so much for all the shrines and gates in Japan; probably no sight in the whole country is as iconic as Fuji-san (富士山), or Mount Fuji. just before our Tokyo trip, Jill and i were able to go with our friends the Johnsons to have a look at this very symmetrical cone-shaped volcanic mountain.
Fuji-san from the North. even on a gloomy day it's a pretty impressive sight.
it was a bit of a difficult look, with visibility down to virtually nothing on the South side we approached from. just getting there was about a three hour drive from Nagoya, but i'm glad we kept on going around to the North side so we could at least see something. we were hoping we'd be able to join the thousands of pilgrims who climb the mountain each year, but it's closed to trekkers for all but a couple of months of the year. nevertheless, it is possible to drive about halfway up the 3,776 meter high mountain, to the so-called "Fifth Station" from where most climbers begin. when we got there the winds were so intense that we could only be out of the car long enough to snap a picture with the very touristy sign you see below:
Jill and i at the "Fifth Station" about halfway up the mountain. it's a lot windier than it looks--i almost got blown over a couple of times and i'm holding onto the back of that sign just to stay upright!
so perhaps this visit was slightly underwhelming, but we did get to see the mighty Mount Fuji, and who can go to Japan without doing that? actually we had seen it from the plane on the way from Tokyo to Nagoya when we arrived in the country last year, but it felt a bit more real, being up close this way. and it wasn't all about the mountain, we got to take a pleasant-but-chilly boat ride on one of Fuji's five lakes, and of course we browsed some of the shops in the region that were stacked with, you guessed it, boxes of little Fuji red bean cakes to take back to the folks in the office. yum.
Fuji-san from the North. even on a gloomy day it's a pretty impressive sight.
it was a bit of a difficult look, with visibility down to virtually nothing on the South side we approached from. just getting there was about a three hour drive from Nagoya, but i'm glad we kept on going around to the North side so we could at least see something. we were hoping we'd be able to join the thousands of pilgrims who climb the mountain each year, but it's closed to trekkers for all but a couple of months of the year. nevertheless, it is possible to drive about halfway up the 3,776 meter high mountain, to the so-called "Fifth Station" from where most climbers begin. when we got there the winds were so intense that we could only be out of the car long enough to snap a picture with the very touristy sign you see below:
Jill and i at the "Fifth Station" about halfway up the mountain. it's a lot windier than it looks--i almost got blown over a couple of times and i'm holding onto the back of that sign just to stay upright!
so perhaps this visit was slightly underwhelming, but we did get to see the mighty Mount Fuji, and who can go to Japan without doing that? actually we had seen it from the plane on the way from Tokyo to Nagoya when we arrived in the country last year, but it felt a bit more real, being up close this way. and it wasn't all about the mountain, we got to take a pleasant-but-chilly boat ride on one of Fuji's five lakes, and of course we browsed some of the shops in the region that were stacked with, you guessed it, boxes of little Fuji red bean cakes to take back to the folks in the office. yum.
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