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After the disappointment of not seeing one of the main things we came here to see (Mt Fuji), we have been keeping a close eye on the weather over the Lakes area ready to zip back asap. The "opportune moment" came after leaving Osaka, the forecast was clear skies and sun, and even though it meant a good 5 hours of travel and spending more money we decided to take the chance. It well and truely paid off!!! We got back to Lake Kawaguchiko and the same hostel we stayed in previously (K's House - best so far) at around 4pm. The approach to the mountain had been a mixture of cloud and sun and the sides of the mountain kept appearing and dissappearing as we watched out of the bus window. We got out of the bus and looked up at the steep rise of the right side of the mountain, we couldn't see the top but were stunned by what was visible. Unbelievable that we couldn't see a thing the first time around. The evening clouds closed in fast and we didn't see much more of the mountain that day, instead we relaxed in our favourite hostel and cooked up some chicken and noodles.
At a loose end after tea, we thought as we were next door to an onsen we should go and give it a try. An onsen is a set of pools that are filled with naturally heated hot water from springs, in this case heated from the fuji volcano. There are seperate male and female onsens and each has indoor pools, outdoor pools and a sauna. So the rules are pretty simple.....Enter the changing rooms, strip off everything so your completely naked, sit on a little wooden stool and wash yourself down with the fancy shower gels provided and then go and sit naked in each of the pools. An interesting experience! Very relaxing apart from the obvious shock of having to stroll around with nothing on....its like a wierd dream.
The next day we got out of bed at 6am!! and were outside at 6.30am!! To find that the sun still wasn't properly up and all the early morning mist meant we could see a thing! so we went back in for breakfast and a dose at the breakfast table:-) By 8.30am we were ready to go again....we stood out on the Kawaguchiko Lake bridge and viewed Mount Fuji in all her glory. It was a perfect day and we hired bikes to cycle around the lake and get good views from every angle.
We departed the Lakes extremely pleased that we decided to come back!
Next up was a return trip to kyoto. We have flight out of Tokyo so are working our way back east in that direction. We stayed here for 3 nights but it was all a bit hectic due to Japansese holidays and us having to change to a different hostel on each night. During our 3 days we visited Kobe and the longest suspension bridge in the world, we ate our way through every type of cake/pastry in the local bakeries and sampled different japanese sakes. The plum wine, the plum sake and the ginger sake are our favourites!
Our second day was a bit of a lazy day due to the weather and we had a look around the large department stores. We visited an 8 storeydepartment store that was crammed full of everything you could ever buy, anywhere. Including... the best TVs, which looked 3D without glasses, aisles and aisles of anime and collectors cards, and enough minature crap for dollhouses and trainsets to build your own little world!
We set off back to Tokyo using our railpasses just before they expired....our final bullet train ride!
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