Majestic Fujisan

Ohayo gozaimasu Fujisan! Just wanted to post a few spectacular photos of Mt. Fuji as seen from the plane as I flew from NAF Atsugi to Diego Garcia (more on that trip next post). You rarely get to see Fuji this close from an aerial view, especially with perfect weather conditions. You can see a good bit of the mountain is now covered with snow - the official climbing season is definitely over. If you look close enough, you can see one of the hiking trails snaking back and forth up the side of the mountain. I can't believe I hiked this thing 3 times! That's enough for me. Besides, climbing it a fourth time would probably be bad luck (the number four in Japanese also means "death" or "suffering"). When you hike it you can never appreciate it's overall beauty because it's basically all just dusty volcanic rocks and sand. Up close, it looks like what I would imagine the surface of the moon to look like.