The Mount Fuji climbing season opened on Sunday morning on the Yamanashi side.

About 150 climbers were at the summit to view the sunrise at 4:28 a.m., Fuji TV reported. The Shizuoka side will open to climbers on July 10.

Huge numbers of climbers are expected in July and August. Last year, more than 220,000 people climbed the 3,776-meter mountain, according to Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectural government officials.

As they did last year, the prefectural governments are asking climbers to pay a fee of 1,000 yen on a voluntary basis. The money will be used to help preserve the area’s natural beauty.

Hordes of trekkers have flocked to Mount Fuji since it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013 in recognition of its status as a symbol of Japan. Local officials have been struggling to improve traffic access and other facilities with the big increase in visitors.The climbing season will end on Sept 10.

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The city of Kyoto once again saw record levels of tourists in 2017, with 15.57 million foreign and Japanese visitors spending at least one night in the former capital, city officials said Wednesday.

But both foreign and domestic visitors continued to complain about overcrowded tourist sites and traffic jams, while an increasing number of Japanese said the bad manners of foreign tourists on the streets and on buses and subways was a negative aspect of their trip there, according to the city.

The total number of visitors to Kyoto last year, including overnight visitors and day trippers, was 53.6 million, a 2.9 percent decrease compared to 2016. Foreign visitors spending at least one night at registered Kyoto hotels and inns accounted for 3.53 million of that total, up 11 percent from 2016.

Visitors from Asia accounted for 58.8 percent of foreign tourists who stayed in Kyoto in 2017, while 17.1 percent came from Europe and 10.9 percent were from North America.

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The climbing season for Mount Fuji got fully underway Tuesday with three trails in Shizuoka Prefecture opening to the public.

The season began earlier this month when a trail in neighboring Yamanashi Prefecture opened on the 3,776-meter mountain, Japan’s highest peak, which attracted over 284,000 climbers last year. The trails close on Sept. 10.While not mandatory, climbers are asked to pay ¥1,000 ($9) per person to support the upkeep of the mountain, which was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013.

A new Tokyo Bay amphibious bus tour was launched Monday to service the expected influx of foreign tourists drawn to the city ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Fuji Kyuko Co. operates the 12-meter-long bus named “TOKYO NO KABA” (Tokyo’s Hippo). The cruise takes it under the Rainbow Bridge that spans Tokyo Bay after winding through the office buildings and entertainment complexes in the nearby Odaiba area.

The bus seats 38 and offers tour information in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Indonesian. It was designed by Eiji Mitooka, known for his train and other industrial designs including the luxurious cruise train “Seven Stars in Kyushu” operated by Kyushu Railway Co.

Local restaurants, souvenir shops and even some temples and shrines are hoping to cater to foreign guests with an international custom yet to be adopted in Japan: letting customers pay their bills with credit cards instead of cash.

As the country braces for a further tourism boom in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, major credit card companies are providing local businesses with portable devices so foreign customers can pay at the table — a practice customary in their home countries.