Yesterday was the Spring Equinox, when day equals night and Spring officially starts. In Japan the day is a national holiday called ‘Shunbun no Hi’ and part of a week long celebration called ‘Higan’ during which Japanese people pay respects to their ancestors by visiting graves, cleaning them and offering incense and presents to console the ancestral spirits. Shunbun no Hi is also a day when people engage in a communion with nature and a celebration of all living things.
This year it was a beautiful day and, with Japan not subscribing to the Daylight Saving System, the first time in my life that I would actually experience a real Equinox with day and night being equal without having to worry about forwarding my clock before going to bed. So we decided to go to Kawaguchiko (Lake Kawaguchi) one of the five lakes in the periphery of Mount Fuji, and apparently one of the best places from which to observe and witness the majesty of Japan’s most famous attraction, and quite possibly one of the world’s best known mountains.
I can see Fujisan (the Japanese name for the mountain - which shows the respect and adoration which the Japanese have for the old volcano) from where I live on a clear day, however no matter how impressive it’s been to see the mountain from where I live and work, nothing could quite prepare me for witnessing it from close up.
The journey to Kawaguchiko took about 2h30, with a beautiful train ride from the west of Greater Tokyo into the mountains, via hills, valleys and quiet little villages - all of which are served by a train which rides all the way into central Tokyo. Once in Otsuki, the terminus of the Tokyo JR line we had to switch to a local train, which took us to Kawaguchiko. As with a lot of Japanese trains it seems that the word express is most definitely used loosely - we took the express train rather than the local, a difference of only 10 minutes and at the pace the train goes you really wonder who in the hell thought it’d be a good idea to call it express.
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