So, I'm pretty tired after a really long day of sight seeing in Kawaguchi-ko. Although, even 6 days in, I feel like our bodies are adapting and are getting more used to long walks. No aches and pains in our feet all day and it was a busy one, so that's good news!
Our day started out very early again. Can't tell you how awesome it is to get such an early start on the day. Jeff and I both are loving getting up early - something that many of you know is very foreign to us in Winnipeg where our work day usually got us out of bed at 7:45am on average! Dad, stop shaking your head! Joe Romeo likes to emphasize the importance of sleep and the wonderful feeling of getting up early in the morning. Well here's our chance to get into a great habit!
Jeff was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as we started our day at 6:30am. I, on the other hand, was quite sluggish so although I was really happy to be up so early, I think it's going to take me a lot more time to actually express my happiness in the morning... Mom, I'm working on this too!
Like we did yesterday, we bought some food from the grocery store for breakfast and lunch in a strong attempt to start clamping down on our spending. Japan is an expensive place, and Jeff and I are beginning to notice that our money is disappearing quite quickly. So, it's actually a really good thing we're realizing this now, as opposed to 2 months down the road when we're nearly out of cash and cutting our trip short. So the plan now is to keep track of all expenses in our day with Jeff's handy finance app on his iPhone. We're also going to buy both breakfast and lunch from the grocery store everyday as often as is feasible. Additionally, we will become very selective in our excursions. I think for a while we both thought we had to see as much as possible of every place we were visiting, but in fact, some of our best memories so far, are the things that have been free! Like walking through Tsukiji Fish Market, and down the streets of Tokyo. So, we're reflecting and we're learning and that's all part of the process and all we could hope for I guess.
Moving on to our day today. We were out the door of our awesome hostel at 7:15am and we marched straight to this bridge nearby to catch as stunning a picture as possible of the ever-elusive Senor Mount Fuji. Me and Jeff like to refer to Mount Fuji as a person; a fat, moody person actually... perhaps it's funnier to us than to you, but there's seems to be some truth behind the multiple personalities of Mount Fuji, which I will kind of explain a bit later. Here are some the pictures we managed to snag of Mr. Fuji:
This picture really foreshadowed the weather we received later in the day
We are not photographers, this mountain is just simply amazing. It's all by itself. Looking over everything around it. Not to mention it's the tallest peak in Japan at 3776 meters high. It's no wonder the Japanese considered, and probably still do consider the mountain sacred. There's so much history behind it too which we learned about on our bus tour today which was led by our guide named Taro. Taro was a very bubbly, funny local guide who taught us a ton of stuff today. We initially thought the cost of the day tour was way too expensive, but in the end I think it was worth it. I came away feeling like my brain was stuffed with as much information as could possibly fit.
The first stop of our tour was at a Shinto temple/shrine in town, which also leads to the original path the pilgrims would have taken hundreds of years ago to climb Mt. Fuji. Here are some highlights of our first stop:
Entrance to the Shinto temple for the Goddess of Cherry Blossoms
The gate leading to the temple
Me and Jeff purifying ourselves before entering the temple
Ceremony taking place in the temple (I'm proud of this pic!)
Steps and gate leading to the ancient pilgrimage path to Mt. Fuji which is not commonly used today, as most hikers begin their climb at the 5th station on the mountain.
Shinto shrine devoted to the deity of Education. People that practice Shintoism from this town would come to this shrine to pray for anything related to Education
Each shrine in this pic is devoted to a different Shinto deity. I thought this was really interesting, the shrines themselves don't belong to this temple, but rather the respective deity's temple which could be located anywhere in Japan. Think of them as the embassies for each deity:
Our next stop was the 5th station on Mt. Fuji which as we learned today would have been the peak of the mountain a couple thousand years ago. The souvenir shop is named after the former mountain which I can't think of at the moment. But, over thousands of years, the volcano has erupted several times and when the lava hardened, the mountain grew to what it is today - a fat, moody mountain as captured here on the side of this train.
The reason we joke that he's moody is that he seems to have many faces. This morning we could see him crystal clear from the bridge which is usually the time he likes to say hello. Closer to the afternoon, he was shying away into the clouds on and off. Then it started thundering as we headed down the mountain. Then only soft rain. Then just completely cloudy and misty all around him (maybe he was sleeping). I guess weather is unpredictable on any mountain, but this one is special. Mr. Fuji's got personality.
Here are some of pics from the 5th station on Mt. Fuji:
Next stop was lunch. We made super duper sandwiches back at the hostel and then set off to our next stop - an ice cave formed following a volcano eruption:
Next stop (and the last worthwhile stop) was the wind cave situated inside this beautiful forest. It was raining pretty heavily the entire walk to the cave, but because we were dressed for the weather and had an umbrella, it made the walk really peaceful. Nothing but the rain hitting the leaves and the dirt floor was all you could hear. It was amazing. I never thought I would walk through a forest like that, especially in that state of mind. I really don't like the outdoors, largely to due the weather, and bugs. But, this was simply beautiful.
That was pretty much the end of our tour.
Jeff and I want to come back one day to climb Mt. Fuji. Hopefully one day we'll get the chance.
Dinner was alright. We ate a local specialty which are thick flat noodles a lot like linguine but thicker. They were in a typical japanese soup broth with duck meat and other vegetables. Nice thing was that it was cheap - 1500Yen total for the meal.
Tomorrow we return to Tokyo for the day with all our stuff in tow until we get on our overnight bus ride to Kyoto. Should be an uneventful day. But following a great day, it's not so bad.
Good night from Kawaguchi-ko.
Love, Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment