Owariya Higashiizu-cho

... 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 ...

... first stop on the bus – still going up the mountain – was Gora where we boarded the cable car which took us up at a very steep angle to the top of the mountain (or so we thought...). We then jumped on the first of two ropeways (a gondola hanging from a cable strung up to hundreds of feet above the ground). The views over the foothills, countryside and mountain peaks were just breathtaking. We caught our first glimpse of ...

... that most of the distances were made up numbers near the top of the mountain. We climbed for a while longer and ran smack dab into a wall of people moving incredibly slowly. We thought we must be near the top. So we slowly trudged up as the mob would allow and eventually passed a sign saying we had 900m to go. What!?! We just had 1200m to go ad we had covered far more than 300m. Oh well – we kept trudging. And then we saw it…

The torii on ...

... de Arte. Pensabamos que este era el museo de Itchiko Kubota, un disenador de kimonos muy famoso, pero nos equivocamos. En este museo vimos cuadros modernos del Monte Fuji, con mucho colorido. Me sorprendio bastante el ver estilos mas bien impresionistas, cuando esperaba ver pinturas bastante sombrias y grises (a juego con el tiempo). Merecio la pena visitarlo.

Se nos hizo un poco tarde para ver el museo de Itchiko, asi que decidimos ...

... no tenian color. Eran muy lentos y las figuras eran un poco simplonas. Al final pusieron algo de musica (no se si seria el himno de Japon), al ritmo de los fuegos, y la cosa mejoro, pero se podian haber ahorrado 20 minutos de la primera parte.

Lo mejor fue ver a las japonesas vestidas con el kimono para la ocasion. Algunos hombres tambien se habian vestido de kimono (estilo samurai). Todos llevaban los tipicos zuecos japoneses con calcetines y hacian clock-clock al andar.

... bad but it definitely tasted way better than it smelled!

Fuji Peace Park was nice and peaceful (of course....) we walked up through a shrine and various statues and got to the Peace building which looked more Indian than Japanese and had 4 Buddha's set in the outside of the building. Each one was in a different position ...

The third day, the highlight, was a trip to Mount Fuji. After we assembled at New Miyako hotel, we were taken to the Shinkansen station to go to Odawara station. There, we were taken to Hakone and Lake Ashi, a place famed for its view of Mt Fuji and also the several hot springs there. There were several pleasure boats traversing the Lake and one of ...

... quelques centaines de metres, assez pour dire que nous avons marche sur le Mt Fuji !!! Nous avons aussi eu la chance de visiter une petite fabrique familiale de the pas loin de la maison d'Ayako, avec degustation a la fin. C'est un the de tres bonne qualite, la region est d'ailleurs connue pour le the vert. Numazu, c'etait bien !

We left early and went to Mt Fuji, couldn't see it at all as it was so cloudy, we ate at a nice family run restaurant, we accidently left our shinkensen timetable at the restaurant, and another couple their drove all the way to the station to give it back to us...OMG, I just can't believe how nice they were. We got to ...

Salut tout le monde Nous allons bien. Nous revoicie a Tokyo. Nous sommes allee a un spa ce matin au Mt. Fuji, ensuite la preparation pour des bagages et up dans le bus pour Tokyo. Malheureusement pas de Mt. Fuji en vu, sauf quelques minutes du sommet enneige lors de notre visite dans le spa. Aujourd`hui nous avons festoye au sushi pour notre dernier repas, et une courte marche dans le Tokyo illiminee. COMME TOUTE BONNE CHOSE A UNE FIN ...