These
photos are taken at "Fuji Visitor Center", in March it's still
possible to see some snow remaining on the ground, depending on the weather.
The
center was established by Yamanashi prefecture in 1998. The building includes
an information center, an exhibition room for natural history of Mt.Fuji, a
souvenir shop, and a restaurant. Since the number of international tourists
visiting Mt Fuji is rapidly increasing after Mt. Fuji was selected as a world
heritage site by UNESCO, the information
about Mt. Fuji is available in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean.
By the
way, the address of this center is Yamanashi prefecture, but actually the Mt.
Fuji is located right on the border of Yamanashi prefecture and Shizuoka prefecture.
It’s
funny but the two prefectures have been arguing over the title of the “Home of
Mt.Fuji” for almost 400years since the Samurai era.
Even now
on the official maps of Japan, the border of both prefectures break off upon
the Mt.Fuji. The “border-line-blank-area”
was born as a compromise because both prefectures would not give up their
ownership of the mountain top.
It
seemed that the both sides accepted the compromise. Since the area around the
top of the Mt.Fuji is a property of Sengen-Shrine which is the head shrine
worshiping Mt.Fuji, everybody admitted to keep the area as a sacred ground of
the shrine without belonging to any prefecture.
After
all, Mt Fuji is a special mountain for Japanese people as I have mentioned
previously.
