Japan

Mount Fuji

Being a lover of nature and all things mountainous, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit the world famous Mount Fuji. What surprised me from a previous day’s wanderings was the fact that from the top of a central Tokyo skyline viewpoint the previous day, it seemed that the city itself extended right up to Mount Fuji. I knew Tokyo was classed as a mega city in its own right, but the sheer scale of it was breath taking. Although I know that that Tokyo doesn’t exactly run all the way up to mount fuji, for a brief moment from that viewpoint, it seemed as though it did.

Visiting Mount Fuji first requires one to accept that they will either attempt to climb up/along it or just view it. I was only there for a day trip from Tokyo, so any type of hiking was out of the question. I was there to bask in its glorious views. It was therefore, vital to choose a good viewing point to do so.

I chose to view the mountain from the Chureito Pagoda, a famous spot I had seen countless times through famous photographs all my life.

The journey to reach the Pagoda started from the bus station at Shinjuku. Riding by coach took only a few short hours, and the late autumn bronze foliage teased the sights to come as we drove closer to the destination.

Upon disembarking, I found myself in awe at the majestic sight of Mount Fuji on the horizon. The only thing left was to find the path towards the Pagoda and bask in the picturesque views.

After a bit of walking and interpreting some signposts, I arrived at the Pagoda – or more accurately the foot of the Pagoda. There lay ahead a challenging but not too hard 400 step climb to reach the top. A necessary yet not too difficult hardship that only increased my respect for the view that awaited me.

Upon completing the climb, I was met with the view I had only seen before in photographs. The scenery was magnificent. Thankfully it was a sunny, clear day despite the winter season and I was able to fully enjoy the scene before me. Mount Fuji stood tall, quietly but with a heavy sense of might as it has always done for millions of years. This mountain has inspired countless books, poems, thoughts and feelings and here I was adding myself to the list of human beings who too had experienced it.

Thought I have seen countless mountains in Switzerland, this was special.

After enjoying the view and wandering around for a good amount of time, it was time to head back to Tokyo.

Although the signposting was sparse and Google Maps being surprisingly unhelpful, I managed to find the correct bus stop for the next bus back to the city. It’s worth mentioning here that this bus stop was a glorified signpost just off a motorway, with buses scheduled to arrive every 30 minutes or so. I had a decent amount of time to wait for the next bus, and so I sat alone at the stop waiting for it to arrive.

During this time, an elderly Japanese couple joined me in my wait for the bus. I gave a customary nod as a sign of friendliness and respect and it was heartily returned. Though we spoke entirely different languages and were from different parts of the world, we established basic human nonverbal communication effortlessly. They seemed happy to meet a traveller, and I was happy to see some local people in such a liminal setting. Shortly afterwards, we tried to exchange words. I instantly took out my phone in a sudden idea to utilise the live translation feature of Google Translate. I had never before used it in a real-world scenario, it had always remained on my phone as a sort of novelty. But now it was time for it to shine.

We were able to have a brief conversation of who I was, where I was from, what I had seen and the fact that the elderly couple had lived in that same area all their lives. Though the conversation was brief, it was deep and sincere enough to count as an enriching experience for us both. It remains a fond memory until this very day.