Once we had dropped our bags at the hotel we went to Yagizaki Park which is right on Lake Kawaguchi. The park is renowned for its lavender fields, which had just been planted ready for the summer season.
Just in front of the park is the Rokkakudo temple which was orginally built in 1274 but was destroyed in 1559 by heavy snow and rain. The current temple was rebuilt in 1994. Due to drawdown of the lake, by 2013 it was no longer surrounded by water and we got to walk right up to it.
Afterwards we went up to a supermarket and got a pretty good picture of Mt Fuji…
On our first full day we started off by getting on the Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway. It’s an aerial lift that ascends 400 metres up Mount Tenjo where there is an observation deck giving some of the best views of Mount Fuji.
Even though there were a few clouds we still got a great view…
We then hiked up Mt Tenjo a little more through the woods. We came across some runners competing in the Fuji 100 trail running ultramarathon. 100 miles, 6,613 metre elevation gain and a time limit of 45 hours to finish…. absolutely crazy. Add onto that the risk of bears… all the marshalls had to have bear bells. We’ll give that a pass!
After an hour or so we took the ropeway back down towards the lake where our next adventure started, a short boat trip around Lake Kawaguchi.
The boat trip lasted 20 minutes and went from the west side of the lake all the way to the east side and back. There were great views of all the surrounding mountains and we found it fun watching people zip along on lots of speedboats.
We then walked into the town centre to grab some lunch from our favourite sushi spot… Sushiro! We were even more happy when we found out that the dishes started at 120 JPY (56p), 30 JPY cheaper than most other stores! It was already great value!
They also change their menu depending on what area you are in so Tasha had to try the Wagyu Beef with Ponzu Nigiri…
The next day we did a long walk across the other side of the lake to Oishi Park. It’s famous for its panoramic views of Fuji and also its seasonal flower garden. It also had a lovely gift shop and cafe.
On our walk back we came across a lovely local fresh fruit and veg shop and had to grab a couple of things. We got two packs of mushrooms, a pack of strawberries and some tomatoes for only 728 JPY (£3.28).
While walking around we’ve noticed a lot of very nicely decorated manhole covers. After some research we found out that every municipality in Japan (there are over 1,700) designs their own to celebrate local culture and landmarks.
After walking 14km we decided to rest for a couple of hours. Then when we looked outside we saw that all the clouds had cleared and we got the best view of Fuji!
That evening as there was not much light pollution in the area and it was a very clear sky we managed to get a couple of pictures of the Milky Way…
The next morning we got on the free shuttle bus from our hotel to the bus station. We then got on our bus to take us to Toyko which only took 2 hours. Just look at this view from the bus station…
We then had a short 20 minute walk to our hotel. We’re staying in Toyko for 10 nights and have a very long list of things to do and see!
It’s currently Golden Week in Japan which is a week long holiday spanning four national holidays. It promotes national rest, celebrates spring and sparks a major surge in domestic tourism. Toyko has a population of 40 million people so this might get a little intense!
LittleSandyBeach 
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