Mt Fuji
This is my second trip to Mt Fuji, the first time around was a day trip from Tokyo, and it was so wet, foggy and overcast, we could barely see 5 feet in front of us. I think we got a glimpse of the foothills and that was about it! Otherwise I've seen Fuji-san from the Shinkansen on the way to Osaka or Kyoto. On this trip I was really looking forward to spending a couple of days in one of the towns below, Kawaguchiko. Looking at the weather forecast before I left Australia, I swapped my trip to Fuji-San from the start to the end of my stay in Tokyo (it looked like the only time it would be clear!).
This meant that I was staying close to Mt Fuji Station, 2 train stops from Kawaguchiko. This caused a small issue with me wanting to be up shooting images at Kawaguchiko early in the morning, well before the first train.
I stayed at Family Lodge Hatagoya Fujiyoshida which was a roadside motel. It was clean, comfortable and had large rooms and only a 5 minute walk to the station.
Honcho St
There were a couple of images I really wanted to shoot, both of which I'd saved on instagram over the years - looking up at Fuji-san from Shimoyoshida Honcho St in Fujiyoshida, and the Lawson konbini at Kawaguchiko. I've always wanted to capture images of Fuji-San towering over the town below, there's something about the difference in scale - the sublime power of nature contrasted with everyday humanity.
Both of these are insta-famous, meaning I'd need to be there pretty early to get a clean shot before the usual crowd of tik-tokers and influencers arrived. It's an interesting thing shooting these spots. It's almost like collecting trophies, and putting your own stamp on them. Even though you have taken the image, and from your perspective, there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of similar images. I wonder what drives the desire to add to that pool?
As well as grabbing those insta-trophies, I had a full day and morning to explore, so could really take my time and enjoy being in such an incredible spot.
To get here from Tokyo, I caught the 5:44am train from Shinjuku Station to Otsuki Station, then the 7:24 train to Shimoyoshida Station arriving 8:01am. It was then a 10-15 minute walk to Honcho St, where I was able to get the image below before the street got too crowded. There was already a line forming for other tourists to take their photos crossing the street! After this shoot I checked in at my hotel.
For the main image below, I really wanted to maximise the appearance of Fuji-San relative to the street below, so I used a 173mm lens to really compress the scene. I got as low and as far back as I could (not very far!) whilst lining up the street. I then took 6 images that I used to create the panorama that you see below. I couldn't get any further back, so each image is only a segment of the image. I did quite a few of these, and quite a few failed as focus was mixed between component images - some would have the mountain in focus and some the street signs in focus, with the mountain out of focus. Next time I try a similar shot, I'll lock in my focus on manual to eliminate this problem.
Alternatively, using a focal length closer to 100mm eliminated the need to shoot the scene as separate images and was vastly easier, and only had a minor impact on the compression in the scene. The street image above is a single capture at 105mm. I think I prefer that image as it feels a little more local/less commercial (even with the power pole obstruction). For this shot, I explored the streets to either side of the main street looking for alternatives.
Lake Kawaguchi
After checking into my hotel, I caught the train to Kawaguchiko where I rented a bike to ride around Lake Kawaguchi and look for photo opportunities for sunset and sunrise with Fuji-San in the background. It's around a 4 hour ride around the lake (depending on how often you stop for photos!!).
I rented the bike for 24 hours from Sora-no-Shita so I could ride from my hotel back to Kawaguchiko at around 5:00am!!! I had planned to get an e-bike especially due to the early morning ride mostly uphill, but I forgot to check and ended up with a regular bike (I don't think this store stocks e-bikes anymore, there are other rental stores that do). Cycling around the Lake is quite flat and relatively easy, but the assistance of the e-bike would have been welcome. I was really regretting it early the next morning. I'm tall, and the bikes are a little on the small side.
The ride around the lake was really nice. After a hectic few days in Tokyo, I had an entire afternoon to take my time cycling around, looking for interesting spots to shoot. I found that the first third of the route (anti-clockwise) was the most interesting as you are looking across the lake back towards Fuji. The rest was nice to ride around and look at the scenery and life around the lake, but wasn't super dramatic. As I was only there for a day and a half, my mind was firmly in the space of looking for images with Mt Fuji.
Even though it was too clear for a 'beautiful' sunset or sunrise, I was more interested in side light, and the way it could lift the scene, particularly one side of the mountain, and any objects or people that I wanted to include in my frame.
The first spot that I really liked was the lookout just below the opposite side of the Lake Kawaguchi Grand Bridge. On the map it's near the '9 Azagawa' spot. There are a bunch of dilapidated boats to use in the foreground, and a clear view over to the mountain. The shot below was a few hours after sunrise. After seeing this spot on my ride, I came back here the next morning.
A spot that's also pretty famous to shoot from is the Lavender garden near the Kawaguchiko Natural Living Centre (Oishi Park on the map). While there wasn't any lavender blooming, there was delicious soft serve at the cafe, and lots of people around. I spotted these two fabulously fashionable people strolling along the foreshore in front of the lavender plants.
My absolute favourite spot was a grove of trees along the foreshore near the Kawaguchi Museum of Art. On the map it's the aqua dot just to the left of the yellow star that says (Kanjukuya). During cherry blossom season this spot would be extra extra amazing and probably packed. In late March, there were no blooms, but the sun sets to the west of this spot sending beautiful light streaming across - perfect to light up the mountain as well as people riding their bikes or walking past.
For the shot below left I looked for some of rocks to frame the mountain I backed up a fair way, zoomed in to around 100mm to compress the scene, and had my camera on the ground to eliminate almost all of the foreground, and to hide the bridge and lake.
I spent maybe an hour and a half in the lead up to sunset in this grove shooting people walking and riding past. I used a chair as a grounding device, and as much as possible tried to use it to hide the bridge, which I felt distracted from the composition. Most of these shots were between 50 and 85mm, with the majority at the long end. I really loved trying to capture people walking directly under the peak of the mountain, creating a symmetrical and powerful composition.
My early shots were focussed on the mountain, but when reviewing the images I found that most of the people were quite out of focus, and the images just didn't work. I then swapped to continuous focus with a wide zone of focus, and let the camera focus on the people as they came past. This made for far better images.
My initial thoughts were to have the mountain clearly in focus, but I realised it was far more effective to see the people as the central point of the image, and the mountain is unmistakeable in focus or slightly out. The images worked much better then, and there were a few images I threw away from the earlier set that would have been INCREDIBLE. My favourite in the set below is the girl riding from left to right with her phone up I think while she was in a video call :).
It was sooooo cold after the sun went down and I was super hungry. I stopped in at Kanjyukuya a local restaurant serving 'Hoto' noodles. According to google: "Farm-to-table restaurant serving seasonal menus & sake in a cozy 19th-century house". After a day of riding around, the huge portion of hot noodle soup with pork and lots of veggies, with tempura and a beer was just incredible. I really really enjoyed that meal!
Fuji-San Konbinis
One of the other insta-trophies at Kawaguchiko is the famous Lawson with Fuji-San in the background.
Knowing that this spot gets absolutely packed with the influencer set early in the morning, I rode my bike from Mt Fuji station early in the morning, arriving around an hour before sunrise (6am). I wanted to photograph this spot just before the sun rose, when the light on the mountain was still beautiful and soft, and the Lawson was empty of people and cars. This time of morning also meant that the interior lights of the store would really stand out and take us inside, whereas later in the day it would recede far more into shadow.
There were a few cars pulling in that I had to wait for, including one lady who sat in her car for maybe 10 minutes after shopping. That was getting closer and closer to sunrise, and more people were turning up to photograph, so I was getting super nervous that my shot would be ruined if she stayed for too long!
There is a small area over the road set aside for tourists, against the wall of a building, so it's quite a narrow space just on the other side of the road. Again I wanted to shoot at a relatively long focal length to maximise the size of Fuji-San, and managed around 70mm. The shot below is a composite of two side by side images.
From just after sunrise there is a constant stream of people having their photograph or video taken here. Lots of girls walking towards the entrance and glancing back over their shoulder while their dutiful boyfriends filmed multiple takes.
Later on once the sun had risen, I wanted to photograph the 7-11 just around the corner, as it faced the rising sun and would catch beautiful light on its facade. I had much more room to manoeuvre here, so was able to increase my focal length to 105mm. This is a composite of three side by side images. You can tell Fuji-San looks that little bit larger than the previous shot (but only slightly). Even though there is a car in this image, it's just such a typical Japanese car, that I think it works. Unlike the earlier Lawson image, the outside light is much stronger, so we can't see as much inside the store. The car adds a nice touch!
A shot at the train station as I madly rode between Lawson and 7-11, the light on the mountain was still nice and soft.
Later in the morning as I was exploring side streets around Kawaguchiko Station before my train back to Tokyo. This was shot down a lane near Lawson.
I really enjoy photographing scenes like this with my camera almost on the ground. It minimises boring concrete foregrounds and gives dominance to the characters in the image.
