So one of the most hotly anticipated parts of the holiday, especially for Julie, was seeing Mt. Fuji. There’s something starkly unique about her (I’m talking about the mountain here, not Julie, though she has some unique qualities too), the way she stands alone surrounding but flat land, makes her seem like the biggest peak in the world. And she loves pusscats. (hang on, who am I talking about now?).
In our research, we had many options to get that perfect view of Fujisan, and we settled on this particular lake despite it being a little trickier to reach, in the town of.. *inhale*.. Fujikawaguchiko. We had been keeping a close eye on the forecasts for this particular day and they had been all over the place. We arrived in Fujikawaguchiko to find full cloud cover. Sadness. We weren’t even convinced that the mountain was out there. Conspiracy. It did make for some nice dystopian photos, though.
We had a long wait before we could check in, and it turned out that the area we were in was.. pretty quiet, to say the least. We could only find one restaurant within walking distance that we could possibly eat at. We arrived to find it barely open, with a table having to be laid out specifically for us. From memory it was about 11am at this point, but we still went all in as if we were having a 3pm Sunday lunch, eating a variety of miso soup and Sukiyaki (?). It was pretty delicious. We still had a couple of hours before check in, so we decided to nip into every souvenir shop on that side of the lake. I’m talking around 10-12 shops, all with very-similar-but-not-quite-the-same Fujisan merchandise. It was finally 3pm, so we headed to our second ryoken of the holiday, nestled in a little cluster of properties just off the coast of the lake. It was really was a lovely little place, run by a young family who were very helpful in giving us tips on where to go and what to do. We pottered around the grounds for a couple of hours and may or may not have had a nap (I don’t particular remember naps, after all, they are very overrated). We decided we’d wait for nightfall and go and see the local Maple Corridor; a large sort of trench, lined by beautiful trees who’s leaves gather on the ground below. The ryokan owner let us take a couple of bikes from his shed and we were on our way. I should point out at this stage, that due to our numerous stays at the same hotel in Tokyo, we were able to leave the bulk of our luggage there. This also meant that I was absolutely terrible at packing an overnight bag. This meant I had a t-shirt and small jacket to wear for our bike ride in zero celsius temperatures.
The ride across was pretty beautiful, the lake illuminated by restaurant lights and a bright moon. It took around 20 minutes to get to the corridor, and it had been worth the wait. It was breathtaking, though naturally the photos are absolutely bullshit.
We hung around for a while and then realised we were Absolutely Fucking Starving. Oh course, barely anywhere was open so we were cycling around aimlessly following Gmaps to big, closed eateries. I was the so cold at this point, that I was shivering and doing that “BURURUUREURRRRRRR” thing that I thought only happened in films about getting stuck on Everest and such like.
We finally found somewhere to eat. I don’t recall the name, but it was essentially an American diner kind of place. Fuck yr culture, I’m hungry yo.
We made our way back to the ryokan and had the perfect antidote for the cold; a little lounge area with a table sunk into the ground. You put your legs underneath and your feet are warmed by hot coals just below. It was an absolute joy. I also found a ukulele and no doubt annoyed the family who owned the place.
We had ourselves a cup of tea and copious amounts of sweets for the guests, and we got ourselves off to bed for our final day of the holiday ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ Hopefully Fujisan would come out to play tomorrow.
15 days in Japan. 