Today started off with our breakfast that is included in our hotel rate. Tomorrow I am going to bring my cell phone so I can use google translate. We recognized some things, but some no idea. Nothing American on the buffet, but we did not go hungry. Miso soup is always a solid choice, and they had yogurt and canned fruit, at this point I am happy to have any fruit, it is not the easiest to find.
Breakfast done and we arrange with Heather to meet us at the entrance to the Ropeway. We buy tickets that include the ropeway, a boat tour on Lake Kawaguchiko and unlimited bus travel in Mt. Fuji North Area. We are so happy when we reach the top and we have some nice views of Mt Fuji. We walk around and explore a little on top of the Ropeway, pass on the $5 to go on the swing for pictures.
Finish the Ropeway visit and we walk down to the boat launch and step right on and off we go. It is a very nice boat ride of about 45 minutes that is not too crowded and very nice on a sunny morning. When we get off the boat ride there are a lot of people waiting, we had the same when we got off the ropeway, so may people waiting in line to go up. Very happy we started off early.
Our luck ran out when we got to the bus terminal. We just missed the bus we wanted to get on and had to wait nearly 1 hour for the next bus. Oh well, visited with people in line with us and the time went by fairly quickly. We didn't really have much of a plan for the bus, there are about 35 stops that you can get off at. We decided to take the bus to the end of the route which takes about 1 hour, have a look to see if anything excited us and we would get off on the way back. Some beautiful views of Mt Fuji again as we drove around. The bus was basically empty, no wonder it only goes by once an hour. I am sure in the summer it is packed. We decided to get off at the Ice cave, explore that cave, then walk to the Wind Cave. These caves were formed by eruptions of Mt Fuji. The ice in the caves was beautiful, both were very short walking distance inside, but still impressive. The Ice Cave was not so much fun to get down to, you had to crouch nearly onto your knees, I choose to wear a helmet and I'm glad I did, I banged by head a couple of times on the low ceiling.
After the caves we chose a different bus route to come back to the central station in Lake Kawaguchiko where we are staying. This route took us on the other side of Lake Saiko and we saw many more little communities and lots of camping and cabins for rent. You can see how busy this must be in high season in the summer. Though we heard the water stays at about 4 degrees year round, so I'm not sure how much swimming would be happening, but there were lots and lots of boats around.
Back to our hotel and Heather joined us for happy hour. Andre asked front desk if she could have 1 beer. We had the same snacks as yesterday as well. Worked on some of Heathers itinerary as she likes to stay in hostels, so we try to find one that is near to our hotels. Our next stop is all sorted.
Tonights dinner comes from Lawsons, I tried the fried chicken that you put between pancakes, not sure I would do that again, but I would definitely have the pancakes again, they were yummy.
Andre changes into his Yukata and is off to try out the Onsen that is in our hotel. I am not a huge fan of hot tubs or really hot water, I'll see what he comes back and tells me about. Here are some of the rules for using an Onsen (OK he just came back to get his little towel that he forgot in his basket)
14,000 steps / 9 steps
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| View from our hotel room |
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| Trying out the ADDME feature on my phone, guess we could have been a little closer |
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| Mt Fuji Ropeway |
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| First view of Mt Fuji just peeking out |
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| Boat we took around Lake Kawaguchiko |
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| Views from the boat |
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| Bride we walked across yesterday that we could not see any of Mt Fuji |
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| One day we will rent one of these swan boats, we have seen them many places now but never rented one |
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| Train and bus station with a little bit of Mt Fuji in the back |
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| Lake Saiko |
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| We are in the 5 lakes area outside Tokyo. Many people do day trips here from Tokyo, we are staying for 3 nights |
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| Getting ready to go into the cave |
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| Ice Cave |
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| Ice Cave |
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| Ice Cave |
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| Ice Cave |
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| Vending machine that you put money in, choose what you want, the machine gives you a ticket that you hand over to the attendant that gives you what you ordered |
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| Of course Andre had to try the Soft Serve Ice Cream Croissant |
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| 300 year old tree |
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| wind cave |
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| Lave |
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| Temple we saw going by on the bus, would have stop by not enough time |
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| You deserve a laugh if you made it this far. Someone probably ask someone to make me an English "no sitting on the steps sign" |
