Up the mountains we go

In the morning we said goodbye to Tokyo the weather was hot and sunny, which was very promising, since we were going to see the elusive Mount Fuji. It all went well until we were almost there, trying to snap partial pictures of it when we could, but certain that we’d get to get much better photos once we arrived to our destination. It turned out that by the time we got to the fifth station, which is halfway up the mountain, it was extremely cloudy and we couldn’t see much, let alone take any pictures!

We later learned that summer is actually the worst time to see Mt. Fuji because it’s the haziest time of the year! The Japanese make it a game of trying to spot the mountain, when you’re passing by it on the train. It’s like the lottery, really; some days it’s visible in all its glory and some other days you can’t glimpse it at all. As a coincidence, summer is actually the only time where there is no snow at the top of the mountain, but at the time we were there we could still see the tiniest sliver of white. All in all, it’s an amazing mountain, with a very elegant shape, and its elusiveness only makes it more attractive.

From Mt. Fuji, we proceeded to Hakone, a popular thermal area on top of the mountains. It was one of the first “vacation spots” in Japan, as the shogun would go there from Edo (Tokyo) to soak himself in the hot springs. Nowadays it’s still a well-known tourist spot for Japanese, famous for its hot springs; I’d actually say it’s a little too touristy: besides a ton of souvenir shops, there is a museum for Meissen porcelain, from Germany, and another one based on the Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. We took a short cruise on Lake Ashi (aka Ashino), which is usually a great way of seeing Mount Fuji from the nearby mountains, but the weather had definitely changed for the worse and we couldn’t even see the top of the smaller mountains around us. Still, it made for a very scenic view of the lake.

Finally, we were supposed to take a gondola up one of the mountains, but it was so windy that they had to close it. So we rode to the top of another mountain and took a different gondola down, instead. On the trip down, we could see the sulfur mines below us. After that the tour was over for the day and they dropped us at our hotel. It was supposed to have some kind hot springs in it, but as it turned out it only had the typical Japanese communal baths. As there were no restaurants or other places around, we ate at the hotel, in a little sushi place they had, which was the most affordable option, but all we could get for $30 was four pieces of sushi each. So, before bedtime, we made a little trip to the inevitable convenience store and got something else to eat…