The Arakurayama Sengen park is best known for Instagramable pictures against the backdrop of Mt Fuji. The best time for pictures is Autumn when the foliage turns into hues of red, orange and yellow and the skies are clear enough to get an unobstructed view of Mt Fuji.
We set out in the extended summer that 2023 had brought with it and the late September weather was still warm. The Sun darted between the clouds but the summer heat was all pervasive.
The drive to Fujiyoshida city 富士吉田市 where the park is located is a relatively easy drive on the Metropolitan Expressway Shinjuku line which joins the Chuo Jidosha Road. The tricky part is on the final stretch where you need to take a sharp left besides the railway line, turn into a narrow road and finally leads to the parking spot for the park.
Parking is free and there is an attendant who guides you to to the empty spaces which were filling up fast on that late summer weekend.
The park also serves as the starting point to a few hiking routes however most of the people who were crowding the place this day were there for the pictures.
The visitor needs to climb 398 steps to reach the observation deck behind the five storey pagoda to reach the perfect spot for photography. There is a sloping path for those unwilling to climb steps providing a relatively easy gradient.
Tourists and locals milled around the observation deck built behind the Pagoda looking for prime spots for selfies while a couple came with a photographer in tow for what was possibly prenuptial photography. The couple were speaking Thai and so did the photographer so they had spent some serious money on capturing their prenuptial arrangements.
The Pagoda, known as the Chureito Pagoda is an imitation of the Shitenno-ji temple 四天王寺5 storey pagoda. The Shitenno-ji temple as I later discovered is in Osaka that was built in 593 AD and is a major tourist attraction
The Pagoda at the Arakurayama Sengen Park was built between 1959-62 and is a monument to 960 residents of Fujiyoshida who died in various wars from the Sino Japanese war of 1868 to the 2nd World War that ended in 1945.
Mt Fuji however disappointed, it stayed firmly behind the clouds and even though the Sun drifted in and out from behind the clouds the mountain remained firmly curtained.
No amount of money spent that day was going to result in the perfect picture that everyone came for.
There are two vantage points for the perfect pictures, behind the Pagoda , the spires captured in front of the mountain. The other spot was much further down the small hill, is at the shrine at the base of the hill. The Shrine Gate or Tori, as it is known in Japanese is another vantage point. Mt Fuji is visible from between the temple gates with the autumn foliage in the foreground.
The park and the vantage points that allow for picturesque photography were apparently not famous before 2015 when Michelin Guide to Japan put up a picture on its front cover. By spring 2019 the place was so famous that visitors had to line up for an hour to get to the observation deck.
There is a single food truck serving any tourists who fancies a bite, the couple who run it will hand out tokens after you place an order and wait times during lunch hours can be 15-20 minutes.
A few benches provide a view of the town and since they are located close to the food truck a place to site and eat.
The parking was almost full by the time we left, there is a narrow road serving as the exit, joining a single carriage road which curves around the narrow street leading to the train tracks where you turn right and join the main road.
We missed the expressway exit and had to turn around and come back, stopping at traffic lights across a confusing intersection. After waiting for a few minutes for the lights to turn green, the one of the occupants of the car behind us got down and pressed a button on a pole. Apparently this particular light turned green only if you pressed the button!
The traffic on the expressway to Tokyo was heavy, a car behind us trying to change lanes inside a tunnel and the truck behind it hit the car which in turn scraped our car, we had to wait for the traffic police to come to file a report and by the time it was finished the traffic was heavier and it took us another 3 hours before we were home in Tokyo!
