Fuji: Japan's No 1 V-Shaped Mountain

"J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji." -Terry Pratchett

    When the great Terry Pratchett said this, he was describing Tolkien's impact on fantasy, but it also illustrates how ubiquitous and important Mt Fuji is in Japanese art and culture. Mount Fuji imagery is used everywhere throughout Japan, so it felt like visiting this huge volcano was a must during our visit. We considered booking a hotel and spending a couple of days at Mt Fuji, but quickly realized that clear skies and good views this time of year can't be taken for granted. So, instead we opted to stay flexible and go on a day trip from Tokyo when the weather looked promising. This strategy was a bit tiring - we woke up at 6:15AM to catch a 7:30AM bullet train, and got back home around 10:30PM, but we covered a lot of ground and had a great day.


Still on hunt for that perfect Mountain Pano

    We should also clarify that when we say "visit Mt Fuji" we don't mean "hike up Mt Fuji." That track is definitely too strenuous for Karen, and only more experienced hikers go in the fall when there is snow and less infrastructure to help casual hikers like Matt make it to the summit. As a fun side note, we did meet one energetic student studying abroad from the USA who summited Mt Fuji earlier this summer. While most people hike partway up on one day, sleep over at a hostel on the route, and finish the following day in time to catch the sunrise, she was on a tight budget and couldn't afford those accommodations. Instead she hiked to the top overnight with a headlamp from around 7PM to 2AM, where she waited a few hours for sunrise. Then she hiked back down and caught a bus back to Tokyo- what an intense 24 hours! We said that sounded exhausting and weren't sure our 30 year old bodies could do that. Surprisingly she agreed, saying it was terrible.

The local train was Thomas the Tank Engine-themed



This was the site of the infamous egg incident

    Anyway, we decided to get our close-up views of Mt Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi, one of the 5 major lakes surrounding the volcano. We chose Lake Kawaguchi because it is the most accessible and tourist-friendly for those without a car. On our train ride there, we were exposed to an impressive and brand-new form of "man-spreading" in which aloof man managed to take up the space of 3 entire seats, all without having to spread his legs, as is done with more traditional man-spreading. We hope this new form doesn't catch on.

    But we digress... Lake Kawaguchi has an 11.6 mile perimeter trail. It's entirely paved and never far from a main road. One might see this as a drawback, if you were trying to escape from civilization into nature. However, one thing we've grown to appreciate on this trip is that our day-to-day involves so much walking, that we haven't had much stamina left over for "hiking". It was nice knowing we could hike as long as we liked, and then catch a bus on the return trip, which is exactly what we did. As planned, we caught a particularly clear day, and a random stranger decided it would be fun to do an impromptu photoshoot of us in a series of poses. We hope you enjoy!



A flawlessly executed arm-heart

Perfect again!

    In person, Mt Fuji felt HUGE. It looms over the landscape, large in its own right, and appearing larger due to the lack of any neighboring mountains. In the photos, it looks smaller than it felt. When we had our fill of hiking, we got a traditional hotou hot pot, and enjoyed some maple trees glowing in their fall foliage, 

    To wrap up the day, we hopped on a free shuttle to a hot springs resort, and savored sunset over Mt Fuji naked outside. If you remember from our Sento and Onsen blog post, most have a mural of Mt Fuji on the wall. So it was very fulfilling to see the actual Mt Fuji while we were enjoying the hot springs. 

A rare photo of the inside of a sento- this is an old bathhouse that has been preserved in an open air museum. Note the mural of Mt Fuji on the wall.

    It wasn't until we met up post-hot springs (the onsen was gender segregated) that Matt learned had to stand up out of the water to see Mt Fuji from the women's area. While sitting, privacy fences blocked the volcano from view. Apparently Matt could both stay submerged and see Mt Fuji at the same time. What a luxury! Instead, Karen stayed in the hot water until she was no longer cold, then popped up again to look at Mt Fuji until she got too cold again. She says the cycle felt like being a meerkat. We didn't buy any of the hundreds of Mt Fuji souvenirs we saw, including some of the following:

Mt Fuji sugar

Mt Fuji candy

Mt Fuji, uh...


Mt Fuji water, maybe?

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