Are taxis allowed on the road up to Kawaguchiko 5th station?

by Michi
(Austria)

Dear Gary,

we - 2 austrian honeymooners - are coming to mt. fuji in the middle of august. we are both experienced hikers and reasonably fit. we want to climb fuji via kawaguchiko 5th station.

2 questions:

we`re planning to do the climb in one day, taking a taxi from kawaguchiko (where we are sleeping)to 5th station at 5am, start at 6 am, take the bus back down to kawaguchiko at 20:10 pm and catch the last train to tokyo - so we have 14 hours on the mountain.

1) i`ve read that the mountain roads are closed to private vehicles in the high season. Are taxis allowed on the road up to kawaguchiko 5th station ? Is it possible to catch a taxi at 5 am in kawaguchiko or should we arrange it the evening before the climb?

2) we don`t want to be forced to run up and down the mountain, we want to take our time, take a lot of photographs, enjoy the experience. do you think 14 hours is enough time ?

Thank you very much for all the time you`ve invested in your great site and for answering our questions. Greetings from vienna...

michi and alex