I thought that I would start off with one of the most famous landmarks in all of Japan-Mount Fuji.
Mount Fuji has been depicted by artists and writers for hundreds of years. Everything from traditional Japanese products to popular culture items depict Mount Fuji on them (one of the most famous traditional Japanese artists named Hokusai produced world famous depictions of the mountains and I highly recommend that people see his beautiful and breath-taking pictures) The www.jbox.com site blog often has a lot of detailed English language information about Japan that is very interesting and had this to say about Mount Fuji:
“You can’t think of Japan without also thinking of the country’s tallest and most famous mountain,
Mt.
Fuji. An active volcano 12,388 ft (3,776 meters) high that rises gracefully from the prefectures of Shizuoka and Yamanashi,
Mt.
Fuji is an incredibly beautiful image of
Japan. In Japanese its name is Fuji-san, with ’san’ being the correct pronunciation for the character for mountain, although it’s read ‘yama’ in other situations according to a secret code that foreigners can never seem to figure out. Along with taking pictures of beer vending machines and making that first pilgrimage to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pagoda of Kyoto, climbing Mt. Fuji is a popular activity among visitors to Japan, and if you’re ever planning to be here during the climbing season (July 1 to August 31), you should give it a try. You start from the 5th level, the highest point that vehicles are allowed on the mountain, and take one of three paths up to the topmost 10th level. As you ascend, you go rapidly from the middle of summer to the middle of winter, so you have to have lots of extra clothes with you to put on as the temperature drops. You continue to climb, passing the various stations along the way and rasping as the air gets thinner and thinner. […] Traditionally mountains are associated with Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, and
Mt.
Fuji has been considered a holy place for thousands of years.”
Due to the importance of Mount Fuji as an icon of
Japan, it is a popular tourist destination (hence the amount of Hello Kitty and non-Hello Kitty products available for sale). There are a variety of tourist options for this active volcano, everything from site seeing (of the mountain and the Aokigahara forest at the base of the mountain) to climbing activities. The Japanese travel authority is really opening up the area to travelers by constructing
Shizuoka
Airport so people can fly directly to the
Mount Fuji area. If one is going to be traveling in
Japan most people believe that your journey should contain a visit to this historic and naturally beautiful location!
Add to del.icio.us
Digg this!
