Mt. Fuji

We had a very early start this morning as we needed to catch a taxi to a Shinjuku hotel ready for our 8.25am pick up for our day trip to see Mt. Fuji, I can't wait!

Luckily, a cab was ready for us as soon as we walked out of our hotel doors. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the Keio Plaza hotel where we quickly found our way to the tour desk, checked in, received our tour group sticker/info, met our tour guide (a quirky Japanese lady by the name of Yoko) then boarded the bus for Mt. Fuji.

It was a 2 hour journey out there, I slept a lot of the way...surprisingly because as lovely as Yoko was she literally didn't shut up the whole way there, giving us constant tips and interesting facts about all things Japanese. It was lovely, she had tons of knowledge but super constant when most needed a bit of extra kip on the way. Unfortunately Yoko advised us that the day wasn't looking so great for Mt. Fuji, the locals believe she is truly shy and often won't show her face (only a few times a year with many locals still not having a chance to fully see all her beauty) we knew this was more than a possibility, in fact it was pretty likely we wouldn't see the mountain but we decided to book the trip anyway and if we didn't get to see her then at least we tried.

Thankfully, as we were getting closer we saw this beautiful snow covered mountain staring out at us from behind the mountains and to our amazement (& Yoko's shock) FujiSan was well and truly putting on a display today, nothing shy about her!

Our first stop was at the 5th station, the peak of the mountain. It was absolutely freezing and the paths were snow covered but it was lovely. We didn't get to spend too much time at this stop as we had a few different viewing points to get too for today but we had just enough time to get some happy snaps with the mountain, grab a coffee & quickly pop into the souvenir shop (a magnet each for mum & myself and some vanilla cheesecake flavoured Kit Kats for Pete)

We were then back on the bus for our lunch stop. Lunch was amazing, we ate at this cute little "ninja restaurant", it was named after the traditional Japanese ninjas that surrounded the area and the waiters & waitresses were dressed up as ninjas (the nice kind) & lunch was in a private room for our group of about 20 people, with an authentic Japanese buffet - our first taste of real Japanese food. Our table was sat right by the window overlooking a pond filled with Coy fish, it was lovely and the food was soo yummy. I even managed to eat some of my food using chopsticks, yay!

Next stop was Hakone, about an hour away so we could board a lovely scenic cruise across Lake Ashie and then take the ropeway (otherwise known as a cable car in Aus land) up to another viewing point so we could see the amazing Mt. Fuji from a higher point. Although cold, we decided to sit right up on the top, open aired deck of the boat so we could take pictures of the surrounding area. Lake Ashie is beautiful and we were surprised when we turned a corner around some mountains to see the beautiful Mt. Fuji staring at us from the clouds, words cannot describe how incredible the mountain is and she looks different but still very beautiful from every angle we saw her from.

The cruise took us over to the Kamagatake ropeway where we were shoved into these little cable cars like sardines - Japan has been great so far but you very quickly have to adjust to the sharing of your personal space on the regular...thankfully the ride up wasn't too long! Once we were up top the views were just as amazing as they were at the bottom, only from a slightly higher angle and I still can't believe how lucky we have been that at every viewing point we have been able to see Mt. Fuji, not once has she hidden back behind the clouds.

Once we arrived up top aside from the views and incredible photo ops, there was an extra optional hike you could take to a little temple on top of the mountain peak. After a little deliberation we decided to climb, the views looked well and truly worth it and let's face it, we may never get back here again so off we went & I'm so glad we did - the pictures below speak for themselves really, absolutely stunning views of the surrounding lake and mountains.

Eventually we made our way back down the mountain top, crammed into the ropeway like sardines again for the return trip, grabbed a bite of ice cream before boarding the bus again for the 2 hour trip to Shinjuku station. I gave Origami a go on the trip back (wasn't very great at it, I think Yoko did most of it for me ha) then slept.

It had been a bit of a long day so we decided once we eventually got back to our hotel to quickly freshen up, run over the road to the Disney store to purchase our theme park tickets then stop in at our hotels buffet Restuarant. The food was absolutely lovely, the restaurant was super nice and the service was pretty good too however, when we received the final bill from our dinner we nearly cried - $242 for a BUFFET meal, what the F#ck! Unfortunately, we didn't check the price going in & just assumed it would be a reasonable cost because hey, it's a buffet.....uh oh, rookie mistake.

Tomorrow, we're off to Disneyland and I'm pretty freaking excited about it!! Nighty night x