Climbing the mountain was an amazing experience. One of those things you'll remember for the rest of your life. I recommend that everyone should do it. Just book through another channel. The tour was extremely poorly organised. There was hardly any information about the itinerary, and it relied far too heavily on multiple text messages and calls with the host of the tour. Firstly, I was only given the pickup time and place from the station in Tokyo. There were no instructions as to where to find the bus, and it was so hard to find that I had to have multiple video calls with the host who had to direct me to where I needed to go. Without this I simply would not have been able to find it.
Then when I arrived at "basecamp" there was no phone reception, and no wifi anywhere on the mountain. There were also no instructions on how to find the gear hire place I was renting my hiking gear from either. As I was traveling alone and do not speak Japanese, this was a serious issue. I had no idea where to meet my guide, who it was, what time we were leaving - NONE of this information was provided previously. And as I had no reception - I could not contact the host. I was lucky enough to bump into someone who spoke English and had reception on her phone, and she allowed me to call the host. He then told me what time and where to meet the group - and also - that he would not be attending himself which I only just learned then.
Then I met my group - and everyone in this group was Japanese, including the guide. No one spoke a word of English, and this was supposed to be an English speaking tour so that I could not only climb the mountain, but actually learn about it's history also. The kindest people ever - I just was hoping to have an English guide so that I could learn and ask questions about the tour etc.
The climb of the mountain was incredible. This will test your idea of "fit"! I met some amazing people along the way, and would really recommend the mountain itself.
Then on the way back, instead of heading home as I thought we were doing, we went to a day spa and lunch place, of which I had no idea were included in the trip. After a 2-day, 12,000 foot mountain climb I was looking forward to a shower and sleeping in a bed. I found out later that this was written on Viator, but I must have missed it. We then stopped at a shrine for 45 mins, which was not part of the tour and just delayed us further. We left the mountain at midday, and I did not get back to Tokyo until 6:30pm. So be prepared for an excruciatingly long bus ride when it's the last thing you want to be doing.
I feel that more information could have avoided all of this. I should have known when and where everything was happening in advance, and what was included in the tour. Basic stuff right? I think we feel that if something goes wrong we can just rely on our phones, but in this place, for me any way, that was just not possible. Could have been a much better experience.
Mountain climb 10/10
This particular company who "organised" it - 4/10