"Look". The girl who was standing in the train aisle touched my shoulder and pointed to the window. She looked Dutch and traveled with her two blond children with very pink cheeks; I was distracted, reading, and if it had not been for her I missed it: the train was moving at more than 300 kilometers per hour and in my window appeared the complete Mount Fuji. It was the first time we saw him in two and a half months traveling around Japan, a few days before flying from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur. It had some clouds at the top but its symmetrical shape was recognizable. Mount Fuji must be one of the most identifiable mountains in the world, and finally it was seen on the same horizon that was always covered in fog. It was much bigger than I imagined and was closer than I thought. A few minutes later, it disappeared.
This was one of the pictures he can take while we were moving at full speed.
We had doubted whether to visit the Mount Fuji region or not. Our original plan was to stay for three months working remotely from Tokyo, but once we arrived in Japan it was difficult not to want to travel. The excuse was always the same: since we are in ______, why do not we go to _______? Total is close. What almost always ended up slowing or limiting us were the prices: traveling through Japan is easy and expensive. If you go with a lot of budget is ideal, if you want to save you stress. At the end we arrived to Hiroshima and on the way back from Kansai to Tokyo we decided to stop at Kawaguchiko, one of the five lakes located near the base of Mt. Total we have left of step.
Second view of Mount Fuji, this time from the collective.
The train left us in the city of Mishima, where we got on the bus that went to Kawaguchi. Mount Fuji followed us for almost two hours, like the Mona Lisa that always looks at you or the moon that seems to move in the same direction as you. We got off at the town station, crossed the street, leaned against the wall of a restaurant and stayed up for several minutes. It was 1 ° C but we did not feel the cold. There was Fuji-san, closer than ever, with the top white and clear, covering half the sky. During the following days, all I did was look at it from different angles. The first thing I learned from Mount Fuji: there are things that I will never tire of contemplating.
The station of Kawaguchiko with Mount in the background
Same place, the next day.
"The great wave of Kanagawa", by Hokusai
For many years I had this background drawing on my computer. It was my favorite work by Hokusai, a Japanese artist who knew little but attracted me a lot. Now I realize that I never looked at the drawing with attention, because I just discovered that the background is not one more wave, but Mount Fuji. The drawing belongs to the "36 views of Mount Fuji", a series of prints made by the artist in his 70s, between 1830 and 1833. Mount Fuji is a cultural, geographical and religious symbol of Japan and is considered sacred centuries ago . The Japanese relate it to immortality and there is a belief, arising from the story of the bamboo cutter, which says that on the top of the mountain is hidden the elixir of eternal life. Hokusai, like many other artists and poets, had an obsession with the mountain and spent several years observing and portraying it. When he painted the wave, he had been drawing for 64 years. Hokusai began his artistic activity at age 6 and produced more than 30,000 works.
In the prologue to the publication of "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji," another series of prints, Hokusai wrote:
"At the age of five he had the habit of making outlines of things. At the age of 50 he had produced a large number of drawings, yet none had a true merit until the age of 70. At 73 I finally learned something about the true form of things, birds, animals, insects, fish, herbs or trees. Therefore at the age of 80 I will have made some progress, at 90 I will have penetrated more into the essence of art. At 100 I will have finally reached an exceptional level and at 110, every point and every line of my drawings will have a life of my own. "
He died at 89 years old. Seeing Mount Fuji through my window, and no longer from a screen, made me feel connected to the work of an artist I admire. Second learning of Mount Fuji: it takes almost a lifetime to learn to look at the same element.
I spent the next two days going by bus through the five lakes. There is a hop-on hop-off transport system that allows you to skirt the lakes and go up and down at each stop without having to pay the ticket again. When you buy the pass you get a map with the points from where you can see the Mount. I went to almost everyone and every time I met him in front it was like seeing him for the first time. I even wanted to make obeisance to him, to kiss him or to show him, in some way, how awesome it was to see him live.
This was one of the first views, from the Oishi Park
View with autumn leaves
