Japan travelogue: Hakone and Mt. Fuji

TOKYO — One of the most iconic sights of Japan, seen on many travel posters, postcards (if you still send those!) and online, is Mt. Fuji, a 12,000-foot high mountain that’s about 100 miles outside Tokyo.

To see Mt. Fuji you don’t go all the way there. The best views are had from a small mountain resort town called Hakone, about a 55-mile drive from the Japanese capital. The town resides at about 3,300 feet and, on a clear day, provides excellent views of Mt. Fuji.

So some friends and I hired an English-speaking guide and driver to take us to Hakone Friday.

Friends, let me tell you that the 55-mile drive took more than three hours. It’s not the highways, not in the morning, anyway. It’s the one single road up to the parking lot from which you ride the “ropeway,” gondola-type cars that take you up and down the mountainous area outside Hakone. Thursday was a national holiday in Japan — Vernal Equinox Day, yes, they celebrate the coming of spring. Which, actually, sounds like a fine idea. But we also heard that Friday might have been a holiday of sorts and there were just tons and tons of cars, vans and tour buses headed up the mountain. It took forever to get into the parking lot, and then lots of waiting and waiting and more waiting to get into the gondolas. It’s a pretty cool ride, and as you will see below, the area is still somewhat volcanic. Mt. Fuji itself is a dormant volcano, and you can see (and smell — the sulfur is definitely present!) volcanic gases coming out of the mountainside.

We actually got lucky. Many days, Mt. Fuji is shrouded in clouds or fog. Even on this perfectly clear day, local weather patterns sometimes generate some clouds or haze in the area, and as the day went on, we did see some of that. Still, we got some excellent views of the iconic Japanese mountain.

Rather than give you a wall of text here, I’m just going to present some photos, more or less in chronological order of the day, with a bit of commentary.

Oh, and then it took another three hours to get back to the hotel in Tokyo, because, well, it was Friday rush hour. It truly is amazing to realize just how large Tokyo is, how many people live there, how many cars, how many buildings… it’s the biggest city in the world and you absolutely realize that every time you go anywhere.

Here goes.