Mt. Fuji - the mountain of warriors

Clicking on the pictures will take you to the original image, but they are quite large... you have been warned!!

Mt Fuji has long been a symbol of Japan.  It is the tallest mountain in the country, at 3,776 meters.  The people of Numazu take great pride in their ability to see Fuji, which is about 30-35 miles away.

"Mt Fuji" in kanji.  It is read "Fuji-san".  It means, 'mountain of warriors', and was adopted about the time the Bushido (Japanese knighthood) was developed.  The last character means 'mountain' and is usually read "yama".  Apparently many different kanji have been used to write "Fuji", but this is the current way.

It's not the best view, but this was one of the first days I could see Fuji from Numazu.  As the weather has gotten colder, the sky has gotten clearer, and it has become easier to see him. (:

Some zoom-ins of the previous picture.

The season for climbing Mt Fuji is only in the summer--from around late June to early August, I think.  The rest of the year, Fuji begins to accumulate some snow, which makes it a bit more difficult to climb to the top.  I took these pictures in early October... you can already see snow on Fuji's top!

But the next day.....

I took my camera to school again the next day, and was surprised to see that much of the snow had melted from Fuji already!  In just one day!  Today was a little bit warmer than yesterday, but not a whole lot.  Well, it was enough to make a difference on Fuji!

Dec 7th, 2003 Here's a picture I took of Fuji a few days back!  The winter sky is so clear, I can see Fuji almost every day--and this is what I see!  Lovely, isn't it? (:  I can't wait to see the view from the peak next summer!

I've had enough!  Take me home, angry bison!

Much of my info about Fuji came from the Shizuoka page, and it's link to the Fuji page.  Thanks!