Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Before we had to check out of our cottage we wanted to take a look at the nearby Bat cave (alas we didn't see Batman, except plastic ones, but we couldn't resist humming the tune regularly!). We took our breakfast at the main building this time and ordered the 'big pancake' four times. He asked twice if we were sure since it was intended for two persons, but we insisted. As the curry rice they served in the evening was already huge, we were wondering what to expect here. We got the thickest deep pan pancake we had ever seen topped with ice cream, whipped cream and fruit. It sure tasted nice!
We wanted to be in time for the tour through the bat cave which started only a few times a day, so we hurried and could take the bus to be there just in time. However, apparently there was no tour at all and you could enter at will. The tour was supposed to take about 50 minutes so we had a hard time imagining how big the cave was. We put on our helmets, took some photo's of the nice and rugged surroundings and entered the lair.
The cave was somewhat cold and damp, with water dripping from the ceiling continuously. The route to walk was clearly indicated and split up into an easy one and 'full' tour somewhat later. We took the full tour of course which lead us to a passage that you had to crawl through hand and foot. Even Michelle, the smallest of us, had a hard time getting through without hitting her head. The helmets were sorely needed! However, just after that there was just a small bit of cave left and that was it. The cave was a lot smaller than we expected. Even going through it twice, it only took us 20 minutes in total. We didn't see any bats either, which wasn't surprising since the sounds of the people visiting (including enthusiastic children) was too much noise for the bats to stay in there. They probably left for some quieter spots nearby.
Walking back to the entrance building we noticed that the path to the bat cave was separated from the normal car road by just a few meters of trees. We are sure that some people would use that to get free entrance, but we decided that the whopping 300 yen entrance fee was justified as rent for the very useful helmet.
So we went back earlier and were in time for checking out and getting on the bus back to Kawaguchiko. There is only one bus route which goes around the Saiko lake and passes all the touristic attractions in a loop, so after 30 minutes we had a deja vu and saw some of the visiting spots twice before returning to the bigger city of Kawaguchiko. It had been quite warm the past few days so this time there was more sakura in bloom then on our way forth. But nobody had time to enjoy them because the weather was turning for the worse and it already started to rain softly. Later it was raining a lot more but we had already arrived at the station safely. While waiting for the train we enjoyed a nice hotdog and some tea before we began our long journey back.
Tora behaved himself in the train to Tokyo again and we arrived in a very wet and stormy Meguro. After a sushi dinner our short holiday was over, but the weekend started with plenty of things to do.
- comments
René Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na... BATMAN!