Essay

First light of the year

By Peter Skov

It was Jan. 1, sometime in the wee hours of the morning. The stars were still out as the headlights of our rental car wound their way up the mountain road. Outside various mountain lodges across the country, New Year's sunrise revelers were braving the freezing temperatures to watch the first sunrise of the year from higher elevations.

I didn't feel as brave as those folks far away on mountaintops like Tsubakuro Dake or Yatsugatake. In comfortable warmth, I pulled the car to the side of the road, and my girlfriend and I sat eating our convenience-store breakfasts. Of the past eight New Year's Day mornings, this was only the second one I had spent in Japan. I was usually abroad at this time.

We had scouted this mountain road the night before and I had selected a curve in the road where there was a clear view of Mt. Fuji towering over the town of Gotemba. I planned to photograph the first sunlight of the year as it kissed the white face of Mt. Fuji.

A cold gray-blue sky was emerging from the fading darkness of the night. I figured it was soon time to step outside and start preparing my camera for the sunrise.

Just then, another car pulled up and two elderly men got out and started setting up their tripods in exactly the spot I had chosen for my morning shoot. Miffed, I got out of the car and went over to see what space had been left for me.

There was a branch of a bush coming in from the right and some stray twigs sticking up from below. I had lost the best vantage point. Nevertheless, I brought out my camera bag and tripod and set up.

Now I just had to wait for the light.

As with every sunrise in the mountains, the sky brightened and the twilight sank in the west. Light operates in complete silence, oblivious to its eagerly waiting audience, I thought to myself.

Then with perfect stealth, in the absolute stillness of the winter morning, the first sunlight of the New Year touched the cloak of snow covering the summit of Mt. Fuji.

First a delicate shade of pink appeared and intensified as it progressed down the mountain. The hue shifted to orange and by the time it had become a weakly warm shade of yellow, the much lower neighbouring mountains picked up the glow.

At last, even the town of Gotemba was bathed in New Year's sunlight.

So it was that the new year began and I had witnessed the first light of the year coloring the snows of Mt. Fuji.

Shukan ST: Jan. 4, 2008

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