Galspot: Day 5: Saturday 7th of October

Day 5: Tokyo - Mt Fuji

Woke up late in Shinjuku at about 9-ish, tired. Once again completely packed my bags, and ran out of the building by 10. After taking a few snapshots on the way to the large Shinjuku train station that catered for long distance travel, I arrived hoping to jump on the next train out, but found out at the last minute that my JR train pass didn't work. I had bought this back in Melbourne, one of the 14 day passes which lets me travel on all JR lines in Japan, and since I had a 19 day trip planned in total, I had wanted to start using it on day 5 or so in the hopes that I could rush back to the airport on the last day to catch a flight back home (still using the JR pass, to save money). What I found out today was that what I bought was just a voucher - I had to redeem it for the pass. After lining up for ages at the ticket office, I finally made it to the front - to find out that I needed to go to a travel agency to get the pass. This opened at 11am. Not happy. Bummed around the station, grabbed myself some McDonalds breakfast, and got some Boss koohii. Got back, luckily worked out that I didn't need to pre-order tickets all the time, could just hop on and get an unreserved seat, and made my way to - Mt Fuji!

Long train journey, transfer off my shinkansen at Ootsuki, and took an old fashioned train/tram up to kawaguchi-ko. Found a very helpful info desk on arrival, most hotels were booked around the station, but managed to find a spot in Hotel Sunnide (sunny day?), across the lake from the station (15 min bus trip), probably a less popular destination as it was further away from the transportation (kawaguchi-ko is one of the small towns/villages around the 5 lakes area just north of Mt Fuji. Unfortunately found out that there was no transportation up to Fujisan as it was off season, even though I had read it was still climbable in October. Oh well. Made my way around to the hotel, off in a little village by itself on the north shores of Lake Kawaguchiko, found it had a splendid view of both the lake, but also of the Mountain itself, and settled into what was my favourite hotel in my trip! Asked around with my little Eng-Jap translator booklet that was a companion to LP (which stayed in my left pocket for most of my trip, along with my wallet) and worked out there was a complimentary (oldish) bicycle that could be borrowed from the hotel for !free. Rode around the lake, visited the small hamlets around the lake, which were mostly small shops based around a larger hotel or group of hotels. Passed an art museum on the way, a wedding reception place, some parks and gardens, found my way back to the station area I originally alighted from (less than 15 minutes by bike), passed a small docks, and some old temples. It was getting late, and being smart, I took a different route back, thinking I'd be able to navigate back without a map and go by gut feeling. Got to dusk, then nightfall, and I found myself riding past open dry rice paddies and old thatched huts, and eventually a small, ruralish village full of traditional styled houses, bamboo and browned glass appearance. Found a traffic light in the middle of nowhere, hung a left, and found myself back in familiar territory after about 20 minutes time, pedalling my way through relaxing open aired darkened grasslanded scenery. Found a small noodle place 700m away from my hotel as measured afterwards, and had myself an awesome awesome udon tempura meal. Drool. Back to the hotel afterwards, change into my hotel supplied gowns (which both male and female were wearing while walking around the hotel) and had myself my first genuine japanese onsen bath.

A short carpeted walk from the hotel was a public bath (shared with the hotel next door), with both a male and female bath (separated). With every part of the bath routine enshrined in custom, I took my designated slippers at the appropriate place, made my way upstairs (where the male bath reportedly had a better view - of the scenery), and found my way into the bathroom. Despite my preparation from my reading, I was still a bit startled to find an area where people viewed nakedness as the norm (naked family baths are the norm over in Japan), and tried to do as the locals did. Knowing that I should wash before entering the bath (from my readings), used my broken Japanese, with no companion translator book handy, and worked out that the wash place was next to the bath itself. 2 taps, 2 old bottles with half rubbed out katakana, and a small wooden stool were what greeted me, and after washing my hair out thoroughly with body soap and getting my skin nicely conditioned silky smooth (I later realised), I made my way into the bath with a bunch of naked men hmmm. Anyway, very hot. Only in the temperature sense though. Really. Only lasted about 5 minutes, then had to go out from what was really hyperthermia and ?2nd degree burns. Made my way back to the hotel, still overheated for the next hour or so. Had some wine from the vending machine, and fell asleep.