By Julian Ryall
Tokyo: A small Japanese town at the base of Mount Fuji is erecting a gigantic screen to block off a viral view of the peak from the “world’s prettiest convenience store” after it began attracting dangerously large crowds.
Hundreds of visitors have been flocking to Fujikawaguchiko after travel bloggers began posting videos and pictures of the epic 3776m mountain, known as Fuji-san, framed above a popular local supermarket chain, Lawson.
A Lawson convenience store with Mount Fuji in the background. Credit: Alamy
The low roof of the 24-hour shop offers a rare unobstructed view of Japan’s most iconic mountain and is just a two-and-a-half-hour train ride south-west of Tokyo.
One blogger described it as the “prettiest convenience store with a Mount Fuji view”.
The area outside the shop has since been taken over by jostling tourists looking for likes, much to the dismay of locals.
Visitors regularly lie in the road as friends take photographs, while others stand in the road and block the traffic or obstruct parking spaces.
A 26-year-old Moroccan tourist was hit by a car as she crossed a nearby road on Thursday and is reported to be in a coma.
The local council has now ordered a screen 20 metres wide and more than 2.5 metres tall to be put up in early May to deter social media-hungry snappers.
New pedestrian crossings and the addition of private security guards had not worked, a local official said.
“As the visitors’ manners have not improved, we have no choice but to install the screen as a last resort,” he said.
Koichi Ide owns the Ibishi Dental Clinic, on the opposite side of the road from the store, and has had to erect a fence in front of his business to keep tourists away.
“At first it was just a few people from other parts of Asia and we are happy to have people from all over the world come here, but it has gone too far,” he told TBS News.
“I pick up the rubbish every morning and evening and the bags are just full of wrappings from the convenience store and cigarette butts,” he said. “And I fear it is going to get worse.
“With so many cars parked around here without permission, our normal medical services are being disrupted,” Mr Ide said.
Crowds of tourists are also posing problems for other tourist destinations across the country, with the local authority that administers one of the hiking routes to the top of Mount Fuji imposing a ¥4000 ($38) levy on anyone climbing the peak from this summer.
Residents of Kyoto are also exasperated at the volume of out-of-towners visiting the ancient capital and their impact on public transport and prices.
Many have complained about “geisha paparazzi” blocking the way of local performance artists, tugging at their kimonos and touching the delicate ornaments in their hair.
In response, the local council for the historic Gion entertainment district has recently banned tourists from the narrow backstreets where the photogenic “geiko” and “maiko” trot between their evening engagements.
Tourist numbers in Japan have soared in the first quarter of the year, with a record three million arrivals from overseas in March. That figure eclipsed the previous monthly record of 2.99 million in July 2019, immediately before the coronavirus pandemic effectively halted foreign tourism.
The Telegraph, London
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