Waiting for Fuji

The first rule of the Five Lakes is that Fuji does what it likes. You can arrive on a perfect blue afternoon and find the mountain wrapped to the shoulders in cloud, then wake the next day under a sky the colour of ash to see the whole summit standing clear.

So we stopped trying to catch it and started waiting for it instead: a week in a small guesthouse on the north shore of Lake Kawaguchi, with an alarm set for half past five every morning.

The winter advantage

Winter is when Fuji shows itself most. The air is cold and dry, the summer haze is gone, and in the first hour after dawn the mountain often looks so sharp and close it could be cut from paper. By mid-morning the clouds start to gather around the summit, and by afternoon it can vanish completely.

We learned the rhythm. Up in the dark, out to the shore with a thermos, back for breakfast by nine with frozen fingers and a memory card full of the same mountain in eight different moods.

Patience is the only lens that matters here.

Five lakes, five views

Each lake frames the mountain differently. Kawaguchi is the busiest and the easiest to reach. Saiko and Shoji are smaller and wilder. Motosu has the view once printed on the thousand-yen note. And from Yamanaka in winter, if you time it right, the setting sun slides down until it sits exactly on the summit, a moment locals call Diamond Fuji.

Our favourite morning was the plainest one. No pagoda, no famous viewpoint, just a quiet stretch of shoreline, a coffee going cold, and the mountain slowly turning from grey to pink to white.

Field notes

• When to go: December to February for the clearest views. Mornings are best in every season.

• Getting there: Direct buses from Shinjuku reach Kawaguchiko in around two hours.

• Do not miss: Chureito Pagoda above Fujiyoshida at sunrise. The climb is a few hundred steps.

• Tip: Check a live summit camera before you set out. If the mountain is hidden at dawn, it seldom clears later in the day.