Seeing Fuji-san

On a really clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji (or Fujisan as it is known to locals) from Tokyo. This actually occurs less often than you would think. Only about a dozen times a year or so. It is so infrequent an occurrence that when it does happen, the television and radio news programs report it. They will place a break in their regular programming to report it as "breaking news".


Last weekend, I went to Hakone. I was so excited. Everyone kept telling me that the views of Fujisan from Hakone were spectacular. Splendid in fact. To make a long story short, it was supposed to be an absolutely dreadful, dreary, rainy day on Sunday. However, instead of rain, we got clouds - and tonnes of it. It was cloudy, overcast and humid, humid, humid. Did I mention humid? To add to my disappointment, Fujisan was completely covered the whole time we were in the best recommended Fujisan photo spots. The only glimpse of Fuji I got was on the bus ride home. And even then it was lacklustre. Since the clouds had only just begun to clear up, only the left, three quarters of the famous mountain peaked out from behind the cloud cover. In my desire to take a photo, I briefly in one insane second, thought I could take a photo... but it really wouldn't be worth it. I was inside a bus, the dark was setting in, and there were any number of heads, hats, and bus curtains in the way of obtaining that perfect shot. And who posts photos of half of Fujisan?


In my melancholy, I recalled that I had already seen Fuji back in February of this year. I was listening to Japanese news to get my ears accustomed to the Japanese cadence, intonation, and speech pattern. Suddenly a sentence popped out at me: "Kyou wa, Fujisan o Tokyo de miemasu." Translation, "Today, you can see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo." And then to reinforce my self revelation, the camera then turned to a breathtakingly clear, unobstructed view of Fujisan. The news report when on to say that this was only the 2nd time this year that this happened and that the current forecasts looked as if there might be one more day later this week when the skies would be so clear that Fujisan would be visible from Tokyo.


Once I heard this, I grabbed by good camera (as opposed to my less powerful camera) and ran out the door. I headed to Shinjuku and to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Towers. I'll write more about Shinjuku in another post because there's so much to say about it, but for now, all you need to know is that the Shinjuku towers have two observation floors on the 44th floor. One is in the South Tower and the other in the North Tower - both towers have free admission. The North Tower is open later into the night and is usually the busier of the two. I think this stems from the fact that you are slightly physically closer to Fujisan when it is visible, so the thinking is that you would get a nicer photo. Although, when pointing your camera to a point approaching infinity... Shinjuku is also only about 10 minutes away by JR Yamanote line.


Upon arriving in Shinjuku, I noticed that the lineups for both North and South Towers were longer than usual for a weekday. I guess word got out that Fujisan was visible today. Everyone else in line was a Japanese tourist. I guess if I could translate the forecast from today's news shows, the locals could do it too. I decided to join the South Tower lineup since it was much, much shorter. It was only a scant 2 minute wait. Upstairs on the observation floor, it was the most crowded that I had ever seen it, for a weekday or weekend and this was my 3rd visit to this particular tower. If you're wondering, "Why so often?" - it's because the government buildings also house the Tokyo Information Centre (or one of the TICs in Tokyo - I believe there is one at Narita airport). My sprint across town was well worth it. I managed to get a great shot of Fujisan. I took about 50 shots, deleted about 25, and was happy to get this one completely unobstructed photo of Fujisan.





For all the hype of the Fujisan sightings, from Tokyo, the view of Japan's tallest and most famous mountain, is really little more than the size of my thumb with the naked eye. This photo used half the zoom on my lens. Had I been lucky enough to get a clear view of Fujisan from Hakone area's Lake Ashi, it would have filled have the photo area, without a zoom. However the buzz of seeing Fujisan is contagious. To the Japanese, it is a huge event. As a foreigner, I count myself lucky.

There will definitely be other visits to Hakone.