Kamakura afternoon

It was my first time to this edge of Tokyo and I gotten pretty disorientated by taking a long way around to get out of Tokyo. Also it had been cloudy on the train out to Kamakura so by the afternoon when I got on top of the ridge behind the Great Buddha- Daibutsu, I was completely surprised by this view of the blue mountain. Just as I was snapping away in ecstasy one of Tokyo's hiker pensioners came by in very clean, high tech, light weight, walking gear. I pointed and exclaimed "Fuji-san", he just grunted and stepped around me not pausing or breaking pace.

Peter's meshi

I see Fuji everywhere.

I go to a contemporary art exhibition and buy postcards of woodcuts depicting Fuji.

At the first open day at Tokyo Wonder-site I meant Peter Bellars. When he offered me a choice of the various images on his business card, I choose this Fuji sunset. I think it's in Hakone (maybe Moto-Hakone?) near Lake Ashi. At this stage I didn't know how addicted I would become to seeing the volcanic mountain.

The first encounter

I arrived in Tokyo on an incredibly clear day. On the bus from Narita I had my first Fuji encounter. At one point the freeway went over a rise and in the far distance I saw Mt Fuji- snow covered from top to base, with no cloud on the peak.

The first photo is taken with a wide angle lens so Fuji looks further away than it appeared to me, however when I saw it, it was like it filled my field of vision. It seemed to take up the whole sky and horizon even at that distance of more than 300kms away. It completely took over my being, an emotional response I could not have predicted. I had read about the cult of looking for views of Mt Fuji in my Hiking guide book and thought it was an odd hobby.

It's a bit hard to see Fuji in that first shot- if you click here it will take you to Flickr where you can down load a larger image.

These pictures do not really capture the moment, but there are my first nori-mono (spotting Fuji from a moving vehicle) shots.