--- title: Google Doodle Celebrates Japan's Mountain Day description: Google celebrates Japan's Mountain Day with a new doodle depicting a sunset over the iconic Mount Fuji canonical: https://time.com/4896637/google-doodle-japan-mountain-day/ author: Ryan Kilpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-11T02:56:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:20.987Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Japan's Mountain Day og:description: Busy urbanites are encouraged to take a hike in the countryside og:url: https://time.com/4896637/google-doodle-japan-mountain-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ca012bd5488c34b/6988d9507cdbacc174d598f5/mountain-day-2017-5742983679836160-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=711&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 711 og:image:height: 400 og:image:alt: mountain-day-2017-5742983679836160-2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Japan's Mountain Day twitter:description: Busy urbanites are encouraged to take a hike in the countryside twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ca012bd5488c34b/6988d9507cdbacc174d598f5/mountain-day-2017-5742983679836160-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=711&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Doodle Celebrates Mountain Day, Japan's Newest Holiday by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Aug 11, 2017 2:56 AM UTC  Mountain Day Google Doodle Mountain Day Google DoodleGoogle by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Aug 11, 2017 2:56 AM UTC With its densely packed cities and fast-paced professional world, some in Japan may have trouble finding time to appreciate the country’s boundless natural beauty. So in 2014, a new holiday was invented to remind them to pause and take a look around: Mountain Day. This Friday, Google[ celebrates](https://www.google.com/doodles/mountain-day-2017) the new holiday — only its second year in observance — with a new doodle depicting a sunset over the iconic Mount Fuji, the tallest and most famous of Japan’s mountains lying some 60 miles southwest of the capital Tokyo. While Fuji is best known among them, Japan is home to hundreds of other peaks running north to south like a spine, covering nearly 70% of the island nation. Mountain Day falls on Aug. 11 because the Japanese kanji character for “eight” [resembles](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37030868) a mountain, while the numeral 11 looks like adjacent trees, according to the BBC. The holiday was created to encourage people to get out of the city and go for a hike in the countryside, both to learn more about Japan’s geography and cultural heritage and to alleviate the pressures of the daily grind. Japan also celebrates Ocean Day on the third Monday of July. The day similarly honors the ocean and its bounty, and offers blessings for the economic prosperity of maritime Japan. \[[Google](https://www.google.com/doodles/mountain-day-2017)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4896637/google-doodle-japan-mountain-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4896637/google-doodle-japan-mountain-day/"},"headline":"Google Doodle Celebrates Mountain Day, Japan's Newest Holiday","datePublished":"2017-08-11T02:56:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:20.987Z","description":"Busy urbanites are encouraged to take a hike in the countryside","url":"https://time.com/4896637/google-doodle-japan-mountain-day/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Google Doodle","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ca012bd5488c34b/6988d9507cdbacc174d598f5/mountain-day-2017-5742983679836160-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Kilpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ca012bd5488c34b/6988d9507cdbacc174d598f5/mountain-day-2017-5742983679836160-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mountain-day-2017-5742983679836160-2x","caption":"Mountain Day Google Doodle","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4896637/google-doodle-japan-mountain-day/","name":"Google Doodle Celebrates Mountain Day, Japan's Newest Holiday"}}]}] ```