a day at mt fuji

A day at Mt. Fuji

One of the benefits living in DK house Nerima is that we have many discounts for a lot of events happening in Tokyo.  For me Mt. Fuji was on my bucket list before I even came to japan, so when there was a one day trip to Fuji mountain, I didn’t thought twice about signing up!

We met at 六本木 at 7 am next to the love sign, it took a while for everyone to gather, and I was surprised that most of the people going on this trip was tourists instead of students. Although many of them were elders, they spoke fluent English, and was able to communicate perfectly. At first I was kind of shy and afraid to talk to anyone, luckily someone from my dorm was also going, so I had someone to share my thoughts about my excitement about going on this trip! (picture 1)

The tour guy explained on the way to our first stop that Mt. Fuji can only be climbed during July to early September due to snow and other purposes, but we were very lucky that day because the weather was perfect that day so we get to take some really great picture with our eyes.

Our first stop was Lake Kawaguchi(one of Fuji five lakes), it was there I had my first clear view of Mt. Fuji , my first impression of it was elegant and full of love from the glaze of the sun. At the lake(picture 2) the water was really clear and we could see the natural reflection of mountain Fuji, back in where  I lived all the pools and lakes were heavily polluted.

Next we went to Oshino Eight Seas, here we can see a lot of Japanese traditions and rural views which we don’t normally see in Tokyo. This is where I realized that I was no longer in the fancy part of japan. Instead I saw smiles after smiles, the pace was slower and the attitude was warmer. I bought some souvenirs and postcards to send to my friends, the old lady at the store even went to Taipei 20 years ago, for some reason, my heart felt really warm while I was here, and I’m pretty sure the sun was not the reason for it.(picture 3)

For lunch which was covered in the money we paid at the beginning of the trip, we went to Oshino ninja village, where we had all kinds of food from sushi to a small hotpot, they were probably afraid that some of the tourist wasn’t used to Japanese food so they also had some American food such as potato fries and fried chicken. As we were eating, a ninja came in and everyone wanted a picture with her(picture 4) After taking pictures she performed martial arts in front of everyone, and it was really fun to see her running around with swords. I personally would give this lunch a 4 star out of 5 , even if this was a buffet the quality of the food was pretty delicious.

Then we went to the highlight of the trip, fifth station of mt fuji, this is the closest we can get to mt fuji, up there it felt like heaven because the clouds were under us and the scenery was absolutely stunning, we could see the snow on top of mt fuji very clearly. Unfortunately I forgot my jacket on the bus so I was the only one in the area that was wearing a t-shirt. Upon looking at mt fuji I started to understand why it has such a large place in Japanese peoples’ hearts, after world war 2 , it stood there in the bad times and the good times, great weather, typhoons and earthquakes, it stood there strong and confident. （picture5 and 6）

Before we went back to 新宿station and back to reality, we went to fuji q to experience a 4D plane ride, it was a really interesting event, we could smell the flowers and the feel the wind. We stopped at the food park near it to grab some food, I had a mt. fuji bread to end the trip, needless to say, it was delicious. (picture 7,8,)

I hope to come back again and hike mountain fuji next year if possible , before then I will always have mountain fuji in my mind!