Japan's sacred volcano is climbed by everyone from schoolchildren to octogenarians during its brief official season — early July to early September — which tells you the terrain is manageable, if relentless. The classic play is the Yoshida trail: climb to an eighth-station hut in the afternoon, sleep briefly, then finish by head torch to watch goraiko, the sunrise, from the 3,776-metre crater rim. Book huts and the now-required trail reservation well ahead, and take every layer; summit dawn is bitter.
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