February 23rd: Mount Fuji Day

10 things you may not know about Mount Fuji:

1. Mount Fuji is 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft) high and 30 miles wide. It has a circumference of 78 miles and its crater is 820 feet deep.
2. It is an active volcano, and last erupted in 1707–08. Some scientists have speculated that it could erupt again in 2015.
3. It is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains". The others are Mount Tate and Mount Haku. The summit of Fuji is seen as a sacred place. Shintoists consider the peak sacred to the goddess of nature, Sengen-Sama; there is a shrine to her at the top. The Fujiko sect believe the mountain is a being with a soul. Japanese Buddhists believe the mountain is the gateway to another world.
4. It is believed that the first person to climb it was an anonymous monk in 663 AD. Climbing Fuji was forbidden to women until the Meiji Era (late 19th early 20th century). The first non-Japanese person to reach the summit was Sir Rutherford Alcock in September 1868. The first non-Japanese woman climber was Lady Fanny Parkes in 1869.
5. Today, around 100,000 people climb it every year, around 30% of which are foreigners.
6. The climbing season is July to August. Climbing during the winter is discouraged. The ascent takes 8 -12 hours, and it is recommended to tackle it over two days (there are a number of stations on the way up providing overnight accommodation).
7. A Japanese saying suggests that anybody would be a fool not to climb Mount Fuji once—but a fool to do so twice.
8. For 72 years, until 2004, there was a manned weather station on the summit. It was replaced in that year by a fully automated one.
9. There are two small ski resorts on the lower slopes of the mountain, Fujiten and Snow Town Yeti, which have only 6 lifts between them, but claim a variety of runs and snow parks.
10. Ancient Samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area.