Trip to Japan - the aftermath, part 1

Because so much happened in Japan I’m going to write episodes of places or days and publish them one by one. I have already posted some pictures and the blogs will explain most of them to a further degree.

So here we go – chapter 1.

MOUNT FUJI AND LAKE KAWAGUCHI

Around the base of Mount Fuji are 5 lakes which act as vacation spots for locals and as a starting point for climbers etc. To get to one of the lakes we took a shinkansen to Otsuki station and from there the Fuji Express leaves every half an hour or so – a very comfortable train painted garishly in a very Japanese style.

The day was cloudy and threatened to rain at any time but this was the day we had picked beforehand to do this and we didn’t have another day available with our tight schedule. Besides, it’s a bloody big mountain and we’re going to be standing at the base of it right?  It’s not as if we’re not going to see it…

First stop is Fuji-Yoshida, the traditional pilgrim base. I check the tourist map before leaving the station and we walk out in the direction of the mountain. Bearing in mind that the SUMMIT of the mountain is only about 8 miles away after about 10 minutes of walking and not seeing a mountain I decide to ask a local.

“Sumimasen, Fuji-san wa doko desu ka?” I felt pretty foolish asking, thinking that the mountain was probably behind a building or something but when the guy looked around and started scratching his head I relaxed a bit. If a local doesn’t know where the mountain’s gone to then what chance did I have of finding it. In the end the guy pointed in a vague direction and reeled off some Japanese, most of which I didn’t understand but sounded like “it’s over there, it’s cloudy so you can’t see it” with maybe a “silly tourist” or two thrown in for good measure.

We decided to keep walking for a while but soon gave up and returned to the train station thinking that we’d have a better chance of seeing it if we continued to Lake Kawaguchi which is closer. At least there there’s the lake to see as well.

When we got to the lake it had started raining so visibility was even worse but we persisted – it really is a BLOODY HUGE mountain, how difficult could it be?

We went around the lake to the side facing the mountain, thinking that at least that way no buildings would be in the way, sat down under the umbrella and ate our sushi boxes.

Still no sign apart from vague shadows through the clouds.

In the end we gave up, cold and wet and came back to Tokyo, a little disappointed to not see Fuji-san but glad we’d made the effort and knowing that with any luck we’d see the mountain from the train in a couple of days.

As a post-script to this, we spent a lot of our time looking for a painting to hang in our bedroom, going through a lot of Ukiyo-e and not finding anything until the VERY LAST DAY when we found this…

Look at all familiar? We bought it at once! (If anyone can translate the writing that would be fab!)

Maybe the mountain was a bit bigger than we though it was… How the HELL could it have been covered COMPLETELY by a few clouds!!?!??

So to finish off, here’s my artistic impression of what we should have seen that day.

Beautiful isn’t it?

By the way, for those people who haven't realised - it's one of the images from the side of the train - I didn't draw it!