Don’t know what a 52 Fuji is? Check out this page.

And just like that, 11 years passed.

I mentioned elsewhere that I’d pretty much given up on the Fujis, although I did think about them from time to time with mixed emotions. Part amusement at the completely Quixotic daftness of the whole enterprise, part weird admiration for my former self and how he almost finished them. Then I’d feel a tinge of regret because I have a completionist streak that runs through my very marrow and it makes me twitchy when things remain undone.

I’d taken on a new project by the end of 2018, one that was a little easier to finish up. I was all set for leaving Japan in 2020, so I was going to visit the 12 castles with their remaining keep before I left. For no specific reason, I’d started with Matsue.

From there I’d work my way down to Bitchu-Matsuyama, and maybe even throw in a little side trip to revisit Himeji, which is always worth it.

On an express train heading south from Matsue, I was looking at maps, and realized I’d been close enough to go to Fujimicho in Tottori. I chuckled a bit, those aforementioned emotions came bubbling up to the surface, but there was no way I was coming back up here again.

Or was there? The Fujis worked their way up to the forefront of my thoughts again over the next few days. I broke out the old list, had a look over it, and realized that the next castle I was planning to visit, in February, was pretty close to a Fuji. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least give that a go.

So it was that I ended up visiting Fujisaki, number 35 of the Fujis, and the whole damn thing just kind of started going again, but this time with a stronger sense of purpose and better research.

My plan was simple – finish work on Saturday night, get up to Tokyo, ride the shinkansen up to Shin-Aomori – which was brilliant because I’d never been on an E5 – from there take the local train to Hirosaki and crash at the hotel. Visit the castle the next day and then come back on Monday – a national holiday – via Fujisaki.

That local train to Hirosaki was the last train out of town, and I mention it only because of the curious character sat opposite me, who spent most of the trip muttering to himself or at his old flip phone, upon which it seemed he was looking at videos or images of some kind.

I noticed him because he gave off that air that people sometimes give you on public transport; the feeling that you should keep an eye on that individual because they’re probably mostly harmless but better safe than sorry.

A day later he was on the train to Fujisaki as well. A different train line, a different direction, an entirely different destination. Where do you think he got off?

Had I somehow acquired a stalker? Was this gentleman also a Fuji enthusiast? Was this just a coincidence?

Turned out it’s probably the latter, but it was certainly the most coincidental of coincidences I’ve ever encountered – particularly as he also proceeded to get on the same train out of Fujisaki…

… this would be the only weird thing about Fujisaki, however. As a (somewhat) triumphant return to the heydays of visiting random country towns with Fuji in their name, it ticked all the right boxes. The snow obviously changed things, but there was still a feeling of conspicuous-ness as I walked down the empty streets, the only person out and about on a still and quiet day. It felt as weirdly awkward as so many Fuji visits have, although there seemed to actually be things to do in Fujisaki, when the weather was more clement.

Fujisaki has a claim to fame, you see. It’s the birthplace of the Fuji apple. Hence the recently remodeled station focuses quite heavily on this variety of the round red fruit, created in the late thirties by cross-pollinating –

two American apple varieties—the Red Delicious and old Virginia Ralls Genet

Wikipedia

The more you know, eh?

The timetable being what it was, I was glad for such a modern station to hang out in as I waited with the human coincidence for the next train out and back on a path to civilization.

Fujisaki had been a toe in the water, an exploration of the possibility of resurrecting the Fujis properly. I pretty much just threw myself right on into the pool in the remainder of 2019.

FUJIS LEFT AT THE END OF FEBRUARY 11th, 2019 : 24/59