6.11.2016 – 6.11.2016  17 °C

Honest to goodness a spectacular day in Japan. I was up bright and sparkly to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji (as it apparently gets clouded over by lunchtime most days)… Super clear, and actually clear all day! Not much snow left up on the peak (but based on how cold it was last night I’m guessing it won’t be too much longer before it starts to get snow on it again) and very beautiful.

Our hotel is right on the lakefront and so my second call of the day was to check out our very own onsen in our room. Very pleasurable to soak in a deep tub with a good book!

Breakfast was more traditional  fare (I am seriously going to want muesli + toast once we get back home) and then our day began with a big walk around part of Lake Kawaguchiko. Really beautiful to walk around the blue lake surrounded by mountains covered in coloured trees! Deep green all the way thru to Deep Red… Really, really pretty.

Half way around the lake we stopped for a break and decided to jump on the tourist bus and head around to a different mountain where we were sure to be able to do some nice hiking surrounded by Japanese maples. We got off the bus at the wind lava cave and decided to go have a quick sneak peak.. PRetty disappointing- a small cave- took a grand total of 10 mins to walk in and walk back out! We got off at the lava cave though not because we wanted to see the tunnel but because this was also where we could start hiking.

After a few false starts (really wasn’t clear where the walking tracks were) we finally got our skates on and walked through a very beautiful part of Japan. All the leaves are in various shades of green thru to red so my camera got a real workout. Many a time i thought to myself, could easily be another postcard shot!

Our walk ended a few kms down the mountain at another of the bus stops- where we got ourselves back on teh bus and headed into town for some souvenir shopping and ramen noodles for lunch. Lunch was actually quite late so after our tacky souvenir shopping was over we walked back around the lake and headed to our hotel for another hot spring swim and an enormous Japanese dinner… Feeling unwell right about now!

All in all- Fuji Five Lakes is a region worthy of a stop.. Really, really beautiful.