Okamoto Pier

A wooden pier about 160 metres long, built in 1921 to land fish and out of that use since 1961, running straight out from a small beach on the western shore of the Boso peninsula. Across the bay, on a clear day, is Mt. Fuji. That is the whole thing: bare timber posts and planks going out over the water, and a volcano behind them.

Wooden sea piers of this age barely exist in Japan any more, and this one photographs the way it does because nothing has been added to it — no railings on much of its length, no lighting, no signage. In May and August the setting sun lines up with the summit and produces Diamond Fuji, which is when the beach fills with tripods. The rest of the year it is a residential seafront with a pier on it and almost nobody about.