Mike Lupu's Profile

When you finish hiking Mount Fuji you'll be
tired, sweaty and dusty, and you may still have several hours of
travel to get home by bus and trains.  I suggest you bring a
change of clothes, some toiletries and food to tide you over until
you get to Shinjuku.  Put all of this in one of the many
lockers at the 5th Station, and you'll be patting yourself on the
back at the end of the day

At some point I went
to the restroom.  That's when I learned the restrooms along the
trail are co-ed.  The restroom at the 8th Station had two
urinals next to the door (with a close-up view of the trail when the
door opened), and a couple of stalls with squat toilets inside. 
Co-ed restrooms are still common in various parts of Japan (older
parts mainly), and urinals are routinely exposed.  Personally,
I wanted to finish quickly before a group of young girls -- or
worse, a female friend -- came walking in.  As for women, they
have a different dilemma.  A woman may walk into an empty
restroom, use a private stall, but later emerge just behind a row of
busy urinals.  That can be quite a shock (or so I've heard) if
you're not used to this set up.  At any rate, be aware.

I didn't know about the post office, so I
hadn't come prepared.  But several of my friends had brought
postcards to mail.