Night Cherry Blossom Mount Fuji, Japan

            I visited Japan twice in two months this year, one for business trip and one for family trip.

During the first trip, my wife was kind enough to release me from the kid duty and extend my business trip for a few more days to visit Mount Fuji, hoping that I could take some good cherry blossom photos. After I landed in Tokyo, my first crazy photography story (as always) started.

I reserved a rental car at Odawara, which is closest to Fujinomiya where my hotel is and still has a rental agency. Being the first time been to Tokyo, I had no clue what the train system looks like, and I failed spectacularly when I changed train at Yokohama: I took the wrong train and only realized it 10min later. By the time, there is no chance I could change another train because the agency would close before I arrive. So I improvised and went back to Yokohama and rented a car at a Toyota rental agency near the train station. I was lucky that they still had a car available. Also, it was interesting how they deal with foreigners speaking English - they have an iPad that dials a translator in to speak with me!

So, after 11 hours of flight, 3 hours of multiple training ridings and renting the car, I was finally on my way to Fujinomiya. At 11PM.

The next day, I woke up at 4am and went to the classic viewpoint. It was raining heavily. I knew that there was no chance that I could see sunrise, but heck what else could I miss. Luckily and unluckily, the cherry was still not blossoming! Then I knew, maybe there is still a chance that year because of my planned second family trip! After I got home, my wife and I made the last minute change to our family trip's itinerary to include Mount Fuji.

Fast forward one month later, we landed at Tokyo. I led my family to the same Toyota rental agency at Yokohama and got the car without any problem - it almost felt like DejaVu :)

We arrived at the hotel at the exact time - 11pm. We woke up at the exact time - 4am. We hiked up to the same viewpoint, only that this time there were tons of people already having their tripods set up, waiting for the magic moment. I was lucky to be able to squeeze in and took some shot. 

The cherry was blossoming, the sky was clear, the moon was setting, the mountain was waiting for the first sun ray to cast on its head.

Perfect.

Taken on: April 9, 2023

Tags:

japan

mountfuji

moonset

sunrise

night

moon

cherry

cherryblossom

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Sets appears in: • Travel • Japan

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Camera: RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. PENTAX K-1, f/8.0, 3 sec, 24mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. PENTAX K-1
Lens:	HD PENTAX-D FA 24-70mm F2.8ED SDM WR
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	3
Focal Length:	24mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 25.7 (Windows)
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