Return to Fuji

We took a long weekend back to Lake Kawaguchi on the north side of Mt Fuji. We actually stayed in the same airbnb we were in last time because it is really cheap and the view is amazing. The purpose this time was to catch cherry blossoms blooming around there. And they were in full bloom for sure. It was beautiful everywhere we walked.

On Friday we visited the Ice Caves under Mt Fuji. We went here last autumn and the ice was a little puddle. We had to laugh. But this time the ice was filling the cave up. Caroline is a little claustrophobic and I don’t think Nathan was entirely comfortable either. They later told us they were scared because of the Ice Dragon. We had told them about the Ice Dragon legend that punishes people for being bad. Maybe that was a little too heavy.

That evening we took a night walk through the illuminated cherry blossoms. There was almost nobody else around. Since Tokyo had just lifted their state of emergency, we figured people would be out in hordes. But there was nobody and it was pretty amazing.

Saturday morning we woke up around 6:30am, ate breakfast, and were out the door by 8:30am. That may be a record for us. We were on a mission to get our super generic, but amazing, instagram picture. Its in a place called Chureito Pagoda.

But there was a line we had to wait in for about an hour, just to get to the spot where the famous picture is taken. On normal years people can wait in line from 4am to get this picture. So we figured since it was only an hour, we should probably seize the opportunity. The kids were amazing though. They waited like champs. Caroline used my phone to walk around and take her own pictures. And they had some snacks that held them over pretty well.

We were done there by noon. So we spent the rest of the day playing on the playground, getting various snacks, and walking under the cherry blossoms. It was really relaxing and not too crowded at all.

Sunday we woke up early again. We drove about 30 minutes to Lake Motosu on the west side of Mt Fuji. Then we went on a little 30 minute hike to another famous spot. On the back of the ￥1000 bill, there is a picture of Fuji being reflected into a lake. We woke up early to try to capture that on a still lake. We actually were able to capture it pretty well. After about 15 minutes, the winds picked up, and the reflection was gone. We had just caught it. So I am glad we woke up early!

I think we were finished with that by 10am. So we headed home and got back before 1pm. Its crazy how close Mt Fuji actually is to us, but we don’t ever go.