Mt Fuji from the Shinkansen?

[ginny]

Hi all,

This might seem like a silly question, but humour me please

My sister and her boyfriend arrive here tomorrow and we're going travelling to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo.

We'll be travelling via Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo and looking at Google Maps etc it appears that we 'should' be able to see Mt Fuji from the train?? I've never actually travelled this route by train before so can anyone tell me if it's possible to see it??

If it is, we'll buy reserved seats on the left-side of the train as it's my sister's first time in Japan so she would be really excited by the prospect of seeing Mt Fuji from a bullet train

Thanks for any info!

Ginny

[mingpagoda]

There's really no way to say for sure that you'll be able to see it from the train (though it is possible). If it's cloudy or if there's a high concentration of Gobi dust in the air that day, then it will be obscured.

That said, you *can* see it while on the bullet train. It just has to be a clear day.

[ginny]

OK thanks Ming - that's good enough for me!! Will do my best to book seats on the left-side of the train without telling them and hopefully it will be a nice surprise on the way to Tokyo

Thanks again!!

[coolscribe]

I have been that way about 6 times on a train. Never seen Fuji from it though.....

[oofers]

I saw it.

Coolscribe's a liar.

That's right. I said it.

[clover]

Hi there. I have seen Mt Fuji from my train seat, and I sent my parents this info when they visited last year:

>About getting from Tokyo to Kanazawa, you can get a train either slightly north around the mountains, or slightly south. There's no difference, really, but if you get the one going south, and you sit on the right, you can see Mount Fuji. So that's the only reason I recommend it.
For this journey, you will change at Maibara 米原, which is about after 1 hour 30 mins.
The other option is through Echigo-Yuzawa 越後湯沢, which takes about the same or a little longer.

Between Osaka and Tokyo specifically, I'm not sure, but I think you can check on the Hyperdia website what time the trains via Maibara run. And if your visitors are on the JR Pass make sure you don't take a Nozomi train.

Happy Travels!

[gary]

Here you go:

SafariSnapz001.jpg (71.74 KiB) Viewed 1259 times

This is Google Maps just where the highway passes over the Shinkansen

and a video on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antimega/2397432981/

[japanna]

Us Southerners usually travel that way to Tokyo when we go (via Maibara). I've always seen Fuji when I've gone by. Never had as good a shot of it as this one Micycle took in December though. I passed Fuji 3 hours later and the cloud had come down by then

photo.jpg (69.55 KiB) Viewed 1227 times

[ginny]

Thanks heaps everyone... unfortunately we travelled on a terrible weather day so couldn't see more than about a kilometre from the train... but we did see a fantastic, clear Fuji from Kawaguchi-ko a week later!!