The road less travelled

I spent the day at Fuji-goko today, and more specifically walking around Kawaguchiko Lake. Don't you love those words? Mt. Fuji is closed except for the summer months due to the snow, so the best thing to do is go to the lake district at the base of the mountain where you can get some good views of Fuji-san and partake of the myriad tourist attractions there. Kawaguchiko is the largest of five lakes, so I chose to spend my day there.

After my experience with going on massive guided tours in China, I decided against taking any of the guided tours of Mt. Fuji. They all made you do at least one lame thing anyway, and they cost a fortune. I figured there would be an information center at the station when I got there, and I could just guide myself around. There was an information center, but I didn't find it until I decided to go home. Lucky for me there were lots of signs.

I started by taking a little cable car up to a viewing platform to take some pics of Fuji. They say that usually Fuji is hiding in the clouds, but I've been lucky. Yesterday I got a glimpse of it from Tokyo tower, and today it was just absolutely gorgeous. The views of the lake from up there were pretty great too. After I came down, I just set off to walk around the lake. I figured most of the tourist attractions would be on or near it, so how could I go wrong? Well, for starters, I got on some crazy little footpath that was covered in ice indicating that no one was really supposed to be walking on it. This path managed to take me away from many of the usual tourist attractions, so I found my own.

Despite my level of lostness, I managed to visit this really bizarre doll museum. The dolls are all made from papier mache and cloth, and they are really detailed. The odd thing was that they all reminded me of the characters from the Black Crystal (Jim Henson muppets). Pretty cool overall though. Next I stumbled onto an old temple with swings in the front yard that looked like they hadn't been used in years. Why the temple had swings, I don't know. I also grabbed a discreet photo of one of the Japanese grave yards. All the ones I've seen are so full of grave markers that there doesn't seem to be room to walk between them. It makes a very dizzing/eye catching effect.

Next I saw this really cool building with beautiful landscaping, so I wandered in assuming it was a tourist spot...until I saw a man in a suit walking purposefully through with presentation equipment. I confessed to him that I was "lost" and found out I was at a hot spring resort! Lucky me. For about $10 I could stay for a couple hours, soak in the springs, enjoy the atmosphere, and generally relax after walking around all day. It was perfect. Also lucky for me there were not very many people there as this was my first foray into naked public bathing. Don't worry, men and women are separate so it was sort of like being in a gym locker room. :)

For my final act I found a restaurant with really great Udon noodles, had a late lunch, and headed back to the bus station where I finally found the information kiosk that was somehow invisible earlier. I'm actually glad I took my road less travelled. I spent the whole day outside, walked half way around the lake and really enjoyed the one thing I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else: Kawaguchiko Lake. Now I'm relaxing in my room, watching the replay of the Super Bowl as I upload my pictures. A little Western Culture won't hurt me.....