It’s no secret that the pride and joy of Yamanashi is Mount Fuji. Standing tall at 3,776 meters, it is the highest mountain in Japan as well as a designated World Heritage site. On any given day, you can stop a local and ask about Mount Fuji, and he or she will be able to easily point out the mountain in the distant landscape. Of course, depending on the season, Mount Fuji could be looming large and proud or it could be shrouded in mist, which was the case when we headed to the Fifth Station to admire the sunrise.
As we had hoped to capture the sunrise in all its glorious beauty, we left our hotel at 2am and headed for the Fifth Station Area of Mount Fuji, also known as Go-gome. As we stood there in the biting cold, stamping our feet to keep warm, I couldn’t help but be awed by the natural splendour that spanned out 360 degrees around me. Even though heavy clouds obstructed our view of the rising sun that day, the elegant beauty of Mount Fuji still shone through.