JAPAN: Mr. Fuji

As inevitable as a cheese crouton in tomato bisque is Fujiyama in the background of a Japanese print. To Japanese the symmetrical, snow-shawled, 12,395-foot-high cone is sacred. They call it "Mr. Fuji," and climb it in droves, usually starting at sundown and taking about twelve hours. Seeing dawn from the rim of Fuji's long-dead crater is considered a sort of virtuously ecstatic act, like seeing a vision. Last week 13 disabled Japanese war veterans declared their intention of "demonstrating national spirit" by stumping up Mr. Fuji on their honorable peg legs.

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ROBB LEVIN, resident of Fairfax, Virginia, on the $15,000 lawsuit settlement made against Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House gate crashers, who are also involved in at least 15 other civil suits
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ROBB LEVIN, resident of Fairfax, Virginia, on the $15,000 lawsuit settlement made against Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House gate crashers, who are also involved in at least 15 other civil suits

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