The Abbey Road of the Orient (Except with Less Fuji and More Fog)

In 2015, we ventured off to Japan. Naturally, a crucial item on any self-respecting tourist's itinerary is getting The Photo of Mount Fuji. To achieve this sacred milestone, we headed to the picturesque town of Fuji Kawaguchiko.

Now, when you picture a world-famous vantage point, you might imagine an elegant viewing platform, maybe a nice bench, or perhaps a quaint little coffee shop. Not here. The designated "viewing point" was essentially a glorified bus stop where tourists would routinely leap into oncoming traffic to snap a photo.

It immediately brought to mind London's Abbey Road, literally the absolute last road any sensible person would ever choose to drive down, precisely because an endless stream of tourists insists on waddling across the zebra crossing four-at-a-time, desperately trying to recreate the Beatles album cover.

Fast forward to today, and Japan has officially had enough of our nonsense. That once-bustling pavement has been slapped with a massive black mesh screen, roughly the length of a cricket pitch (are they not round?) installed for the sole purpose of thwarting Instagram selfie-hunters.

Though, to be entirely honest, the local authorities didn't even need the screen to ruin our photo back in 2015. Mother Nature handled that for them. It was so thick with cloud cover that while we went to Japan to see many incredible things, an actual view of Mount Fuji was strictly not on the menu.

The Moral of the Story: You can travel halfway across the globe, dodge oncoming traffic like a pedestrian frogger, and battle modern civil engineering designed specifically to ruin your social media feed... only to be thoroughly defeated by a damp cloud. If you ever visit Fuji Kawaguchiko, bring patience, bring high-visibility gear, and above all, lower your expectations.

As for the phot, we did come down to breakfast one day and “Egg Slut” was on the menu.