Monday, January 6, 2014

Mt. Fuji

Our first full day in Japan was spent in a bus tour to Mt. Fuji and Hakone - a resort up in the mountains. Normally the bus would take us to the 5th station on Mt. Fuji - about half way up the mountain and the highest spot reachable by vehicle. But it had snowed the day before and the road was closed from the first station onward. Darn!
We started late because the bus tour apparently waits for all passengers to arrive. This meant we arrived at Mt. Fuji a bit later than anticipated. The sun was higher in the sky and that makes the shadows flatten out and it is harder to take good photos. But Mt. Fuji was beautiful all covered in fresh snow and we did get some lovely shots from Hakone later.

Mt. Fuji from the visitor's center.
Being Christmas Day, we were treated to carols by a hand-bell group at the visitor's center. You saw the photo of the handbell ringers in the Christmas post.

From the first station with a sunburst.
We also saw Mt. Fuji later in the day from Hakone-en after we had taken a boat trip on Lake Ashi and gone up to the top of a mountain via cable-car. The light was a lot better then as it was late afternoon.
As you can see, Mt. Fuji is just beautiful in every light.
However, there is an amusement park on the way to Mt. Fuji and I got a good photo of the mountain with the amusement park rides in the foreground. I love the juxtaposition of new and old, nature and man.
More on Lake Ashi and the cable car later.

1 comment:

Stitchmistress said...

Oohh, what GORGEOUS pictures! I wanna go. You are right, that mountain cannot take a bad photo!