There’s a particular image of Mount Fuji that has dominated social media feeds in recent months. You’ve probably seen it. Japan’s massive, lightly snow-capped volcano rises from behind the red, white, and blue signs of a Lawson’s grocery store. Two Japanese icons side by side in one image. As stunning as the scene is, you… Read More »
It is perhaps one of Japan’s most iconic scenes: the triangular form of Mount Fuji rising into the blue sky, its snow-capped peak delicately reflected in the still waters of a nearby lake. This image is captured with restrained simplicity in a 19th-century woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai, the artist responsible for the iconic “36… Read More »
Rising 2,000 meters above the northern shore of Lake Chuzenji, Mount Nantai casts a perfect Mount Fuji-like shadow over the calm waters. At sunset, the south face of the volcano turns a gorgeous, vibrant pink. It took me a day to get to the top and back, and I didn’t encounter another soul the entire… Read More »
For the Japanese poet Basho, Mount Fuji was a unique muse. He returned here many times throughout his life and described “hundreds of views through clouds and mist” of the volcano. Seventeenth-century writers would perhaps have been alarmed to hear that there was now one less point of view. This week, authorities in the small… Read More »
Lake Kawaguchiko has stunning views of Mount Fuji It’s all gone, Fuji, at the Lake Kawaguchiko 7-Eleven. Strawberry cheesecake KitKats and absinthe mochi dumplings include blue-hued Fuji bath plugs, Fuji rice crackers, chiffon cake Fuji, Fujisan Blue Cream Soda bottles and do-it-yourself Fujisan Blue Curry Rice cans. The challenge is to make this edible version… Read More »