Every New Year, my wife, Azusa, and I go back to her hometown in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, to visit her parents and see Mount Fuji. We inevitably eat my mother-in-law’s toshikoshi soba (year-end buckwheat noodles), then go to bed late New Year’s Eve, and drag ourselves out of bed bright and early on New Year’s Day to see the hatsuhinode, or first sunrise of the New Year. It’s always the same drill, where we’re running a little late in the morning as my father-in-law drives us all out to the Fujikawa-Rakuza roadside rest area in the neighboring city of Fuji.
Fujinomiya and the Fujikawa-Rakuza Roadside Rest AreA
Fujikawa-Rakuza roadside rest area, January 1, 2023.
First sunrise of the New Year.
Fujikawa-Rakuza has a Ferris wheel and lookout window that offer a nice view of the horizon, Mount Fuji, and the Fujikawa River. In years past, however, the weather conditions have never been ideal around sunrise time. We’ve had some beautiful days where the sky cleared up later in the morning, but more often than not, the mountain was veiled in clouds when the sun first peeked over the horizon.
Today was different. Today the sky was perfectly clear, and we could see Mount Fuji right as we left the house, though the street-level view of it is sometimes obscured by buildings or power lines in my in-laws’ neighborhood.
A street with a straight-on view of Mount Fuji in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, January 2022.
Fujinomiya does have some great lookout points of its own. A few years back, I wrote a whole GaijinPot Travel entry about it, with some photos from the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center, Shizuoka.
Fuji-san from the outdoor terrace on the top floor of the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center, Shizuoka, May 2018.
Today’s sunrise was at 6:54 a.m., though, and the World Heritage Center opens at 9 a.m. Other scenic local spots like Lake Tanuki and Shiraito Falls are a farther drive. Fujinomiya is spread out over 150 square miles, and while Shiraito Falls has a nearby walking trail with a view over forest trees, its parking lot doesn’t open until 9 a.m., either.
Mount Fuji from the Shiraito Falls trail, January 2017.
Fuji-san from Lake Tanuki in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, January 2020.
You can see the mountain mirrored in Lake Tanuki.
Last year, we broke from tradition and waited until the second weekend of January to visit Fujinomiya. And instead of staying with my in-laws, we booked a room right across from Fujinomiya Station at the Kuretake Inn, where we had a commanding view of Mount Fuji and the surrounding city from the rooftop.
Mount Fuji from the roof of the Kuratake Inn Premium Fujinomiya, January 2022.
Mask down, but not off (like it probably should have been for photogenic reasons), in this onetime Twitter profile pic.
It would be tough to follow up those elevated views. Unfortunately, January isn’t the climbing season for Mount Fuji, so you can’t watch the year’s first sunrise from there, either. But when we saw how clear it was this morning, Azusa and I did the next best thing and rode the Ferris wheel at Fujikawa-Rakuza. It was good to be on top of the world with Mount Fuji again as we rang in the Year of the Rabbit (as 2023 is designated, according to the Chinese zodiac).
An Elevated View of Mount Fuji (and Travel Blogging)
View from the top of the Fujikawa-Rakuza Ferris wheel, January 1, 2023.
After the Ferris wheel ride, we drove back to Fujinomiya and did our ritual hatsumode (first shrine visit of the New Year) at Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha. As I was walking around my in-laws’ neighborhood later, I got to thinking about travel and life goals.
View of Mount Fuji and the Fujikawa River from the Fujikawa-Rakuza Ferris wheel.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2023 is to update this blog more regularly. With as prolific as my movie news job requires me to be in terms of daily article output (I usually hammer out 2,500 words or more), it shouldn’t be that much more difficult for me to whip up a travel-related post here at least once a week. It’s better than inhaling the Musk of Twitter …
The Fujikawa-Rakuza Ferris wheel in Fuji, Shizuoka.
What helps is that Azusa and I have been getting out and about in Tokyo and actually, you know, traveling outside the capital again since the middle of last year. Doing so keeps me connected to the place where I’m living, as opposed to the nebulous place where I’m working, online.
Welcome sign at the Fujikawa-Rakuza roadside rest area.
This all goes to say that you may see an uptick in new activity here on the blog in 2023, with me showing more of life in Japan in pictures and in words. It will be pure-grain me: ad-free, and not something that’s going to have stock photos inserted or be rewritten and flattened into a piece of SEO content by an editor whose voice doesn’t match my own.
If 2022 was the Year of the Vampire, then maybe — in addition to the Year of the Rabbit — 2023 can be the Year of the Traveler. As they say in Japanese: akemashite omedetou. Happy New Year to anyone who might be reading this, human, rabbit, or otherwise.
Year of the Rabbit sign at Fujisan Hongu Sengen Shrine, January 1, 2023.