"Let's go see Mt. Fuji." That's the excited declaration that flashes briefly across the screen on the tourism website for the Japanese town of Fujikawaguchiko, nestled in the foothills of the famous landmark. That call to action may prove harder for visitors to fulfill soon, as local officials now announce they're putting up a mesh barrier to fend off the overwhelming number of tourists congregating in one specific spot to take pictures, per AFP.
That spot is in front of a Lawson convenience store, where images taken there highlight the mountain's serenity juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of modern life. The netting, which will be 8 feet high and stretch for nearly 70 feet, will be erected next week, officials say. "It's regrettable we have to do this, because of some tourists who can't respect rules," a town official tells AFP. He notes some of those complaints involve disregarding traffic guidelines and throwing litter around (one of the mountain's nicknames locally is "Trash Mountain").
Starting this summer, people actually climbing the mountain's most-frequented trail will have to pony up around $13 to make the ascent. CNN notes that Fujikawaguchiko isn't the first town to block sight lines to a popular attraction: Last May, Hallstatt—an Austrian town with just 800 permanent dwellers but up to 10,000 tourists a day in peak season, and believed to be the inspiration for the movie Frozen—put up a wooden fence to discourage selfies. (In Venice, locals aren't happy about a new tourism fee.)
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