One of the great joys of flying in the front of an airplane is that you don’t have wings or engine exhaust to obscure your view, which makes the window seat a great place for aerial photography. I ran into Fuji-san on a cloudy day in 2006, and finally got a clearer shot of it on my way back from China in 2008.
The not-so-secret “secret” to spotting Fuji-san from the air: Pretty much all flights leaving Tokyo for destinations to the west (including Asia, but not Europe) use an airway that runs over the water south of Fuji-san. This is to avoid the airspace around Yokota and Atsugi, the US military bases on the west side of Tokyo. So when you’re leaving Tokyo, sit on the right side of the plane: when you’re coming to Tokyo, sit on the left.
Thanks for the nice Fuji-picture in clear weather. Beautiful.
I do not know about right and left side, but apparently from Haneda Airport the left/right rule doesn’t work. Leaving from Haneda for Kumamoto on the left side I took this picture:
http://tinyurl.com/2zum3x
And when returning to Haneda a few days later, again on the left side, it took this picture:
http://tinyurl.com/3yvh9e
Vince, those are both beautiful pics.
Joe, your shots are always great too. God it’s a beautiful mountain.
Would you believe I have never seen it in person?
The shinkansen rule, of course, is to sit on the right when going to Osaka and on the left when coming back to Tokyo.
Or you could just climb it I guess….
Not that I would recommend it:
来てみれば
さほどでもなし
富士の山
(Yeah, I know this originally refers to the actual process of climbing, but it works better if you think of it as meaning “looks better from a distance”….)
Ｈｅｒｅ ｇｏｅｓ ａｎｏｔｈｅｒ．
富士山に 登らない馬鹿 二度登る馬鹿
Yeah, that’s one I like too. I’m in the perfect position – done it once, no intention of doing it again.