MOUNT FUJI

MOUNT FUJI


Mount Fuji's famous cone shape and snow-capped peak make it one of the world's most recognizable mountains. It is also sacred to the Japanese people.

A volcanic country

Mount Fuji rises 12,388 feet above Honshu, the largest of Japan's islands. It is the highest of the country's 186 volcanoes, and one of around 60 that are still active. When Mount Fuji last erupted, in 1707, ash covered the city of Tokyo 62 miles away. There is a post office at the summit of Mount Fuji Letters posted from here carry the postmark "Japan's highest point.' Around 300,000 people climb Mount Fuji every year. It was against the law for women to climb Mount Fuji until 1872.

The crater

The crater at the top of Mount Fuji is covered in snow for eight months of the year. Many climbers walk around the top of the crater, which is about 2,000 feet across. Mount Fuji actually consists of three separate volcanoes. These have erupted over a period of hundreds of thousands of years, changing the shape of the mountain dramatically. The mountain we see today was formed when the three volcanoes erupted around 10,000 years ago. In 2006 Shigeyoshi Sasaki set a new record by climbing Mount Fuji 121 times in one year.

Pilgrims

Thousands of torch- carrying climbers head for the summit of Mount Fuji in time to see the spectacular sunrise. At the summit there is a shrine to the goddess Konohana-sakuya, known as the Blossom Princess. According to legend, this beautiful princess didn't grow old, so she rode to the top of Mount Fuji on a white horse and ascended to Heaven.