Again, got up at some unearthly hour coz the journey from Hakone to Kawaguchiko takes about 3 hours (inclusive of the transit times at two other bus stops). We spent about 20 minutes waiting in the cold for our next bus to arrive -- see below -- so poor thing! Haha...
waiting in the freeeeezing cold... *brrr*Being the sleepyhead that I am, I slept through most of the journey. Opened my eyes at one point to notice that it was SNOWING. Snow in springtime... when it's supposed to be warm! *feels betrayed* Anyways, by the time we got to Kawaguchiko station, it was already a warm, fuzzy 7 degrees. Haha... shivered all the way to our hotel, Kawaguchiko Station Inn, which thankfully was almost directly opposite the bus station. Left our luggage there, and decided it was too cold to do anything but EAT, so went in search for something soupy to warm ourselves up.
Kawaguchiko is famous for its Houtou Noodles - which is almost similar to ban-mee in its texture, cooked in a hearty soup of pumpkin + potato + other vegetables, and served in a claypot. We walked into this restaurant called Miyashita, a quaint little restaurant managed by a cute elderly couple, and plonked ourselves down for some hearty goodness. I don't know if it's because we were too cold, or too hungry, but the Houtou noodles tasted really really good. :) The nice old aunty gave us some free daikon (pickled radish) as well, and it's the best daikon I've ever eaten.
Claypot!
Good stuff.
The most YUMMY Daikon EVAR!
Feeling all warm and toasty, we made our way to Lake Kawaguchi, the biggest of the five lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji. It was surprisingly quiet - very few tourists around, unlike the tourist trap that was Hakone the day before. Wandered about for a bit, then decided to make our way up to Mount Tenjo via the "Mt. Kachi Kachi Ropeway" to get a better view of the elusive Mount Fuji.
Mount Tenjo seems to have been designed for little kids - the cable car and the platform up on the mount have cute little racoon and rabbit figures scattered all around. ^^ We met the most adorable child on the way up there, he kept saying "kowai... kowai yo..." (which means "scary")when the ropeway swayed back and forth in the wind. There's this bell that you can ring when you get to the top of Mt Tenjo as well... and he kept hogging it. I WANT ONE! Haha... Guess I have to find myself a Japanese husband first. ;)
Ze entrance.
The racoon that took us up the mount ^^
Lake Kawaguchi
The cutest kid EVAR!
An obscured Mount Fuji and the Bell
How cool are Japanese vending machines? It sold dimsum, hot dogs, takoyaki, yakisoba, fried onigiri and potato chips. o.O
Mount Fuji in hiding >.<
Me eating a Yukimi Daifuku (almost like mochi with icecream)
Spent about 2 hours up there, waiting for the stupid clouds obscuring Mount Fuji to drift away. They drifted away quite fast, but new ones came. So we never had a perfect view of Mount Fuji, but we still had a nice relaxing time anyway, amusing ourselves with the antics of the cute little kid I mentioned above.
For the rest of our afternoon, we wandered aimlessly around the lake. This had to be the day we rushed around the least... it was good though, as the 5 days of rushing around had started to take its toll on us.
Mummy and the lake
(my gosh my captions are so boring and unoriginal...
creativity, what rock are you hiding under?)
My attempt at an artistic shot. Haha. Absolute FAIL.
The epitome of peace
Some super energetic Japanese exercising. Could hear their voices from far across the lake.
Made our way back to the hotel and guess what? Our room was a ROOM with a VIEW! We could see Mount Fuji from our window weih... pretty! I think we sat in front of our window for 30 minutes... just admiring the scenery. Bathed in their indoor bath - also with a view of Mount Fuji. The water here was freaking hot. I was in the bath for about 5 minutes and I could feel all the steam going up to my head already... got up, and wobbled faintly to the exit. Haha... think I would've fainted if I stayed in there longer.
Our spectacular view
Steamy!
Dinner time! Got out of our hotel in time to see the sun set... and by this time the clouds had completely disappeared! Mount Fuji was at its best... its snow capped tip set against the blue sky - magnificent!
Mount Fuji, thou art beautiful
The station's not bad either
The station and the Mount
Closeup!
Took 10000x pics, then made our way back to Miyashita again (yes we loved it that much), this time to try other things. I had the fried pond smelts and mummy had the wild vegetable pilaf rice. SO GOOD. The old uncle was so cute... he shuffled back and forth to give us tea, a heater, our food, etc, while the old aunty was busy whipping up the meals in the kitchen. Pond smelts are a type of fish... Deep fried to perfection, served with rice, miso soup, a bed of cabbage with Japanese mayo (yum), and more daikon (yumyum). Mummy's wild vegetable pilaf rice may not have looked impressive, but it was freaking delicious. Mouth-watering. It just looks like any other fried rice, but it's so good lah. Must be the sushi rice and the type of soy sauce they use... I don't know. We couldn't figure out why it was so addictive. Haha. Washed the great meal down with more Soft serve Icecream - strawberry and black sesame!
One little, two little, three little FISHIES
*drool*
Icecream!
More Japanese snacks - clockwise from topleft - Calbee potato chips, Mitsuya Cider (waaaaay better than Apple Cider), fruit-flavoured Calpis Water, Strawberry Pudding (again, haha), Baskin and Robbins flavoured Chocolate, peach flavoured sweets.おわり
No comments:
Post a Comment