At our particular altitude, the underlying clouds that climbed up the mountain slope vanished as if vaporized by the hot sun above. We could fill the heat from the sun warming us up from the cold experience the night before. There are 2 wooden arch that welcomed climbers along the last ascent to the summit. One is at the summit entrance point and the other is about 200m below the summit.
The descent from Mt Fuji is of a different route. They call it the sand-slide route. As you walk, you will tend to slide a little forward at times because of the loose small rocks that the route is made of. You can still descend using the ascending trail during off peak season. But during the peak season, it will be a trail of climbers instead and hence going down against the traffic may be not that convenient to others. Anyway the designated descending trail will be faster. The descending trail starts from the summit and crosses near the 8th and 7th station. After which is will be an endless trail of zigzag path all the way back to the Safety Guidance centre. Along the descending path, you can still the sheer awe of the slope of Mt Fuji all the way to the summit on a clear sky day.
We left the summit at 12noon and started our descend. Took a break again at the 8th station. The weather then was a complete change from the cloudy and rainy morning. We left the 8th station at 2:30pm and returned to the 5th station of the Yoshida-guchi line at about 5:00pm.
The last Keio bus that leaves from Shinjuku from the 5th station departs at 4pm. Although there are still Keio buses coming here from Shinjuku after 4pm, they do not take passengers down from the 5th station. For us to get back to Shinjuku, we took the local bus from the 5th station to the lakeside town of Kawaguchiko. This bus is more frequent because it is a local bus. At Kawaguicho bus terminal, it is actually a train station cum bus terminal. We took a bus from there back to Shinjuku. The time it takes to get back to Shinjuku from here by bus or train is almost the same. If you intend to take the train, you need to make a train transfer to the JR line at Otsuki. The train service at Kawaguchiku is a private train line that goes all the way to Otuski only. If you want a simple and convenient connection back to Shinjuku. The bus may be a better option.
Below are the hot-stamping prints that we collected on the way up.