Fuji san, the majestic and mysterious symbol
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The image on the right, from this website, shows what Fuji san might look like from lake Kawaguchi. To me this is the best angle, that's why we chose to come here.
We planned to try another chance at seeing Mt Fuji, so we got up early the next morning.
It's been raining off and on since last night. When we talked to our landlady the day before about our plan to start out to the lake around 5:30 am, she said it's still dark then and we would be better off going when it's daylight. We asked if' it's too much of a disturbance to unlock the door at that early hour, but she said it's fine.
5:30am it was in fact still dark, so we waited till 6 am before leaving the house. The morning air was pristine and fresh from last night rain, but the clouds were still hanging around in the morning so we were not so sure of our luck today.
The walk to the lake was uneventful, and Mt Fuji was half hidden behind the clouds. We hoped that when we reached the Natural Living Center that it would be nice enough to show itself. Well actually there was a more immediate challenge: rain. We ran to take shelter in the Center.
Then the challenge turned into a blessing. As if recognizing the effort and persistence of 2 souls seeking audience with the King, the rain actually cleared up the sky a bit to show us the majestic mountain, not all of it, but enough of it.
The next hour was just fascinating. We had a unique opportunity to observe the dance performed by the clouds around the mountain. First the plume of cloud looked like it's trying to lift off the top of the mountain, creating a mushroom, but mid-way through it got too heavy and started to collapse, getting the mountain top shrouded in a thick pillow again, then it rained, shrouding the mountain mostly from view. Then the whole process repeated, with the rain stopped and the clouds opened up for a short time to let the morning sun shined through onto its slope, before the curtain was dropped down and the drizzle resumed.
As you can see from the pictures, there was a water ski circling around even at that early hour. Keeping us companion was also a lone person under an umbrella standing on the shore the whole time watching the mountain going through its phases. When we headed home for breakfast, he was still standing there.
Between missing breakfast and risking the wrath of the hosts, and missing a picture of Fuji-san, we would gladly took the first. However the mountain helped make the decision for us by going behind its clouds again.
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We planned to try another chance at seeing Mt Fuji, so we got up early the next morning.
It's been raining off and on since last night. When we talked to our landlady the day before about our plan to start out to the lake around 5:30 am, she said it's still dark then and we would be better off going when it's daylight. We asked if' it's too much of a disturbance to unlock the door at that early hour, but she said it's fine.
5:30am it was in fact still dark, so we waited till 6 am before leaving the house. The morning air was pristine and fresh from last night rain, but the clouds were still hanging around in the morning so we were not so sure of our luck today.
The walk to the lake was uneventful, and Mt Fuji was half hidden behind the clouds. We hoped that when we reached the Natural Living Center that it would be nice enough to show itself. Well actually there was a more immediate challenge: rain. We ran to take shelter in the Center.
Then the challenge turned into a blessing. As if recognizing the effort and persistence of 2 souls seeking audience with the King, the rain actually cleared up the sky a bit to show us the majestic mountain, not all of it, but enough of it.
The next hour was just fascinating. We had a unique opportunity to observe the dance performed by the clouds around the mountain. First the plume of cloud looked like it's trying to lift off the top of the mountain, creating a mushroom, but mid-way through it got too heavy and started to collapse, getting the mountain top shrouded in a thick pillow again, then it rained, shrouding the mountain mostly from view. Then the whole process repeated, with the rain stopped and the clouds opened up for a short time to let the morning sun shined through onto its slope, before the curtain was dropped down and the drizzle resumed.
As you can see from the pictures, there was a water ski circling around even at that early hour. Keeping us companion was also a lone person under an umbrella standing on the shore the whole time watching the mountain going through its phases. When we headed home for breakfast, he was still standing there.
Between missing breakfast and risking the wrath of the hosts, and missing a picture of Fuji-san, we would gladly took the first. However the mountain helped make the decision for us by going behind its clouds again.
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We're back at the house only 10 minutes late, 6:10am. We're not the last group to come down for breakfast, as the couple with the kid were not down yet. We were served breakfast while chatting with the hosts about our morning feat. Then we went up the room to wash up and packed our things. The landlady gracefully offered to have her husband drove us to the lake from where we could watch the mountain again and catch the bus back to the station, but after much considerations we decided against it. She then gave us 2 umbrellas (it's still raining). It's 9:15.
We went to the bus stop and waited with a 2 other people for the 9:41 bus. There we met an old lady who came here to rest, and was being picked up by a hospital van. We had a pleasant chat, where mostly she talked and we listened and I translated to my wife whatever I could understand. She said the mountain viewed from here was most beautiful because there was nothing obstructing it or distracting from it, you could just see the whole mountain ridge rolling gently down on either side until it merged into the surrounding flat lands. We whole-heartedly agreed.
We boarded the 10:45 train to Otsuki, then took the JR Chuo train back to Shinjuku. There we went back to Takashimaya Times Square, did some more shopping at Tokyu Hands.
After eating soba in the Omoide Yokocho area for dinner, we caught the 5:30 pm Sazanami express train back to Kisarazu.
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