It was a super clear sky when I got up this morning, so I grabbed my Lumix-100, my old Panasonic camera, and drove to Lake Kawaguchi to see Mt. Fuji. It took about 90 minutes from my house in Yokohama to Arakurayama Sengen Park in Fuji Yoshida City, which is now one of the most popular tourist destinations among visitors from abroad due to the beautiful combination of Mt. Fuji and the five-story tower, Chureitou pagoda.
Fortunately, there were only a few visitors on the observation deck at Arakurayama Sengen Park. I felt like I was taking up the entire landscape of Mt. Fuji from the deck. I was so happy that my mind was occupied with the commanding view and couldn’t think about anything for a while, letting my mouth open slightly. I didn’t mind how foolish I might look at all.
Honestly speaking, it was my first visit to Chureitou pagoda, even though I have been a guide since 2017. The Chureitou pagoda was not famous when I was young, and the locals also told me that it suddenly gained popularity after a Thai tourist posted pictures of Mt. Fuji and Chureitou on his Instagram. Before that, it was just the town’s iconic monument, not intended to attract overseas visitors.
The Chureitou pagoda enshrines over 960 local citizens of Fuji Yoshida City who lost their lives in the four major wars: the Japan-Qing Dynasty (China) War, the Japan-Russia War, WW1, and WW2. It is a sacred place where many souls are at rest. So, please do not forget to pay your respects at Fuji Sengen Shrine before you go to the observation deck behind the pagoda.
My next visit to a scenic spot with Mt. Fuji was Oishi Park, located on the shores of Lake Kawaguchi. It’s my favorite place because I can take photos of Mt. Fuji behind the park’s flower garden and the lake. Each season, different seasonal flowers bloom in the garden. Since it was lavender’s peak season in July, the site was filled with a slightly deep purple color and a lovely aroma. I enjoyed the perfect, wide cone shape of Mt. Fuji and the calm, yet somewhat hazy, ripples on the lake’s water.
During my short journey to Lake Kawaguchi, a fantastic surprise happened.
When I was walking down from the pagoda to the Torii, the main gate of the shrine, I came across a woman approaching the pagoda, and I said to her, “Hello, it’s a nice day, isn’t it?” and she replied, “Indeed”, which kicked off an attractive chat between us. She is a local who has been living there and has enjoyed walking to the observation deck every morning for more than fifty years. She told me that she and her husband love to take care of visitors from abroad and enjoy chatting with them, even though they are not very good at speaking English. She often invites the visitors to her house and offers tea. Today, I was also invited to her home, and I was surprised to see her caring and entertaining spirit. Please take a look at the photos of her house. She decorated traditional Japanese rooms with conventional ornaments and dolls in an attempt to share her culture with her guests.
Their smiles are so lovely and heartfelt that I wanted to stay and listen more to her story with visitors from various nations. One of them even invited her and her husband to the wedding party in Vietnam later. Amazing!
Could you look at the picture in a frame between us? On the right is Dr. Omura, the Nobel laureate in physics, and on the left is she. Surprisingly, Dr. Omura is a relative of hers. I took a picture with her at the same house where Dr. Omura visited. It was a great surprise, greater than Mt. Fuji!!
We promised to see each other again here, probably when sunflowers start blooming in her house garden.
Thank you for reading my blog post. If you want to see Mt. Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi, and take a tea break at her house, please get in touch with me via the “Contact me!” box. I would like to chat with her together with you!
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