If you can’t make it to Mount Fuji, the team at Google Street View can still bring the mountains experience to your desktop or tablet-based device.
The “virtual vacation” providers potential trekkers with a quick look at the hills rocky terrain and outside conditions.
Mount Fuji was named an official World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June. The summit of Fuji sits at 12,389 feet in the sky, but that didn’t stop Google from strapping a Google Street View cam to a climbers back.
Setsuo Murai, head of Geo Partnerships for Google Japan, revealed on the company’s official blog :
“The Street View collection covers the highly popular Yoshida trail that takes hikers up the mountain, the full walk around the crater at the top, and the quick zigzag descent. We hope these 14,000 panos of new imagery will give climbers a sense of the terrain to expect under their feet — especially all the night-time climbers who shuffle up in the dark to see the sunrise at the crack of dawn.”
Google has been attempting to document as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites as possible. The search giant has already captured Himeji Castle, Ogasawara Islands, and the Hiroshima Peace Memoria.
Simply search for “Mount Fuji” in Google Street View to take the official tour of the summit.
Here’s a video showcasing Google’s documentation of Mount Fuji via the Google Street View platform:
While I applaud Google’s attempts to document the world, I’m still at a loss for how the Google Street View car managed to drive right by my sleepy town of 2700 people without so much as one picture being taken!
Recently I reported on Google Street View’s decision to document Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley .
Do you think the Google Street View program with Mount Fuji and other hard to reach spaces is worth a closer look?