Fuji-san spotting

Like many travelers to Japan, I wanted to see Mount Fuji (Fuji-san). But I've also read that it's difficult to see Mount Fuji in an ideal setting: complete view of the symmetrical cone with the classic snow capped peak against a clear blue sky. One needs to be very lucky to see her like this, it seems.

Mount Fuji, taken through the window of our shinkansen, traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto.

So I felt really lucky when I spotted her from the window of the shinkansen (bullet train). We were traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto on the Tokaido Line. I didn't know then that this is the easiest way to view Mount Fuji. I was expecting to see her at Lake Ashinoko, Hakone. I remembered being taken by surprise, and awed by how grand and tall she looked against the clear blue sky.

I wanted to enjoy her for longer but it was tough when you're seated between two wriggly, demanding boys. I had to ask Terence to snap a picture of Mount Fuji with my iPhone.

I didn't expect to see her again when we got off at the Owakudani Ropeway Station. But she must have been feeling shy that day. And very quickly, in a blink of an eye, she disappeared.

Tried as hard as I might, I didn't see her again at Lake Ashinoko (nor Moto-Hakone) where I was expecting to snap my perfect Mount Fuji shot. But that's the attraction of traveling isn't it? To expect the unexpected and to see the expected in unexpected light.