Mount Fuji & Hakone

The most famous mountain in Japan is reliably shy — Fuji-san is shrouded in cloud most of the year and only fully visible on a few hundred days. The best base for trying is Hakone, the hot-spring resort area an hour from Tokyo on the Romancecar, where a circuit of cable car, pirate-ship lake crossing, and open-air sculpture museum doubles as a Fuji-spotting itinerary. The climbing season is short (early July to early September) and the climb is a nine-hour shuffle in a long line. The view of Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi at dawn is the better photograph either way.

Mount Fuji reflected in Lake Kawaguchi at dawn, snow-capped peak with faint pink alpenglow, single fishing boat in the foreground — Mount Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi at dawn.

Modernist sculptures spread across rolling green hillsides at Hakone Open-Air Museum, distant forested mountains in bright afternoon light — Hakone Open-Air Museum.

Hakone Ropeway gondola crossing a volcanic valley with sulfurous steam rising from Owakudani below, Mount Fuji visible in the distance — Hakone Ropeway over Owakudani.

A replica wooden sailing ship cruising the deep blue caldera waters of Lake Ashi, forested mountains rising on either side, Mount Fuji on the horizon — Lake Ashi sightseeing boat.

The red torii gate of Hakone Shrine standing in the waters of Lake Ashi at dusk, mist rising from the lake surface, dense forest behind — Hakone Shrine torii in Lake Ashi.

Steam rising from a traditional ryokan stone hot-spring bath at dawn with snow on the distant peak of Mount Fuji, autumn maples around the bath — Ryokan onsen with a Fuji view.

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