Throughout Asia the weather has been hot, around 35-39 degrees, so getting to Japan and it being around 25 degrees was such a relief and much better when out and about. However, once you get up to the 5th station, sort of the base camp of Mount Fuji, the weather drops about 10 degrees and the wind increases 10 fold. Along with the rain and cloud we knew that the 8 hour walk to the top was out of the question. With all the travelling we were too tired anyway. We mooched around and then went back down to the town. That evening we thought we'd try and sample some real traditional Japanese food in a local restaurant. Thankfully our Hotel, Inn, supplied us with a hand drawn map of local restaurants. We strolled through a neighbourhood to find a cosy Japanese place right in the middle of a housing estate. Not much English was spoke inside but it was good fun trying just to order the food, of which we had no idea what it was. There was a guy inside, looking like odd-job from James Bond, who was really friendly and let us try his food and drink some of his traditional wine! He was really trying with us and at one point even rang a mate to find out what the English was for "Is this your first ever Japanese meal?". We had a good laugh with him and the chef/owner, who made one of the best meals of my life. He cooked it on the hot plate in front of us like a true tradesman. Real pride went into it and it was brill. Okonimi- sort of egg based fried omelette thing that was amazing.
Our hotel, or Inn, was cracking too and fair cheap at 9 pound each a night. Our room was true Japanese style with sliding doors and free Japanese tea provided all day. As with other places in Japan free internet is provided but it's tough getting on with all the other backpackers hogging the pcs!! In the room we were provided with night gowns. These are for hanging around in and going for an Onsen. This is the Japanese hot bath and took a bit of getting used to. Thankfully diagrams of what to do were placed on the wall.
First you take off you robe and place it in a basket in the communal room. Then totally starkers you go into the male-only, obviously there is a ladies version too, bathing area. You have a shower and make sure you are clean before getting into a large hot bath with everybody else. It took some getting used to and you can only take the heat of the water, after slowly easing your way in, for about 10 minutes. The bath itself was on a kind of outside balcony so you can sit in the bath totally naked, outside-ish, boiling hot and checking out Mount Fuji. Really good stuff. Once you get out of the bath you feel amazingly relaxed and totally clean. I nearly fainted when I got out trying to acclimatise to the heat!
It was a really good time there and even the traffic lights for pedestrians played a little fairytale tune when you could cross. This did drive me totally insane after a while but it was good nontheless.
I'd go back and try and give Fuji a go, we could see it right out of our window but it's covered in cloud 95% of the year!
This is the view from our hotel room. It was probably about as clear as Fuji got whilst we were there!
This is the view down onto Kawaguchi-ko, the lake is just on the left, from Mount Fuji.
The counrtyside of Japan is beautiful and we only saw a bit of it but I'd definitely go back without a doubt.
On the way out of Kawaguchi-ko we started talking to an Australian guy who'd married a Japanese woman and was on holiday there. He said an odd thing to me, apart from originally thinking I was German(which has happened so many times!). I told him that we were going to Autralia soon-ish and he replied "You'll find it a step down, they're a bit backwards." I didn't quite know whether he meant Japan was a step down or Australia. 'I'm sure I'll find out' I thought.
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