Hotel Fuyokaku Fujiyoshida

... here they call it a ropeway) from Togendai to Souzan with a brief stop at Owakudani to see the volcanic sulphuric steam. Again, this was supposedly a fantastic vantage point to see Mt. Fuji - but not today.

On reaching Sounzan we took a cable car down to Gora, from which we jumped on a local train heading back to Hakone-Yumoto. From there another hour spent on a different train heading back to Tokyo ...

Today we had a great day exploring outside of Tokyo at the Hakone National Park. It is about 80 km outside of Tokyo. We took a bus to the park where we took the ropeway (gondola) up to the area where there are sulfur springs due to the volcanic activity in the area. We had beautiful views of Mt. Fuji, who had had her first snow the night before. Once we got to the area of the springs, our guide told ...

... which consisted of a variety of small soups, fish, sushi and rice dishes all with unique tastes, textures and colours, a great place to experience some traditional eats and relaxation.

Only there for a short time but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip and a key souvenir spot! I've never seen so many cartoon fuji-chan souvenirs! Endless!

... views of the surrounding mountains and forest. We decided to take advantage of the nearby village onsen (a communal outdoor hot spring bath, found everywhere in Japan). Upon finding slippers and a yukata (traditional Japanese gown) in our wardrobe we followed the cue of the other guests and got dressed. After receiving some confusing directions from the guesthouse manager (who spoke limited English, and in retrospect, did seem to be laughing at us) we soon became lost, dressed ...

... Just for reference, it was the 3rd visit in three days that I got to finally seeMt.Fuji!! And I was wowd!

Cable Car:-



Ropeway Cable Car:-



Mt Fuji!!!!



Crusing on Lake Ashi:-



Having a bath? Japanese Style

Hakone, Kanto, Japan alanchu

... Mount Fuji, I walked out of the station. My hostel was nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately the station had no tourist information and the people in the ticket office spoke no English. I asked if it was Kawaguchi-ko, and they said it was, even after I showed them the name written down. Walking round the streets very lost, I tried asking a few people were the hostel was, but none of them spoke English either. All the time I was lugging my not-so-light ...

... dense fog lay all around the 5th station and it blurred the sight. We still had no hesitation and no fear of what is going to be happening to us in the next 18 hours. When I read some reviews about climbing Mt. Fuji, I have noticed that many people cited the famous Japanese quote : "Your are wise to climb Fuji once and a fool to climb it twice." ... Now I know why they keep mentioning it, but for me it was rather “ ...

... wall. As we went up the stair uncertaintly and opened the door, it lead to the shoulder to the one side of the two-way multi lane roads and had a little shelter, kind of looked like a bus stop. I looked around to find the clue of whether we were the right place or the right side of road (the south bound to the Fuji 5 ...

... JR Nara line. This shrine is nestled at the foot of Mount Inari, with orange gates of varying sizes built by worshipers forming paths up, down and around the mountain. The deity of the shrine is famous as the god of prosperity in business and is also the god of the grain harvest so we did see a few agricultural themes as well as some grain arranged in a manner that appeared to be a request for a good harvest. I really enjoyed the random walk we ended up making up and along ...

... electronics stores and was surrounded by goths, schoolgirls, a werewolf and weird-haircut-guys who all seemed to have jumped straight out of a Final Fantasy video game. And you immediately realise that there is much more to Shinjuku than electronics: at night it is Tokyo's biggest entertainment district and everyone cooperates. Or so I heard! The bus ride to Kawaguchiko was quite eventless: the hills/mountains through which it drove were quite different and beautiful - so much ...