Trash spoiling Japan's sacred Mount Fuji

AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/8/07 | Carl Freire - ap

[ASOC]

I spent some time out in the Komi Republic, the train tracks ened there.

The town we worked out of was about 25 to 30K folks. All around town was a heaps of trash. Nasty, but I guess it was under snow most of the year.

And the rats! Oy!

[Billthedrill]

You are correct, and so was the reporter. Fuji-san is not traditionally (or popularly) referred to as "Fuji-yama" - mostly it's gaijin who do that. Fuji gets special treatment because it is, unlike other mountains, considered a deity.

It's a deity with a Marine Corps base at the bottom. The Marines used to like to hike up with their bicycles on their backs and ride around the crater while I was huffing and puffing to make the top. I climbed it four times in the 80's and 90's. The biggest problem at the time was orange peels and empty cigarette packs, but it was a problem and it's been that way a very long time.

It's a crowded, touristy slog up a treeless volcanic peak (treeless past Station Five, anyway), but one time of the four I got lucky and was at the top to see sunrise on a clear morning. Asahi. Incredible sight.

[GATOR NAVY]

One of my greatest regrets is that for all the years I lived in Japan I never climbed Fuji. Of course, it’s not like Sasebo was next door, but I did live in Atsugi for 3 of those years. If I stood on the bed upstairs I could see it from our house there.

[Captainpaintball]

On Glenn Beck’s program, there was a CNN “Heroes” segment with that guy who has started a club that cleans up the approx. 80,000 pounds off trash from the mountain. Most of the offenders are Japanese. Ramen noodle wrappers, TVs, refrigeratoes, etc. marr the landscape. it is pretty disturbing.