Return to the Rising Sun, Days 7-8: Beautiful Kawaguchiko & A Climb on Mt Fuji

Day 7

The final day in Shinjuku.  We packed up our belongings before heading to Shinjuku Station where we said good-bye to Andrew.  And then there were four.

Mat, Dave, Amy, and I hopped on a train and began the two hour trek to Kawaguchiko which lies at the base of Mt Fuji.  Traveling by train was a very pleasant way to see the country and it was neat to see the crammed buildings of the city begin to give way to foliage and open countryside.  Heck, I finally saw my first gas stations by taking the train.

Kawaguchiko is a very pleasant small town, not unlike the many I’ve visited for my B & B reviews.  And, would you believe it, we actually stayed in a B & B called Koe House.

Koe House

Koe House is a dormitory style B & B not unlike a hostel.  Because of this, you may room with strangers.  For our first night, we briefly had a roommate from Malaysia who was going to climb Mt Fuji from the very bottom.  He was not in our room for long and left at 11pm.

The room was a little uncomfortable.  My roommates didn’t like the hard bunk beds.  The room was stuffy due to the humidity and the little fan mounted on the wall didn’t do much for circulation, though we got a nice cross breeze going once we opened the windows and the temperature dropped dramatically at night to a very pleasant level.

We had our lunch right across the street at a little ramen joint.  I had a soy sauce and pork ramen which filled the hole nicely.  We then walked off our meal at Lake Kawaguchiko which made for a lovely afternoon.  Afterwards we returned to our room to relax and get cleaned up.  Be certain to bring your own towels as Koe House charges a rental fee for them and for using the laundry (300 yen a load).  There is also no dryer, though there is a rack outside to hang your clothes.

Soy sauce ramen

We didn’t do too much for the rest of the night except stop at a 7-11 to pick up some light snacks for dinner.  I had a rice ball with some sort of spicy sauce in the center as well as a surprisingly good ham sandwich with the best mayonnaise I’ve ever tasted.  As Mat explained, Japanese mayo uses more vinegar which explains the wonderful tang I got off of it.

Day 8

It was an overcast day, but the temperature was fine.  Ironically, the terrible weather set to plague the area never manifested so we would have been able to climb Mt Fuji, but a decision had to be made and there are no regrets.

We started with breakfast in the small restaurant on Koe House’s first floor.  Breakfast is included in the stay and we dined on eggs, cabbage salad, and thick slices of toast with butter and orange marmalade.  I had never tried marmalade before, but rather liked its taste.

Koe House breakfast

We did hop a bus and ride to Mt Fuji’s fifth station.  It was interesting being up in the clouds which were so thick that it made getting a decent view difficult though it cleared up from time to time as a light rainfall dissipated the clouds.

After looking around the station (which is very touristy) we began a brief climb on Mt Fuji to get an idea of the experience.  The weariness on the faces of the people returning from the top clearly showed the difficulty of the trek.  You do need to be well rested and in fairly good cardio shape to attempt the climb.

We walked up about a half hour before a rainfall drove us back, but it was enough to get an indicator of the climb.  One would expect to climb for about 20-30 minutes, rest, then repeat the process all the way to the top of the mountain.

Our little group grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants where I had hot green tea, iced cocoa, and a lava ramen.  This was easily the best bowl of ramen I have ever eaten as it hit the spot after I spiced it up even more.  One thing that surprises me is that Japan is known for its small portions, yet the eateries always serve a good sized bowl of ramen.

Lava ramen

With a good lunch in our systems, we wandered around the gift shops for an hour before returning to Kawaguchiko.  We would have an early start tomorrow so we relaxed in our room and played cards until bedtime.

Return to the Rising Sun, Day 4: Going Home Again. . .Well, Sort of

When it rains, it pours.

And I mean pours.  I awoke at about 4:15am and rain was just coming down in buckets over Shinagawa.  Still, there was something peaceful about listening to the rain pelt the ground as I went to the kitchen to post pictures and write yesterday’s article.

We ended up being pinned inside the apartment until nearly noon when the rain finally let up and cleared.  We decided to make our way to Ikebukuro which had been our base of operations for the Tokyo Maximum tour four years ago.  The place had changed a bit in the intervening four years.  A few new businesses had sprouted and the McDonald’s where we had eaten a few meals had been remodeled.

The first thing we tried was to relocate the Mountain Dew machine for Dave.  Alas, our efforts were for naught as the machine was no longer there.  Instead we walked to the ramen joint that always has a line out the door to find that there was a line out the door.

We debated waiting, but as it was already 1pm, we opted to have okonomiyaki instead.  I settled for a regular okonomiyaki and water while most of the other chose sets which included rice and cabbage salad.  We had a leisurely lunch and then left to start walking around the district.

The sky had clouded up during lunch and a few sprinkles began to fall.  With the sunshine, I had left my umbrella at the apartment.  Dave asked me if I were going to buy a new one, but I declined as a few sprinkles were not going to bother me.  Mother Nature proceeded to call my bluff as the rain began to intensify.  I ran into a nearby 7-11 to purchase yet another umbrella, but Andrew bought one big enough for us to share and we shuffled around the district to Tokyu Hands.

Tokyu Hands is a department store and I took a brief glance around the store before heading outside to wait and did some people watching.  Saturday was a good day to get an idea of the massive population size of the city as the streets were jam packed with people.

Eventually our group came together and began making our way to Sunshine City, though we had a brief stopover at Super Potato, a vintage video game store.  This time Mat’s GPS did not fail as we reached Sunshine City in record time.

Most of the group opted to go to a Pokemon store, but as I had no interest, I watched a rather interesting Hawaiian dance demonstration going on at the bottom of the mall.

When the rest of the group came out of Pokemon, we decided to grab some dinner at Café Miami Garden known for pasta and pizza.  I split a pepperoni pizza with Andrew who kindly picked up the tab.

After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening at the arcade.  I found a machine that had Elevator Action and played a few rounds on it before teaming up with Mat to do some major league damage on Luigi’s Mansion.

It had been a long day and we returned to the apartment for another night of rest.