A day in the Fuji Five Lakes area

This turned out to be a ‘rest’ day that wasn’t.

Awake early. Very early. I go down the stairs and make a hot drink. Sit in a comfortable chair (no chair in our room - very minimalist). Catch up on the news, which I haven’t done since arriving in Japan. And watch the arrival of light on Mt Fuji up on the terrace.  

She is wearing a hat this morning.

Only two other guests venture up - one (a young woman) stays momentarily to take a photo and then disappears.

Not sure about the forecast … it’s a lovely morning! I go out and explore along the path by the lake. Gorgeous!

Got back and MF-san had put all the bedding away! 

8 a.m. for breakfast - we are 5 minutes early - to be sure, to be sure (The Rules made it clear to NOT BE LATE!).

And what an amazing breakfast . The Real Deal.

The weather now has clouded in and so has Mt Fuji.

The ryokan has a shuttle bus into town so we take it after breakfast and decide to get a day pass to travel on any of the tourist buses; it is light drizzle now so this seems like a good choice: look at the views and shrines from the comfort of a dry bus! 

Well, at least until we suspected we were going ‘off-piste’ from the route on the map.

Well! That was interesting NOT! We either got on the wrong bus (like a regular bus; not the tourist bus - hmm, lost in translation) or were meant to get off somewhere. So we ended up a whole lot later at Gotemba and had to pay the fare plus the return which was $$$ (ouch!) for the two of us (after much Google Translating). So that worked out to be an expensive exercise in the end!

We grabbed a coffee when we got back finally to Kawaguchiko and - determined to salvage the day - we caught the Green bus (the earlier one was SUPPOSED to be the Blue bus) and had a very picturesque trip past several lakes to the Wind Cave (Fugaku Fuketsu). 

The walk through the woods to the entry was every bit as enchanting as the cave. 

It is an ice cave and was as cold as a refrigerator (3 deg C)! It has been formed by past eruptions and resulting lava flows from Mt Fuji and features lava shelves, rope-like lava and ice pillars.

It is by now getting dark (half an hour to sunset) but no sun and the rain has restarted: a light drizzle.

Before returning to our ryokan we decided to have an early dinner. We were following Google Maps to a place that sounded OK but saw a charcoal grill full of diners so stopped there. Yum! Beautifully cooked food plus a whisky and soda and a red beer (turned out to be tomato-based ??) for MF-san and a rice shochu plus a blueberry sour for me. Needed it after today’s shenanigans… 

Food: Fujizakura pork and Chanja spring rolls; pork and chicken charcoal-grilled skewers; Kimchi fried rice. Yum!

Get some lovely views on the way home of the lights across the lake.

Had a quick onsen on my return; it is even hotter than yesterday - I don’t stay in long as it makes me feel faint. I lie in the steaming water wondering how the owner knows that I am wearing clothes or not; or cleaning my teeth; or washing my hair; or peeing in

the previous mineral waters … Hidden cameras???

MF-san is a star again: he has made up the futons 😀.

15 deg C atm. We’ve had jackets on today.

Walked about 5 kms. Spent most of the day sitting on buses!!

POSTSCRIPT: apparently there are buses from Gotemba that take you to the 5th station for the start of the Gotemba Trail, the longest and most arduous of the Mt Fuji climbs at 7-9 hours.