A day at Mt Fuji and the Five Lakes area.

MT FUJI Day !!!!

Up and at um nice and early had coffee and tea in the room and started our Journey to the Hamamatsucho station where we will connect with a bus. The bus will take us to Mt. Fuji, Lake Ashi, Mt Komagatake, and Hakone. This should be a very full day and we hope to be back at the hotel about 2100. Weather looks great for today and the approaching Typhoon should not fully arrive until after we head home.

The local trains were easy to navigate and we made the trip to the bus station without any problem. I expected the trains to be crowded but this was not the case. 

We found a cafe in the station that had a non smoking section. Lynn was able to get a foo-foo coffee with a ham and egg sandwich. I had regular coffee and a spicy sausage sandwich. Both were good. The little food shop offerings all look great. I think we will be enjoying those quite a bit. 

We are finding the people to be very friendly and very willing to help with directions. For us it was nice to confirm our direction of travel. 

Here on escalators and other moving platforms one stands to the left and walks to the right. 

We arrived at the Mt Fuji Visitors center where we had 20min to use the bathroom and take a few quick pictures. The fall colors are just starting and I can only imagine how nice they will look later in the Fall. From the Visitors center we made our way to Station 5 at about 7200 feet. Here we visited a Shinto Shrine, and got some Mt Fuji photos. Sadly the location was not great as the sun was over the Mountain. We found an item to use as a Christmas ornament on our Travel Christmas Tree. 

On the road to Station 5 there is a section of road which plays the Mt Fuji song. It is what is called a Melody Road or Singing Highway. rumble stops are designed to give off a certain pitch as a vehicle drives over them. 



We then made our way to Lake Kawaguchi. We found a convenience store and bought lunch for a picnic. We had steam buns with BBQ pork, a potato mix that was fried in panko crumbs. A beer for me and Lynn had a Milk Tea. For dessert we had cookies  shaped like little Christmas trees dipped in chocolate. We enjoyed our picnic lakeside.

We were lucky as we got to see Mt Fuji before the clouds stated to roll in. After our lunch we bussed to Hakone and Lake Ashi. Here we spent some time on the docks and hung out with the cats on the dock. From there we made a short cruise to the resort area of Hakone-en. Here we took the Mt. Komagatake Ropeway (cable car). Sadly we only had 10 min on the summit station. But the light was nice and I was able to get a few pictures. 

Things that stuck out for me were as follows: 

The countryside is amazingly lush, a combination of deciduous and cedar trees. This provided a very dense forest canopy. 

The ruggedness of the countryside , very steep with narrow ridges. 

The small agricultural plots were people were growing rice. 

The overall politeness of the people and willingness to help visitors.  

We are returning to Tokyo via the Shinkansen (High Speed Train) traveling at 300km per hour is making for a short trip back. At the Tokyo Station we will transfer to the JR Keiyo line to get back to Tokyo Disneyland Resort. Back in the room at 2000. 

It was a long day but well worth it. 

Tomorrow we ride bikes as we tour Tokyo.