While I was growing up in Japan, I heard about the Mt. Fuji many times.
The first chance for me to see the Mt. Fuji was when we went to Hakone and Tokyo on our middle-school Syugakuryoko (school excursion before graduation) in 1960. Unfortunately, the weather did not permit us to see this mountain from Jikkoku Pass. However, we could see it next day, from Enoshima, Kamakura, although the mountain looked very small at a distant location.
In 1964, I had to visit Tokyo in order to take an entrance examination for a university in Tokyo. When our train passed the Fuji area, the sky was clear and looked cold. The snow-covered mountain was shining.
After that, I took trains on the old and new Tokaido lines many times as I lived in the Tokyo area from 1964 to 1974 and my hometown was Gifu.
In the summer of 1969, I passed Yashajin Pass near the Mt. Kitadake in the Southern Japan Alps on my way to the Hakuou Sanzan. When I reached the pass on foot, I could see the upper part of the Mt. Fuji above the clouds. It looked dark almost in black.
I live in Corvallis, Oregon, USA since 1982. I would like to tell something about Mt. Fuji in Oregon someday. Also, Mt. Hood was called Oregon Fuji by Japanese immigrants.
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