of the mountain already and when my wife and I are hungry we would like to eat. I’m not paying 600 yen for a small meat bowl when I have brought my own food. Also, when I decided to make my own coffee they wanted to charge me for a paper cup because I guess providing something simple for your guests require some type of fee associated with it. It can’t be because a couple already paid for a room overnight and providing two spoons, a cup for coffee that I made myself is possibly too much to ask for. As fas as lounging, bring an inflatable pillow and bring warm items as the rooms are not heated. Convenient spot like I mentioned earlier but be prepared to fork over money for every...