So Day 7, we wake up and head to Shinjuku Station. Our original plan was to go to Kyoto because we've heard it's beautiful there and worth the long train ride. However, our plans were stopped short because the cost to go to Kyoto one way was about 14,000 Yen. We were contemplating whether if it was worth it or not and figured it wasn't because at that time, it was already 10am and it was costly. Maybe if we purchased the special foreigner Japanese Rail pass at the time we booked our flights, it would've been worth it to travel to Kyoto because these passes cost about 240 Canadian, 10 days unlimited travel on the JR Lines.
We decided then and there that we would go to Mt. Fuji to check out the mountain since here in Tokyo, the clouds cover it at all times. We went to the Keio bus terminal to purchase our tickets. At this time, it was approximately 10am, and the attendant said the next available time was 1pm. We decided to take it. We killed some time at the mall by going to check out the food basements, shopping at Uniqlo (again) and we ate brunch at First Kitchen Convenience. When the time was near to board the bus, we went to buy snacks and headed to the bus terminal and entered the bus.
The ride to Mt. Fuji was long, approx 2 hours. We had 2 options. We could get dropped off at the Lake Kawaguchi Station, or at the Mt. Fuji 5th station. We decided on the station near the lake because we weren't planning to climb the mountain. It's an intense 5 hr hike upwards and a 3 hr descend. I'm sure people have trained hard to climb Mt. Fuji and the two of us well, we're not exactly the strongest hikers. We also both wore flip flops so it was a given we were just going to hang out at the lake.
This is a photo of Lake Kawaguchi and Mt. Fuji seen on a clear day courtesy of a search on Google Images.
So when we arrived at the station, we were extremely disappointed as to how cloudy it was outside and the fact that Mt. Fuji was difficult to see behind all the clouds. However, there were other beautiful mountains nearby on the other side of the lake to make up for it. We pretty much walked around the Lake using the walking trails and crossed the bridge when it started to rumble thunder. We were worried that we would be rained on because we were so far from the station with no shelter. It rained a bit but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. We were also planning to ride up a cable car to get a better view of the mountain but unfortunately it was closed due to the thunder and light rain. We walked back to the station and decided that it was time to leave. This was around 4:30pm and even then, there were so many people wanting to go back. We sat in the cafe area at the station and Ray ordered a small rice bowl with horse meat. I was pretty against this and grossed out but Ray wanted to try. He said it was pretty good but I wouldn't have any of it.
Our bus was late 30 mins due to traffic and going back, it took us almost 3hrs because I'm guessing it was rush hour. After the long ride back to Shinjuku, we walked around the Red Light District again, since it's so lively in the evening and had a small supper at a self serve restaurant. It was a restaurant that felt like a cafeteria because you pick the food you wanted which consisted of soup, pasta or curry and a drink. You would ask the lady for the food, pay the cashier and go to a seat. We didn't really like this restaurant, it was mediocre.
Went back to the hotel and slept. Day 8, final day next.
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