The Japanese town of Fujikawaguchiko has erected a giant black net to block views of Mount Fuji, a reaction to the town’s huge popularity on Instagram and other social media platforms.
“It is regrettable that we had to take such measures,” a local official told CNN last month, when the town’s council decided to block the most popular Fuji views with a 66-foot-long (20-meter) black screen, which was erected on May 21.
The small town in Yamanashi prefecture has become the center of an international controversy in recent weeks. A specific viewpoint in Fujikawaguchiko, which is at the foot of Mount Fuji and near the starting point for one of the most-used trails up the mountain, became so popular with visitors that it was causing problems for locals.
TL;DR: Baka gaijin.
I don’t understand how it is so hard for people to clean up after themselves. Our parks and trails in the US are filthy. There is trash on the ground and garbage cans 10 feet away.
It is really sad that they had to erect this barrier, but it is laughable that people can’t respect nature when the entire purpose of their visit is to admire it.
I have a trash grabber arm. I go to my local park to pick up trash every couple of months. I most recently did it on Earth day; the park was covered in trash again within 3 days. It drives me insane. I will say, some of it is due to open top garbage cans throughout the park, the wind can blow stuff right out of those which reminds me that I need to call the Parks and Rec department. I expect they’ll tell me they have no budget for closed cans.
I was looking for retractable grabbers, I’d like to do a bit of trash picking but not my full 18km walk. Normal grabbers are a bit awkward to stow away. My own local searches (NL) came up 🫗 empty
Yeah mine is definitely awkward. I had a plastic grabber that broke very quickly so now I have a sturdier metal one that doesn’t stow away well, but I know it will last a while at a minimum.
It’s always nice when you can find a park most people don’t know about. The only disadvantage is sometimes the trails aren’t really well-maintained, so you come out with your legs covered in ticks.
Fujikawaguchiko
The town is called (Mt) Fuji River Mouth Lake… feels like when they established the place they could’ve edited it down a bit to make it roll off the tongue better. It’d be like a town in the US called Shastaportsmouthpond
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“It is regrettable that we had to take such measures,” a local official told CNN last month, when the town’s council decided to block the most popular Fuji views with a 66-foot-long (20-meter) black screen, which was erected on May 21.
The statement added that the photo spot “attracts a constant stream of foreigners from early morning to late at night, and even local residents are unable to communicate with them when they caution them in Japanese.”
More than three million people per month visited in March and April 2024, and the record-shattering trend seems on track to continue as North American and European tourists plan their summer holidays.
This means that there’s no money coming in – from entry tickets, museum passes, or hotel fees – to balance out the damage caused by thousands of visitors or the erosion, trash and traffic issues they bring with them.
“We offer our sincere apologies to local residents, customers of these stores, and others for inciting inconvenience and concern due to the popularization of the Lawson Kawaguchiko Station Branch,” the company said in a May 5 statement.
Lawson’s added that it would hire private security guards for the Kawaguchiko store and put up signs in multiple languages asking tourists not to litter or block roads.
The original article contains 654 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Tells tourists to leave
Shocked when tourist money leaves with them
Most visitors do not spend the night in Fujikawaguchiko, preferring to come in for a day trip but stay in busier Tokyo – just 62 miles (100 kilometers) away – at night.
This means that there’s no money coming in – from entry tickets, museum passes, or hotel fees – to balance out the damage caused by thousands of visitors or the erosion, trash and traffic issues they bring with them. As a result, the town of just 10,000 people has struggled to cope.
This still feels like a misallocation on Japan’s side, though - either provincial or federal funding for trash pickup should be provided given the popularity of the site.
Maybe they should set up a park and charge admission.
