An Awe-Inspiring Symbol

Today is a chance to immerse ourselves in nature with a vist to one of the most famous sights in Japan. Mount Fuji became a symbol of Japan due to its natural beauty, cultural significance, and religious importance. The mountain's symmetrical shape and snow-capped peak have inspired awe and respect among the Japanese people for centuries. It has been an object of worship in both Shintoism and Buddhism religions. Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano composed of basalt, a dark-colored, fine-grained igneous rock formed from cooled lava flows. It erupts about every 500 years, the most recent eruption being on December 16, 1707.

Mount Fuji stands at 12,388 feet tall. It can be seen from from all prefectures (districts) of Japan inclulding cities of Yokohama, Tokyo, and even from space during a space shuttle mission.

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano composed of basalt, a dark-colored, fine-grained igneous rock formed from cooled lava flows. It has a high eruption frequency, with approximately 180 eruptions over the last 5,600 years.The last confirmed eruption of Mount Fuji in reliable records is the "Hoei eruption" in December 1707, which lasted more than half a month and resulted in a considerable amount of volcanic ash falling even in Edo (current Tokyo).

We visited the Mount Fuji World Heritage center on a crystal clear day, affording us majestic views of the country's highest mountain.

We also visited the Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine, located in the foothills of Mt. Fuji and built in the early 1600s, a period of intense volcanic activity on Mount Fuji. The shrine features a unique, two-story construction built in the Sengen architectural style. There, of course, Jeff found a statue of a mounted archerer, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate in the late 12th century. The statue commemorates his hunt in 1193, and the shrine tradition tells the story of the origin of Sengen Taisha, which was built to appease the kami of the mountain and to protect the inhabitants from the many eruptions of Mount Fuji at the time.

After a brief break we left the Shrine and Mt. Fuji and started to make our way back to port and to reboard the Seranade of the Seas, aka home.

It was about an hour trip back to "home" and along the way we saw vast fields of green tea. ount Fuji, is one of Japan's most prolific tea-producing regions, with 40% of Japan's green tea grown there. The area is known for its fertile soil and clean water, which are rich in minerals due to the volcanic activity of Mount Fuji. There were also cemeteries in the area near Mount Fuji are typically located adjacent to temples, and they are quite different from cemeteries in Western countries. The graves are always cremated, and the grave markers are uniquely shaped, with Buddhist influences. And, as I mentioned in my blog post Tokyo, we couldn't help but notice the gleaming trucks and I thought my brother and nephew would be interested in this road construction job.

(Proud to have been born into a trucking family, I'm always a dedicated advocate for trucks and impressive transportation infrastructure.) Back at the ship, we had quite a send off from the locals with music, crowds gathered at the shore and fireworks. It was nice to be so welcomed in a foreign country. Oh, and one last photo of Mt. Fuji from our balcony on the ship as we departed ....