The Name is Fuji. Mr. Fuji.

Japanese Lesson #11:

1) San - "Mr." or "Miss," "Mrs." etc. Honorific tied onto the names.
2) Yama - mountain

I was trying to doze off and keep an eye out for the flight attendants who were giving out the lunches at the same time when the captain of the plane made an announcement:

"If you look onto your right, Mt. Fuji will be coming up on your left." Naturally, everyone in the plane began to go gaga, myself included. Who gets an aerial view on a clear day of one of the most well-known symbols of Japan? Sometimes I wonder if those maiko I saw back in October were really tourists dressing up as geisha (which is quite common) so the prospect of seeing geisha in general is extremely slim.

Mt. Fuji is one of the most famous symbols of Japan. Everyone knows what Mt. Fuji is regardless of whether or not they have anything to do with Japan. One can climb that mountain - :::cough cough::: volcano - and it's famous for being really pretty from afar, but gross up close. The place is covered with trash.

It's also famous for the "Black Forest." Not the one in Germany - no, this Black Forest's floor is covered with iron from the volcano, rendering regular Boy Scout compasses and cell phones useless. People go in there to commit suicide. The police conduct a round-up of the bodies once a year, and have to tie ropes around their waists so that they don't get lost in the forest.



There is something funny about Mt. Fuji. The Japanese call Mt. Fuji "Fuji-San," as opposed to "Fuji-yama." There are mountains that have the name + yama to create the official name of the mountain, but dear ol' Fuji is the only one with "san" at the end of the name. I know that this harks back to respect for the mountain and several thousand years of custom and traditional Shinto belief, but it's kinda funny when you say "Fuji-san, and it can also mean quite literally, "Mr. Fuji."

I wonder if the mountain likes his lava shaken, not stirred.