Hi everyone!Yesterday I got back from an overnight stay near Mt Fuji. It was really quite amazing. It's a bloody huge mountain!
We rented a car and drove out of Tokyo. It is only about 100km from the centre of town so it wasn't a difficult journey. As we approached, we saw the giant mountain peeking out from behind the clouds. Really quite impressive.
We drove up as far as we could (halfway) and got out to have a look around. Fuji is divided into 10 stations, 1 being the bottom and 10 being the summit. So after driving to 5, we decided to walk to 6. It was chilly but the sun was strong - a little too strong as I was to discover after we left by means of a terrible sunburn. Anyhow it was a pretty easy path, a bit gravelly with all kinds of volcanic rocks and whatnot. The view was fantastic, however.
We left, and drove about another 40km to the place we were staying, near Lake Saiko at the bottom of the mountain ranges. Quite a nice little place - like a bed and breakfast but for only $50 a night each including breakfast! Great views of the mountains from our window.
The next day we drive off to Hakone where we discover an even bigger lake called Ashinoko and we find a whole lot of (what the Japanese refer to as) pirate ships transporting people around the lake. So, we took a cruise on one of them to the other side, had lunch, and then cruised back again. On our return we took a ride on the Hakone Ropeway, a big long cable car system taking you up and over the mountain. Good fun! During the ride you go over the Hakone hot springs - quite literally hot gas bubbling out of the ground, and a strong smell of sulphur.
After that, we drove back to Tokyo, though the roads were jam packed and it took us at least an hour more than it should've. We took a break and drove down to Odaiba in Tokyo Bay and had dinner, took a few more photos, and then came back home.
It was a great weekend! Fuji-san is really impressive so I recommend it to everyone.
If you want to see the photos, well, I hope this link works.
