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This watery mirror is one of a chain of beautiful little lakes extending around the north side of the mountain. You are looking nearly southeast. Tokyo is about seventy miles distant at the east, i. e. farther towards your left.

Did you ever see such marvellous reflections from an original twelve miles away? The cone that you see glittering with September snow is twelve miles from where you stand here on the lake shore, yet see how perfectly every shadow-streaked hollow is echoed by these still waters!

The ascent is tiresome, but not difficult as mountain-climbing goes. Several routes are available; the most popular are around at the other side of the mountain by way of Gotemba. After the low line of forest has been passed, there is almost no vegetation--those long, curving slopes are the contours of a thick coat of volcanic cinders, thrown out during ancient eruptions from the huge crater at the top; when you are slowly plodding up one of those slopes, you seem to be crawling up the side of a gigantic ash-heap. The cinders are sharp and you must take several extra pairs of tough straw sandals with you to protect your feet during the entire journey. You cannot spare your own feet by riding a horse beyond a certain fixed point on the lower slopes; respect for the sacred shrines on the mountain requires everybody to make the larger part of the ascent on foot, and at least thirty thousand Japanese (mostly country folk, of small means) do make the pious pilgrimage each year. There are a great many little temples on the way up, where the priests will stamp certain marks on a pilgrim's garments as a souvenir of the visit, and great religious merit attaches to a stay over night on the summit, a circuit of the crater's open mouth and a prayer to the sun when he is seen rising from the sea.

(Read Scidmore's "Jinrikisha Days in Japan," etc.)
From Notes of Travel, No. 8, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.

Snow-Capped Fuji Mirrored in Lake Shoji; Japan.
Le Fuji Couronné de Neige et Miroité dans le Lac Shoji; Japon.
Spiegelbild des ichneebededten Fuji im Shoji-See; Japan.
Fuji Coronado de Nieve Espejeado en el Lago Shoji; Japón.
Snöbetäckta Fuji speglad i Shojiinsjön; Japan.

Отраженіе снѣгомъ покрытого Фужи въ озерѣ Шожи; Японія.