Time: 14.03.2015-05.04.2015
Three words about Kawaguchiko: onsen, nature, Mt.Fuji!
Three words about Kawaguchiko: onsen, nature, Mt.Fuji!
19.03.2015
We woke up really early to go out and catch our bus to Kawaguchiko. If you do not know where this small town is then it is situated only 10 km from Mt. Fuji in the area of 5 lakes on the shore of Kawaguchiko lake. Before bus we managed to eat curry for breakfast. It definitely became my favorite Japanese food.
Even though I had just said to Yanne that I want to talk with her face to face and hear about everything, I ended up sleeping 10 minutes after sitting into the bus. I am just terrible in moving vehicles. When we finally arrived to Kawaguchiko it was cloudy and raining. For Kawaguchiko we had promised ourselves to spend a bit more money and sleep in onsen with traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast. We dropped our bags into ryokan (the traditional hotell) and went to find a place to eat some lunch and see the city. We managed to see a bit of Mt.Fuji, but really only a bit. In addition, my camera battery died totally and it was impossible to reload it as the Japanese plugs do not support the charger and I did not have adapter to change it. We had adapters for phones and laptops, but for some reason they do not work on the camera battery recharger. So for few days I had to depend on my phone camera. The day continued to be really cloudy so we preferred to go back to onsen and enjoy the natural hot water bath outside. I must say that it was actually really difficult to stay there for a long time even though I am used to being in sauna.
After onsen we dressed up and went to eat traditional Japanese dinner shabushabu. It was the only day we ate shabushabu because in most places it is really expensive. Our table was just full of food and everything was so delicious. Of course we found out that most people went to eat dinner in their everyday clothes and once again we became photo-models for some Chinese men (Gyoza it sounds so wrong). Even though we had plans to go again to the onsen or do something fun, everybody fell asleep as soon as they touched their futons.
There actually was one thing that turned all our plans up-side-down. We had plans to leave Kawaguchiko the next day with night bus to Kyoto, but all the bus tickets were sold out. That meant that we had to spend one more night in Kawaguchiko or find another way to go away. But the thing was that our budget did not allow us to spend another night in ryokan.
We woke up really early to go out and catch our bus to Kawaguchiko. If you do not know where this small town is then it is situated only 10 km from Mt. Fuji in the area of 5 lakes on the shore of Kawaguchiko lake. Before bus we managed to eat curry for breakfast. It definitely became my favorite Japanese food.
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| excuse our appearances |
There actually was one thing that turned all our plans up-side-down. We had plans to leave Kawaguchiko the next day with night bus to Kyoto, but all the bus tickets were sold out. That meant that we had to spend one more night in Kawaguchiko or find another way to go away. But the thing was that our budget did not allow us to spend another night in ryokan.
20.03.2015
We woke up to receive great news. Hirotaka-san on Couchsurfing had replied to us and allowed us to stay at his place for the night. He was from the neighbor city Fujiyoshida that has one of the scariest roller-coaster rides in Japan. But we had to spend the whole day until we went to his place.
We started the day with enjoying traditional Japanese breakfast knowing that we will not get more of it. The day was less cloudy than the day before, but still we did not see Mt. Fuji, because it hid itself into to the clouds. Because there were signs that transport to the next station on Mt. Fuji has been cancelled due to bad weather and road condition then we did not even think of going higher to the the Mt. Fuji. We decided to take a bit smaller mountain and we started climbing Mt. Tenjo. It was really nice workout and it was actually more difficult than I had thought.
In Kawaguchiko there is also a really "nice" folk story written by famous Osamu Dazai about a tanuki and a rabbit - I truly hope that my future children will never hear it. In the meanwhile I will tell you another story that became the joke of the trip. I have a friend who had asked me to bring him a souvenir - "The most pointless small thing you can find in Japan!". What the ramen would that be? Basically I spent all days searching for pointless things until in Kawaguchiko near a children playground I found small shinkansen. Of course I did not take it with me then, I put it on top of one post so everybody could see it from far and the rightful owner could have it back. But there was also small promise that if we happen to come back to this place and it is still here, I will bring it to him. Well, in the end of the trip he got his shinkansen that for some reason got baptized as a tractor..
But back to the trip itself. After coming down from Mt. Tenjo we decided that it was not enough walking and we started going to Fujiyoshida on foot. It was really weird road and for a long time we were not even sure if it was a right place. Compared to Tokyo it was really under-developed country-town. We stopped for a while in Book-Off and I bought "Ranma 1/2" music CD-s - something that you do not find so easily.
Suddenly we had already reached Fujiyoshida and we had to wait for hours in the train station, because we were exhausted. We met our host Hirotaka-san who is originally from Shizuoka. For a while we had a plan to hitchhike to Shizuoka and from there to Nagoya and then to Kyoto. In a way I still wish we had tried it, becuase NEWS was having concert in Nagoya during the same dates, but we had to neglect this awesome plan, because we had too much luggage to hitchhike and the weather was really cold. Of course we also wanted to go on NEWS concert, but we did not get tickets. As foreigner it is not so easy to get tickets and they got all sold out (Yanne could even write a post about how difficult it is). Hirotaka-san was just few years older than us and living alone in a small apartment. It was a miracle that we all fit into his place. Before going to sleep we went to eat sushi in real sushi place and visited one old and rare temple on the top of a mountain close by. It had an amazing view to the whole city. If you ask what made this temple so rare, was that it had a old stage that most temples do not have (or something like that was what Yanne explained to me). After this long day we went to Hirotaka-san's place, watched the final episode of "Second love" with Kamenazhi Kazuya in the leading role and spent the coldest night (at least for me) during the whole trip with 5 people sleeping in less than 10 square meters. But I am so thankful that at least we had a place to sleep and Hirotaka-san was an amazing host.
We started the day with enjoying traditional Japanese breakfast knowing that we will not get more of it. The day was less cloudy than the day before, but still we did not see Mt. Fuji, because it hid itself into to the clouds. Because there were signs that transport to the next station on Mt. Fuji has been cancelled due to bad weather and road condition then we did not even think of going higher to the the Mt. Fuji. We decided to take a bit smaller mountain and we started climbing Mt. Tenjo. It was really nice workout and it was actually more difficult than I had thought.
But back to the trip itself. After coming down from Mt. Tenjo we decided that it was not enough walking and we started going to Fujiyoshida on foot. It was really weird road and for a long time we were not even sure if it was a right place. Compared to Tokyo it was really under-developed country-town. We stopped for a while in Book-Off and I bought "Ranma 1/2" music CD-s - something that you do not find so easily.
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| no buses going further up |
When we woke with still cloudy weather. They say that if you stay in Kawaguchiko it is impossible to miss seeing Mt. Fuji in its full glory, but this is exactly what we were facing - three days on the foot of Mt. Fuji and we had seen only glimpses of it. But we did not let our mood fall and we started our day with eating local Fujiyoshida udon. I cannot exactly say what made so much differnet from other udons, but I can say that it was delicious as hell. I love going to places where the local people eat and I have a feeling that this place did not have so many foreigners coming there so we had a lot of eyes on us. As if I do not feel awkward enough to eat while people are looking.
We went back to Kawaguchiko because our bus left from there, but we still had the whole day to spend. What to do when your on budget-trip in a small town where you have already seen almost everything and it is freakishly cold outside? Well, you just go again to ONSEN! The thing is that it is quite expensive to spend the night in onsen, but it is rather cheap to just use it. As Kawaguchiko has a lot of onsens, then there is a big variety to choose from. We picked out one where the onsen was on 7th floor. It had both inside and outside bath and we ended up staying there for hours! And most of the time all alone. I think we stayed there for 3 hours and only on the last hour there were other visitors too. I felt like a newborn baby after coming out - skin so soft, cheeks like roses and all the tiredness was gone.
Another thing that actually happened was that Mt. Fuji had decided to forgive us and show its peak. I was speechless when I saw it. White symmetrical peak that is so high that I understood that for the last days the area I had searched the top from was actually only 2/3 of the mountain. But you want to know a bad thing? We were still in onsen, naked, we did not have any cameras with us to take photos and it is not allowed to take photos in onsen. So we can just say that we actually managed to see how high Mt. Fuji is, but not to prove it with a photo. In the end we took the night bus to Kyoto that was so horrible that my sister felt like suing the company for taking so much money with so low quality. I must agree because even I had very difficult time sleeping. Seats were told to be separated "room" which meant that seats next to windows had curtains and the middle seats had to suffer from all the light in the bus; plug-ins to charge phones were only near to the toilet and it was only one plug-in extension; For the first 1,5 hours the bus-driver had to comment almost everything he did and overall there was very little room for everybody so in the middle of the night I had to stand up from my seat to let some people pass. Oh did I mention that the drive was 8 hours long? yes, I agree that maybe I am too spoiled with buses in my country that already for 2 hour trip have all kind of entertainment, comfortable seats and plug-ins for every seat.
But just like this, we finally managed to reach our next destination: old city of traditions and culture - Kyoto! but about this already in a next post!
We went back to Kawaguchiko because our bus left from there, but we still had the whole day to spend. What to do when your on budget-trip in a small town where you have already seen almost everything and it is freakishly cold outside? Well, you just go again to ONSEN! The thing is that it is quite expensive to spend the night in onsen, but it is rather cheap to just use it. As Kawaguchiko has a lot of onsens, then there is a big variety to choose from. We picked out one where the onsen was on 7th floor. It had both inside and outside bath and we ended up staying there for hours! And most of the time all alone. I think we stayed there for 3 hours and only on the last hour there were other visitors too. I felt like a newborn baby after coming out - skin so soft, cheeks like roses and all the tiredness was gone.
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| In reality you should see Mt. Fuji inside the heart.. |
But just like this, we finally managed to reach our next destination: old city of traditions and culture - Kyoto! but about this already in a next post!
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