Friday, 3 June 2016

t69 Fujiyama: Lake Kawaguchi

slow-pace life
a three-series entry related to Fujiyama, the highest mountain in Japan, start with the tour of Lake Kawaguchi.
Lake Kawaguchi is one of the FIVE lakes surrounding Mount Fuji.  This five lakes are Kawaguchiko, Yamanakako, Saiko, Shojiko, and Motosuko.
kawaguchiko is the most developed with relatively complete town having train station and bus terminal connecting with tokyo and surrounding cities.
we chose Keio bus, with the ticket booked online, paid and collected at Shinjuku bus station just one day before departure.
 
what else to do but....sleep
view from the bus
 our intention is to find fuji mountain, take picture as close as possible, do some wefie, head for traditional-style accommodation, plunge into hot spring, and return back to tokyo the next day.  we expect when we reach kawaguchiko, the fuji mountain would be right there waiting for us.  but than the weather has different opinion.
it was gloomy from the start.

 on the way to kawaguchiko, we saw the highest (not mountain) roller coaster ride in japan (or could be in the world, let me google it first) at fujiQ, one stop before reaching kawaguchiko.

after about one hour departing shinjuku, we arrived at the kawaguchiko station terminal, feeling cold and miserable.  at this point, there was no fuji mountain in sight. it was completely covered by mist.
looking out from the station
cold and miserable
 
walking towards the kawaguchi lake
kawaguchi lake
water activity pier
on a day like this, i am glad we bring along.......MUIZ.  he wandered into tourist information centre and ask on the attractions around the lake (as if i didn't make the study of the attractions).  they suggested TWO attractions;

1.  cable-car

view from the cable car
the two attractions are cable car ride and around-the-lake boat ride.  these two rides combined cost us 1200 yen. no regret taking this cable-car ride, the only regret is that our background is not fuji mountain. it could have been awesome............
nevertheless, enjoy these pictures.


everything is GOOD......





what we enjoy most about being on a higher ground was supposed to be the view of mount fuji, but it was not meant to be.

about one hour later, we decided it was time for a boat ride.
locked-in and ready to descend

boat ride

after the higher ground it is time for water.  the boat ride, that is.  being in a gloomy day, we didn't expect anyone else to join us. indeed it wasn't
walking towards the boat pier
walk some more

where is the boat
 as it was a scheduled ride, the waiting was not too bad. frequency-wise, every 30 minute.
 




looking around the lake we could not figure out where the mountain is. it is completely invisible, just like what david copperfield did with the pyramid.


now that the mountain is nowhere to be seen, we figure it was time for food.  yes believe it or not, there is one HALAL restaurant called ALLADDIN (without the genie) owned by a Pakistani. no picture inside the restaurant, we concentrated too much on the eating.