Lake Yamanaka, Yamanashi

This camera looks across Lake Yamanaka in Yamanashi, the largest of the Fuji Five Lakes and the closest of them to the mountain itself.

It also sits highest, at around 980 metres, which makes it noticeably colder than the others. Parts of the lake freeze in hard winters, and the shoreline reeds hold frost well into the morning. That altitude is why the lake is a long-standing summer training base for university sports clubs — it is simply cooler than the plain below.

For Fuji watching the proximity cuts both ways. The mountain fills far more of the frame than it does from the other lakes, but cloud that forms on the peak obscures it just as readily. Late autumn and winter give the most reliable viewing, and the still mornings that produce a clean reflection on the water are worth waiting for.