Behind the Scenes: Filming Mount Fuji
The other day, after doing some filming for our upcoming Nara video, I took a detour on the way back and stopped over in Yamanashi Prefecture.
I stopped there to get some footage of Mount Fuji to explain the new 2025 hiking rules. But I thought this might be a good opportunity to show you some behind the scenes action, and what it's like traveling and writing for japan-guide.com.
An Early Start
Mount Fuji is notoriously difficult to catch a glimpse of during the summer months, due to haze and cloud cover. It's generally easier to see it outside of summer, or to visit very early in the morning on a clear day.
Knowing that, I was carefully checking the forecast a few days beforehand, and chose to visit on Saturday because rain and clouds were forecast for an entire week after that - not much use for getting footage of the mountain!
I needed as much time as physically possible to capture Mount Fuji, as I had a few filming locations in mind and needed to travel between them… So, I made the tough decision to wake up at 4:20am, 10 minutes before sunrise.
Worried that I wasn't going to wake up on time, I didn't get the best sleep, but when my alarm finally went off at 4:20am, I peeled myself out of bed and, bleary-eyed, opened the curtain with bated breath.
And there it was! A beautiful blue shadow of Mount Fuji before the sun hit it.
I took my various shots from the balcony of my hotel room and, satisfied with my footage, went to get ready for the day. But when I came back to the balcony, I realised the mountain had changed again to a delicate sunrise red, and took some more shots.
Once I had finally put on my clothes and made up my face, I did a few talking head shots from the balcony too. If you want to imagine something, think of me on a hotel balcony with a phone on a tripod and a little mic clipped to my shirt.
A Good Location
The reason I had chosen my accommodation was not just for its view from the balcony, though, but also its proximity to Lake Kawaguchiko for further filming.
It was hard to tell from Google Maps, and I thought I would have to travel a little bit to get to a secluded spot where I could easily access a lake shot without bothering people, but it turned out I could do that right across the street!
I walked down to the gravelly banks of the lake and set up my tripod once again, interrupted only by buzzing bugs and the occasional resident on an early morning walk. I would often stop flailing and exclaiming to the camera as they passed in an attempt not to ruin the morning quiet too much.
As I was finishing up on the banks, I noticed the sky had changed quite a lot since I woke up, with wispy clouds approaching Mount Fuji against a bright blue sky.
I took a few more shots by my parked rental car to indicate a bit of travel between the video scenes, and realised I had been filming for long enough that the hotel breakfast buffet had opened. I went to grab myself some pancakes and tea with Fuji watching over me through the wide windows.
If you want to get as much time with the mountain views as possible, the hotel is called the Hotel Tominoko. It's a bit old fashioned (I had to exchange my car keys for my room key, for example), and not particularly fancy, but it's reasonably priced and if you get a top floor room you get a balcony to marvel at Mount Fuji as well as being able to do so during breakfast.
The Fifth Station
Then it was time to actually go to the mountain, and for me this was where the rental car came in handy, as I needed the flexibility to potentially go to other stops along the way. But if you are just in the area for hiking, there are buses that go up to the fifth stations halfway up the mountain, which is where most people begin their hike.
I stopped by Oike Park to get a few shots from a different angle, and then it took about an hour and a half to get to the Fifth Station, which is halfway up the mountain. It was definitely a bit cooler up there, but still quite hot on this late June day.
My task was to introduce viewers to the new gate at the Fuji Subaru Line Fifth Station as well as some new hiking rules. This new gate is to the most popular Yoshida Trail, but I was visiting a few days before the official hiking season opened to get my shots. I had identified a trail next to the car park that went down the mountain instead of up, and I figured no-one would be using it so I could do some of my sillier scenes there. Thankfully, I was right!
It took a long time and a lot of takes to do the scenes in front of the gate, because as soon as I started filming there, people seemed to be interested in what I was filming. I stopped and started multiple times to avoid getting their faces in the shot for privacy, and in the meantime was battered by giant horseflies which seemed to be gathering around the actual horses that were taking people a little bit down the trail.
Then I went to the less populated descending trail to take my "bullet hikers" scene and a few others. Undisturbed by visitors, the only thing slowing me down was setting up all my own shots, making sure I was fully in frame, and getting my lines right.
Recharging and Returning
At about 1pm I was finally done with my filming for the day. I was pretty knackered from the early start and filming all day in the sun, so took a short break with my liter of Pocari Sweat and a little onigiri.
Knowing that Yamanashi is famous for its soba noodles, I had a look for "zaru soba" back down by the lakes, which is cold buckwheat noodles with a dipping sauce. I drove straight there to recharge before my journey home, blasting some tunes through my little Nissan's speakers.
I was very happy with my restaurant choice, Shoya, a cozy place by Lake Yamanakako. And you know when you're so tired but you don't really realise it until you properly sit down and have a break? The tiredness really hit me here!
The meal was great, and exactly what I needed, accompanied by a sugary drink they called Fuji Cider, which tasted and looked a lot like Ramune - a blue fizzy soda popular in Japan.
After my meal I felt a hell of a lot better, and decided to take one last shot of a now very cloudy Mount Fuji, just in case I needed a contrasting shot to get my point across.
When I was there, a woman who had traveled on her motorbike from Kyoto to see Mount Fuji asked me to take a photo of her, and asked if that little speck of rock we could just see peeking out of the clouds was it. I told her it was, and explained you need to visit very early in summer to see it fully - but either way she was happy she could see that tiny speck and asked me to take a bunch of photos with it!
Finally, I was done, so I headed back to Mishima Station to return my rental car and get my shinkansen back to Tokyo. It was a long and strange day, but long and strange days are part of what makes this job what it is!
And you can see the final video here:
