Not that it is often, but every time I fly to or from Tokyo, I try to book seats on the side of the plane that offer views of Mount Fuji. Seeing this mountain is always something special, and even more so seeing it from up high. Returning from Sweden both last year and this, we were so fortunate as to be able to clearly see the snow covered top beneath us as well as parts of the Southern Japanese Alps mountain chain. Lately my son has been very interested in volcanos so we did a lot of volcano-talk on the plane while he was busy with his new dinosaur sticker book (which of course contains a lot of volcanos). Especially erupting volcanos are a subject of great curiosity but also fear, and seeing the awe inspiring Mount Fuji down below, it really came over me how I wish that this mountain will get many many more years of undisturbed beauty sleep in the decades and centuries to come.
Loving to take photos, having a window seat (or at least having a son with a window seat) with a clear view of Mount Fuji is somewhat of a photographer’s dream. Of course you have to deal with all kinds of restraints when it comes to doing aerial photography from a commercial airplane. Having the sun shining straight through the window makes reflections a nightmare but there was another more difficult problem to overcome. I am used to airplanes with windows that can be covered with a pull-down blind. This aircraft however, had no blinds and instead there were buttons under the window that when pushed tinted the window dark dark blue. The built in blueness itself was trouble enough, but having a button-pushing-loving toddler to convince not to darken the window when Mount Fuji was approaching was, I think, the toughest part of all the journey back from Sweden. But we made it work. Somehow we always make things work together, and knowing that is such a source of confidence when going around the world.
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