Kawaguchiko

I woke up before sunrise and scurried down to the lake and was met with dense fog where Fuji stands. It wasn't actively raining though, so I decided to take an early stroll along the shore of the lake and just enjoy the quiet and solitude. I met up with Keanan when the fog had dissipated slightly, though not appreciably or in the direction of Fuji. We wandered along the lake shore some more - breakfast at our hostel didn't start until 9:30 and there's nothing else around or open anyway, so we have some time to kill. We are both surprised to admit that this night in a pod, in a room with 10 other people, was one of our most comfortable nights!

After an unsatisfying hostel breakfast, we set off for a more populated shore of the lake and got some breakfast dessert at possibly the only place that was open before 11am. Very tasty red bean paste sakura thing and apple pie with lots of fresh fruits. It was getting slightly less foggy, but still nowhere close to having a view of Fuji.

Next we went to the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, which came highly recommended to us by 2 Australian women we met in the bar in Kanazawa. Itchiku Kubota built this museum to display his life's work, a collection of kimonos that he designed and created after rediscovering a traditional dying technique. The level of detail in the colors and textures was incredible! No photos were allowed so I attached a couple from the internet.

Our last stop before hopping on a train to Tokyo was for some local noodles. Hoto noodles are flat udon noodles served in a miso broth. These noodles were served to us in what can only be described as a cauldron! They were incredible and we bought some too bring home to try and recreate here!

We then took a bus to the train station to buy tickets back to Tokyo. There were no seats left unless we hung around for several more hours so we accepted standing room only tickets for our 2 hour trip into Tokyo.Read more