Tokyo and Mount Fuji

 

Mount Fuji at sunset

Remember when we used to be able to travel internationally? Not so long ago? In February I went to Tokyo to visit our collaborators at RIKEN and added the weekend to do some sightseeing. This was my sixth trip to Japan and I did not have enough time to travel far from Tokyo, but wanted to see new areas. I had a few ideas, but the weather and my hotel room assisted in setting a course. By chance I was given a room with a view to the west and Mount Fuji. When I arrived the weather was clear and I got to see the sunset below from my room! Talk about motivation to see more like this. You can see all pictures from this trip over on Flickr.

View from my hotel room on the day of arrival. Tokyo tower all lit up and the sun setting behind Mount Fuji.

Once you get to the street level in Tokyo, seeing Mount Fuji becomes a lot harder. There are of course many towers that offer a view but I wanted something different than the cityscape above. A hill or a park would be nice. Doing some searches I found Mount Takao at the western edge of Tokyo. The Takaosanguchi station at the bottom of the mountain is easily reachable by train from central Tokyo. I left the hotel Sunday around lunch time after I had figured out how to get there. A cable car near the train station takes you half way up Takao. There are several pleasant hiking paths that lead to the top and some attractions along the way, but it was getting evening and I wanted to be on top at sunset. (That also meant I had to walk all the way down to Takasanguchi because the cable car stops operating after dark.)

Cable car and hiking paths up Mount Takao

The top of Mount Takao

From the top of Mount Takao you have a clear view of Mount Fuji to the west and all of Tokyo to the east. Unfortunately, the best view points for each are quite a bit away from each other. I was here to take sunset pictures of Mount Fuji, but it would have been incredible to capture the full moon raising out of the bay of Tokyo with all the city lights right in front of it. I definitely want to get back some day and capture that moment. By the time I was done with my sunset pictures, it was pitch black and the moon was quite high in the sky already.

Full moon over Tokyo

Because it was a full moon, Mount Fuji was bathed in light even long after sunset. The lights from the sun, moon, and the amusement park in the picture below combine to create an interesting mood. Venus is in the top right. The amusement park is called Lake Sagami Pleasure Forest. The Japanese like to use English words to name things that might be interesting to tourists, but often their word choices and combinations sound funny. Almost always you can sense a mystical or lyrical meaning, but it is also clear that the translator was not done by a native English speaker. I don't understand why they do not spend a little bit of money for a professional, instead of making banners and signs, or put places on maps, with google translated phrases. On the other hand, maybe it is on purpose for the amusement of the non-Japanse.

Mount Fuji lit by full-moon light after sunset

I wanted to come back the next day to do it all again and improve on my efforts, but the next day was Monday and my plane was leaving that evening just before sunset. I did have time to explore more of Tokyo earlier in the day before my return trip and took some photos, but they are not that interesting.

More interesting was Saturday, before my trip to Mount Takao. From my hotel window I had seen a tiny, at that distance, elevated train coming and going every few minutes and I was wondering where it went. In figuring out where to go exploring, I came across the artificial island of Odaiba and learned that the fully automated trains I had been watching went there. Neat!

Full moon between the building towers and the setting sun reflected in the windows.

The picture above is not completely accidental. It took several hours of planning and waiting for the right moment and then it almost didn't happen because of the clouds. Luckly, there was just a large enough hole, at the right moment, to get the shot. I used the Photographer's Ephemeris to figure out where to be at what time.

The island of Odaiba has many attractions, including a miniature Statue of Liberty (which was enshrouded in scaffolding in preparation for the Olympic games, which were still supposed to happen at that time.) An afternoon is not enough to explore it all and the many indoor spaces are difficult for photography. Outdoors was pretty good, though. Also, don't bother with the world's tallest indoor waterfall. It's more of a small faucet someone has let running high up. Not very impressive. The Rainbow bridge in the picture below, is more interesting. (After googling for the waterfall I found that it drops two tons of water in seven minutes from a height of 35 meters, several times per day. Maybe I was not there at the right time.)

Rainbow bridge

I want to go back some day.