Day 19 - Mt. Fuji - We Came, We Saw, We Soaked.

Today, we spent a lot of time on trains. Like, a lot. But now we're at Mt Fuji, which is nice.

This morning we awoke bright and early to another picturesque winter wonderland outside our window, but unfortunately it was our last day in Hakuba. We had packed the night before, so all we had to do this morning was go down, eat another delicious Yakata breakfast (BLTs with cheese and avocado, delish!), brush our teeth, and we were off! Marni was to drop us off at Hakuba-Happo bus terminal, and we had a 9.25 bus to catch. We brought our increasingly bulky bags downstairs and said our thank yous to Yakata and his wife. Our stay at Belnina had been really nice, and the only thing I wouldn't miss would be slipping and sliding every time I stepped outside the door.

Room selfie from yesterday

Marni packed our bags up and drove us out to the bus stop, also carrying two of the other guys from the lodge who were going up some slopes that were a bit of a drive away today. When we were near the bus terminal, Marni brought up the transfer charge, something we'd heard nothing about until that moment. We weren't 100% sure that it was legit, but since it was only 2000 yen, we gave him what had become half of our cash when we got off the bus. Either way, it was cheaper than a taxi would have been. We only had a short wait for our bus, and I had a delicious hot chocolate while Dylan struggled through a seemingly particularly awful coffee (apparently it was just hot). The bus came a little early, and left exactly on time, and we began the first leg of our travel day.

The day consisted of many short legs on one bus and multiple trains, none of which were longer than an hour ten. At our transfer at Kofu, Dylan decided to get a banana milk...thing that we had seen a few times in these coffee vending machines. It looked gross, and smelt revolting (Addy hates bananas), but he thought it was yum, but one a day was enough. We got off the bus at Nagano station and bordered a train to Matsumoto, then to Kofu, then to Otsuki. At Otsuki we took a break, finding a Japanese bakery outside the station for some delicoius pizza buns, mystery meat buns, croissaints and an excessively sugary donut. Dylan also treated himself to an Oreo milkshake, it looked pretty impressive, and tasted pretty good as well.

Outside the Station at Otsuki

Delicious!

 Otsuki to Kawaguchiko was our last trip of the day, and we had to buy a ticket for it as the JR lines had ended. The train was small, and afforded great views of Mt Fuji out the window. We were very fortunate today, the sky was almost completely clear, and we were able to see Mt Fuji all day. At this point it was mid afternoon, and I was on the brink of dozing off on the last train as Dylan busily attempted to get artsy photos of Fuji-san out of the window of the train. We were treated a great view out the front of the train, and could see the drivers amazingly precise timetable, which listed down to the second the time we should pass/stop at each station. At one point we passed a Thomas the Tank Engine themed train, and then spotted a theme park, which included Thomas Land, a place I think we should probably visit tomorrow, it's only a station away!

Took this arty photo when we were getting off the train

Well, I'll have time tomorrow to take a good photo... But Mt. Fuji is meant to be there

We disembarked our last train gratefully, before realising that neither of us had taken a picture of the map to our hotel, whoops. Luckily, Dylan remembered it's vague location, and it is situated on Lake Kawaguchiko, so we just followed the signs for the Lake from the station, about 800m, and wandered a short distance along the edge before encountering our swanky new accommodation. Upon our entrance, the concierge raced to grab our bags before we should be over encumbered pulling them across to the desk. We were quickly checked in, and led up to our room, a japanese style room with an awesome view of Mt Fuji. This is our most luxurious (and of course, most expensive) accommodation, but it is certainly impressive, as you can see from the pictures above.

Soon after the concierge left, a lady arrived in a kimono to give us Japanese tea and explain the public onsens to us, and we had to play a little charades to understand that she was showing us where the fire exits are. We had a little trouble connecting to the internet at first, and Dylan was starting to hyperventilate, but a trip down to the lobby fixed that, much to his relief. We also took a quick trip out to the konbini for some beer and snacks. Dylan was also given a mild shock by the bathroom. The toilet has 'many ubiquitous features' which can shock the uninitiated upon first try. The room lights turn on as soon as you walk in, and the lid of the toilet rises. It also flushes as soon as you stand up, and it took Dylan a few tries of the various mysterious buttons to figure out this particular feature.

Dinner and breakfast are included here, which is an added bonus. The kimono lady asked us what time we would like dinner served in our rooms, and bustled in at exactly 6.30 to serve us. She seemed a little flustered as she brought in the many trays and knick knacks involved in traditional Japanese dinner, and rushed in and out of our room as she laid out a table cloth, a tray filled with the first courses, the rice, the miso, and the specialty dishes, before lighting the hot pots, lava plates and miso bowl. It's a complicated process. Dylan had an interesting journey through his first traditional Japanese meal, discovering the strange vegetables, mysterious seafoods and delicious sauces. To his credit, he tried every single dish. The trays contained far too much food for the two of us, and we ended up with a bit left over. We called down to the desk to let them know we were done, and the same flustered lady soon rushed in to clear it all up and serve us a small dessert of mochi, manjyu, and jelly.

We decided today to make a small adjustment to our schedule. Originally, we were booked to spend a night in Hamamatsu after Mt Fuji, but since we have an entire day before we have to fly out, we thought it would be more convenient to go straight to Osaka and stay there our last night. We have booked a hotel near Namba station, close to Dotonbori, where we plan to do some last minute shopping and present buying. We are now staying at Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka, and we think this will work out better, since we weren't going to be spending much time around Hamamatsu anyway.

Tonight we will be relaxing after a few physically challenging days of skiing and unplanned ice skating (har har). Tomorrow, we might get a massage! Or go to Thomas Land. Or both! Until then, good night!