Mt.Fuji Photo Tour For The First Dream in 2016

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Happy New Year!
How is your January 1st in 2016? Traditionally Japanese people say if you see a lucky symbol in your dream on the first night of a new year, the year will be a good year. The first night is usually the night on January 1st.

There are top 3 lucky symbols for the first dream of a new year in Japan. The best lucky symbol is Mt.Fuji, the second best is hawks, and the third best is eggplants. Therefore I'd like to introduce a photo album of Mt.Fuji to give you a strong impression of Mt.Fuji for your first dream in 2016.

Hope you can dream Mt.Fuji tonight!

Also please keep reading my blogs this year! Thank you!

Mt.Fuji Toll Road Has A Unique Function To Play Music

As I introduced yesterday, there is a big toll road to go up to Mt.Fuji 5th Station for climbing. The road is called "Fuji Subaru Line" and even after the climbing season ends people can still go through the road by cars or buses as long as snow doesn't block the road. 

Interestingly, the road has a section with a special road surface that can make a musical sound. The unevenness on the surface of the road together with frictions generated by moving car tires makes music. 

There is an information board on the road and it says when cars run at a speed limit of 50km/h (30 MPH), tires will make musical sound and people can enjoy it. The music is a part of a Japanese children's song about Mt.Fuji. I recorded it and posted here, so please click the Youtube link above to listen.

Actually, I found out the music is not so clear when I drove there at exact 50km/h (30 MPH ), but at a little bit faster speed, the sound became clearer. However if people want to listen to the music, they can't go over the speed limit too much. Therefore it is a nice and interesting way to prevent speeding. 

Where Would Be Better To Have A Good View Of Mt Fuji?

The image of Mt.Fuji for most people is probably the beautiful symmetrical shape with a flat top. Then where should we go to have a better view of Mt. Fuji? Should we go close to the mountain as much as we can?

Actually most Japanese would recommend a place little far away to have a great view of the mountain although a couple of big roads are laid out to the 5th station of Mt.Fuji which is the major starting point of the climbing routes. People can go there by cars and buses easily. The climbing routes of Mt.Fuji are closed between October and June, but even after the climbing season ends people can still drive to some of the stations connecting to the 5th station. The stations are directly below the top of Mt.Fuji but Mt.Fuji is too huge to see properly from there and trees block the view. 

The photo on upper left hand side is taken from the 4th station on one of the the big roads. With the photo it is difficult to tell if the mountain has a symmetrical shape and a flat top as the typical image of Mt.Fuji. 

From the 4th station, when you look out, you would be able to see the surroundings which is shown in the upper right hand side photo. In fact Mt.Fuji is surrounded by a flat land and isolated from other mountain ranges. It is one of the unique characteristics of Mt.Fuji. Though it is a high mountain with a height of 12,388 ft (3776 m) and radius of about 18 miles (30 km), the area is almost flat and includes 5 lakes. Therefore, if we go to the mountains or some higher spots on the other side of the flat area, we can have a great view of Mt.Fuji in its entire shape.

The lower photo is taken from the top of Mt.Tenjou which is located on the lakeside of Kawaguchiko-Lake, one of the 5 lakes around Fuji. Mt.Fuji is showing its whole beautiful symmetrical shape with a flat top as in famous pictures and drawings of Mt.Fuji.

In addition, there is an amusement park in the flat surroundings of Mt.Fuji and on the top of the roller coaster is also known as a great place to see Mt.Fuji. However, it would be only for those who love roller coasters and can relax at the top.

For reference, I added a map below of Mt.Fuji area and the spot I took the photo showing the entire image of Mt.Fuji.

A Mini Virtual Trip of Momiji-Gari (Autumn Foliage Hunting) in West Tokyo

Leaves of both Japanese maple trees and ginkgo trees have turned their color beautifully in Tokyo area. It would be the best time now to enjoy the gorgeous red and yellow color combination. 
Therefore I'd like to take you to a mini virtual trip of "Momiji-Gari (Autumn Foliage Hunting)" which is a traditional Japanese custom I introduced in a previous post last October.
Hope you will enjoy the photo and also the movie below!

A Movie Monster "GODZILLA" Appeared in Shinjuku, Tokyo

These photos are taken at Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Kabuki-cho is a very busy area filled by lots of restaurants, pubs, and amusement spots, and actually the area has been a notorious block for malicious pubs and shops which charge people exorbitant price.

However the administration is trying to clean up the area and many redevelopment projects has been on-going.  Especially this year, 2015, a new business complex with a movie theater and a hotel was built in Kabuki-cho and an actual-size GODZILLA's head on top of it. 
Apparently the GODZILLA's head can make GODZILLA sound, moreover the mouth can breath out smoke.  It is a kind of show provided by the hotel in the building complex. 

GODZILLA was originally a Japanese movie monster, but now he is well-known internationally since two GODZILLA movies were made in U.S.A. ( GODZILLA in 1998, and GODZILLA in 2014). Actually the history of GODZILLA movies is pretty long. It's been more than 60 years and over 30 GODZILLA movies were created including the two American movies. 

For the past 60 years, computer graphics technology has been improved a lot and the image of recent GODZILLA movies looks very real. Yet I would personally recommend the very first GODZILLA in 1954 as the best GODZILLA movie. It was made about 10 years after the end of World War Ⅱ, so the fear of weapons of mass destruction and radioactivity feels real in the movie though the image was not high quality.

In the first movie GODZILLA was a tragic monster mutated by radioactive pollution. Since the first movie he was loved by people and the movie company kept making GODZILLA movies. As a consequence, he became a monster whom Japanese feel very friendly and are familiar with. Now, he became a new landmark in Shinjuku. Perhaps, this can be considered as a happy ending for GODZILLA.

Photos of A "Fuji-Monument(Fuji-Zuka)" in Hachioji City, Tokyo

I'd like to continue the topic of "Fuji-Monuments (Fuji-Zuka)" which I introduced yesterday, on November 26th. 

Tokyo is not very far from Mt.Fuji and Mt.Fuji view is visible from many locations in Tokyo when the weather is decent and the air is clear. However, still many of "Fuji-Monuments (Fuji-Zuka)" had been established in Tokyo.

For example in Hachioji-City, as in the photo above and also in the right hand side photo which I showed yesterday, one big rock having a natural Mt.Fuji-like shape is one of the "Fuji-Monuments (Fuji-Duka)", and it is named Hachioji-Fuji. It is located in a local park, Fuji-no-mori Park. Inside of the park there is a small Sengen Shrine which is one type of Japanese Shinto shrines worshiping Mt. Fuji as the main goddess, and you can see a Fuji-shape carving on the wooden offertory box in the photo above. Hachioji-Fuji is located backside of the shrine building.

The history of this "Hachioji-Fuj"is not clear because no priest is stationing in the shrine building. Probably not many local people would visit here nowadays and Hachioji-Fuji is just standing there quietly. 

Since the transportation system has been developed a lot in Japan, today there is no difficulty visiting the original Mt.Fuji. People can enjoy climbing the real Mt.Fuji. However, wouldn't it be another fun to find this kind of hidden local Fuji when you explore local towns?

Are There Any Other Fuji Mountains?

It may sound like a silly question. Of course, Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan is only one. However, actually there are many mountains having the word "Fuji" in their names all over Japan. Those are called "Local Fuji Mountains (Kyoudo-Fuji)" and usually people call them with the place name as in "Ezo-Fuji(in Hokkaido)", or "Sanuki-Fuji(in Shikoku)", although it is not the official names of the mountain.

Since Mt. Fuji has been a special sacred mountain for Japanese people since ancient times, people are always eager to see Mt.Fuji even though they are not living close enough  to see actual Mt.Fuji. Therefore they started to call a local mountain "Local-Fuji" because either it looks similar to Mt.Fuji or it has some connections to Mt.Fuji. 

Even outside of Japan, there is a "Local-Fuji" in the U.S. as well. Apparently those who emigrated from Japan to Washington state in U.S.A. named Mt. Rainier as "Tacoma-Fuji" because they missed Mt.Fuji so much.

Even when there was no big mountains in a local town, people in old days still established some miniature Mt.Fuji, as in the right hand side photo, to compare it to the Mt.Fuji. They are called "Fuji-Monuments (Fuji-Zuka)". With the "Fuji-Monuments", usually a Sengen Shrine was built together. Sengen Shrine is one type of Japanese Shinto Shrines to worship Mt.Fuji and the headquarter of Sengen Shrine is at the foot of Mt.Fuji. 

At Some of the "Fuji-Monuments", visitors could climb up the miniature Fuji to get a blessing of Mt.Fuji. It is a tradition to receive a Mt.Fuji-blessing easily, especially in old times, since there were no way for most people to climb up the real Fuji.

The photos of real Mt.Fuji and "Fuji-Monuments" on this blog were taken at Hachioji City in the west side of Tokyo. The shape of the "Fuji-Monuments" looks like a mirror image of the real Fuji-view from the area.  

In addtion there are more photos of Mt.Fuji taken from West Tokyo area on my "Today's Mt.Fuji from West Tokyo" page! Please click here to see the page!

Traditional Lucky Charm Market on a Day-of-Bird in November

These photos are showing a traditional lucky charm market called "Trinoichi (Market of Bird-Days)". This Market is a traditional seasonal event held a couple of times in November every year. The reason it is called "Trinoichi Market" is the fact the Market is actually held on a "Day of Bird". In old times, people used twelve animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac to count time such as year, month, day and hour. 

With such system, a month can have the same animal days twice or three times, so that "Trinoichi Market" can also be twice or three times depending on the year. In such cases, each market is called separately, such as "Ichi-no-Tori (The First Bird)", "Ni-no-Tori (The Second Bird)", and "San-no-Tori (The Third Bird)". This year in 2015, we have "Trinoichi Market" three times and the second market "Ni-no-Tori (The Second Bird)" was just finished on the 17th and the photos were taken on that day.

What kind of lucky charms are sold at a "Trinoichi Market"? On the market days, many of stalls are set up on the grounds of some shrines and sell traditional "lucky rakes" as in the two upper photos. The meaning of this lucky charm is "Collecting Luck for The Next Year", and usually the rakes are made of bamboo and heavily decorated as in the lower left photos. There is a variety of sizes for "lucky rakes" and the price depends on the size. A big one can be about 5-6 feet (150-160cm) and the smallest size can be about 5 inches (10-15cm). The bigger rakes seem to have too much decoration and don't look like rakes anymore, but when you see the small one shown on the photos on the lower right hand side, you can see it is a really rake. 

This year, there's going to be the "San-no-Tori (The Third Bird)" market on the 29th of November which is Sunday. If you'd like to collect luck for the next year,  you can still have a chance to go to a "Trinoichi Market" and get a "lucky rake"!

The photos are taken at Otori Shrine in Hachioji City, Tokyo.

Traditional Japanese Custom for Children "Shichi-Go-San" on November 15th

"Shichi-Go-San (Seven-Five-Three)" is a traditional Japanese custom to celebrate children's growth at age three, five, and seven. That's why this custom is called "Shichi-Go-San (Seven-Five-Three)". Many parents who have children at age three, five, and seven would dress their children in formal Kimonos and take them to a temple or a shrine to pray for the children's healthy growth on the day of "Shichi-Go-San" celebration. 

The meaning of the celebration is different at each age.  At age three, mainly girls are celebrated because traditionally it was the age to start growing their heir. Since old times long beautiful pitch black hair is a symbol of women's beauty in Japan, it was an important change for girls. On the contrary at age five it is a celebration for boys only because in old days it was the age when boys started to wear formal men's style Kimono trousers called Hakama. At age seven, it is a celebration time for girls only because girls start to wear thick Obi-belt of Kimono same as grownups in old days.

Traditionally the November 15th is the "Shichi-Go-San Day", but since the children wear formal Kimonos for this custom, parents usually choose a good weather weekend to celebrate it. Thus if you visit a shrine or temple on a fine weekend day in this month, you may be able to enjoy watching the gorgeous combination of "Shichi-Go-San" children wearing Kimonos and colorful autumn foliage as shown in this photo! 

The combined photos were all taken at Takahata-Fudo Temple in Hino City, Tokyo.

Photo of "Aka Fuji (The Red Mt.Fuji)" As Same Title As In Hokusai's Famous Ukiyoe-Print

 "Aka Fuji (The Red Mt.Fuji)" is a well-known phenomenon in Japan that occurs when Mt.Fuji gets tinted reddish color from reflection of a sunrise. Actually this photo wasn't taken at dawn but at dusk, but the reddish Fuji reminded me of one of the most famous Ukiyoe-Prints, which is called "Aka Fuji" by Hokusai Katsushika.  
A simple reproduction is shown below.

"Ukiyoe-Print" is a traditional wood-block print and during the Samurai era it was used as common means to spread visual information to others. It looks like a color-print because it was printed for each color separately, for example this "Red Fuji" Ukiyoe-Print needed 5 repetitions to print the five colors of blue, light blue, red, green and sepia. Since Japan didn't have any printing machines back then, there were many craftsmen working for this Ukiyoe-Print factories and divided their work to produce a lot of prints.

With Ukiyoe-Prints, even common people could enjoy seeing famous places, beautiful sceneries, popular actors and pretty girls. Apparently the price for a print was reasonably low, so it can be said that these were like one-page magazines with photos at that time. Therefore, Ukiyoe-Print were used to protect Japanese porcelains when fragile goods were packaged for exports, the same way we use old magazines or old tabloid papers.

However Europeans who imported porcelains were surprised to find the wrapping papers and loved them as beautiful art from Japan. They started to collect them and the Ukiyoe-Prints influenced many European artists. Europeans' appreciation for the Ukiyoe-Print in turn influenced Japanese appreciation for the prints, and Japanese started to value them as Japanese Art. Not only the prints are now expensive, Ukiyoe-Prints from Samurai era became very highly priced antiques.

However, maybe somewhere in the world there are still abandoned hundreds-year-old porcelains made in Japan. If you lucky enough to come across them, you'd better check the wrapping papers!