Asia - Mt Fuji hotels?

I'm thinking of climbing Mt Fuji in August. Does anyone know of nice western hotels near there or ideally part of the way up the mountain? I'll have a non-climber with me who isn't at all used to Japan and Ryokans.

hello, i am sorry i can't help with any specifics but i was with a large group of students in japan over the summer and quite a few climbed mt. fuji. by all accounts, it seems to be kind of a miserable experience you endure just to say you did it. make sure you get to the top at dawn. there aren't any formal hotels on the mountain. just some small shelter-type things with beds or cots or something.

I'm thinking of climbing Mt Fuji in August. Does anyone know of nice western hotels near there or ideally part of the way up the mountain? I'll have a non-climber with me who isn't at all used to Japan and Ryokans.

There are very nice upscale resort hotels in mountain areas all over Japan, just not Mt.Fuji ( as far as I know ). My personal choice would be to fly to Sapporo for a combined (mountain) hiking and culinary & hot baths tour of Hokkaido, where that kind of interests are well catered for.

Climbing Fuji is non-trivial, so please don't drag the non-climber along. There are plenty of swanky hotels and ryokan around Fuji (esp. Hakone, try a search for Gora Kadan). Accommodations on the mountain itself are basic in the extreme and best avoided.

Some more info: http://wikitravel.org/en/Mount_Fuji

The Fujiya hotel also often runs specials.

How far is Hakone from Mt.Fuji? I've been to the mountain through both Fujinomiya and Fujiyoshida and especially the former is anything but a resort town, more like industrial and on the shabby side.

Btw, not sure about this, but isn't there some army training range used by Japanese and US forces very near from Mt.Fuji?