A while back I wrote a brief post about the beauty of Kawaguchi at dusk. Looking towards the tall buildings on the banks of the Arakawa, I saw a ragged strip torn from the darkness, revealing a lingering orange horizon. I loved this moment, so I posted a few pictures, wrote a few words, and that was it. What I didn’t mention was what came after the darkness: a small steel mill, hissing and purring, sparking and glowing. I watched like a stargazer.

Upriver, moments later, a beacon: a large Mt. Fuji, pulsing through the darkness in a rainbow of neon light.

It was awe-inspiring from a distance…a landmark that all in Tokyo should know. So why hadn’t I heard of it? And what was it doing up here, on the northern border of Tokyo? Should this not be as famous as Boston’s Citgo sign, or Osaka’s Glico Man? (map)

So I took a…