It's moving day. In the previous days we had discovered the usefulness of coin lockers at train stations. So after checking out of Rose Garden Hotel in the early morning, we took our luggage to Shinjuku Station, ate a quick breakfast of soba again, then went looking for a big enough locker. The smallest size locker costed „300/24-hour, but were too small for our luggage. The next size up was „400 and should be fine, but we couldn't find one at a convenient location where we would be sure of finding later, though these accepted bills in addition to coins. So we went for the biggest one at „500 close the the bus station. One thing we didn't know ahead of time was that most of these lockers only accepted „100 coins and we didn't have enough of them, so we had to run to a bakery and bought something to get „100 coins for change.
All this took close to 45 minutes, including time to read instructions and made sure we understood everything how to use these! That's how we learned that you could only use it for 3 days maximum at a time.
We then followed the sign to Chuō line platform 10, and took the 9:30 limited express train Kaiji #101 to Ōtsuki. At home when planning for this, I figured we could take either the 8:30 or the 9:30 train. The ride to Ōtsuki took 67 minutes, and we sat on the left side in case Mt Fuji was visible. Well, the weather was not cooperating, but the valleys along the way kept us entertained. sitting on the right side and you wouldn't see anything.
From Ōtsuki, the train to Kawaguchi-ko was the private line Fuji Kyūkō so JR Pass couldn't be used. We bought, or rather sold, 2 tickets for „1400 („1100 standard charge, plus „300 reserved charge). There was also an open-view car which would cost an additional „100). The cars were painted with cheerful pictures like this one. Another 45 minutes along a mountainous track and we reached Kawaguchiko station, built to resemble a European resort building. It's now 11:35 am. That's how on time the trains are in Japan.
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First order of business: find out how to get to Pension Cosmos by bus. The instructions from the house's website told us to take the bus heading to "Pension Mura". The full name of the place was Ōishi Petit Pension Mura (大石 プチ ペンション 村, mura = village). Since we wouldn't be using the bus service for anything else other than getting to and back from the guest house, we didn't need a bus pass, but just paid the cash fare when we used it. The ticket office lady told us the next bus, from Bus Bay 4, was not until 2pm, so we had some time to burn.
Next: how to get back to the station and what train to take.
Finally: lunch. Across from the station was a Hoto noodle restaurant, but we didn't go in there as we want to check out the lake. The restaurant stood at a corner where the pedestrian crossing had a signal that also emitted a song that repeated itself again and again like crazy.
Lake Kawaguchi was within walking distance from the station. After oriented ourselves with the compass, we headed to that direction, hoping to find something to eat along the way. This town didn't look anything like a tourist spot, with its quiet streets and no gift shops that we found open. The restaurants were few as well, many looked like they're closed, and all of them deserted. One place we peeked in has a lady at the counter who made a cross sign when she saw us (that means closed). Half-way down, we passed a grocery store which also sold deli, so we decided go get some for lunch at lakeside. Seemed like a good idea.
We grabbed a box of sushi, a box of tsukemono (漬物： pickled vegetables), a box of cooked hakumai (ハクマイ, a popular type of rice) a box of hot gyōza (dumpling). My wife saw a box of stewed pig innards with vegetables (motsuni) which was her favorite so that went into our cart too. Steuben (スチューベン) grape was in season so we got a box for dessert. Interestingly, a grocery bag (rejitai, レジ袋) to carry all that stuff was „5. Total: „1662.
There was a microwave in the store for us to reheat anything we just bought. Very nice.
Feeling hungry all of a sudden, we hurried down to the lake.
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East side of Lake Kawaguchi
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We reached the south-east shore of lake Kawaguchi, with Mt. Fuji behind us but not visible at all. This spot was the launching site for the sight-seeing boats and paddling swans for tourists. None looked new.
We crossed a parking lot to lake side, sat ourselves down on a bench right on the water edge, next to a ticket office for the swan boats. Nobody was inside or around. To the left there were 2 guys fishing. Looking up to the mountain on the right we detected a cable car ropeway leading up to a distant viewing platform on Mt Tenjo. This had to be where everyone was, since we could also saw many tour buses in that area. Good luck seeing Mt Fuji today everyone, we thought.
After lunch we enjoyed the scenery, strolled along the south side to a small gazebo overlooking the lake, and climbed a rocky finger of land jutting out into the lake, with some old broken picnic benches and tables. This lake was 833.5 meters above sea level, 21.8 meter deep, and had a circumference of 19.95 km.
Soon it's time to return to the station for the bus trip. Turned out that Ōishi Pension Mura was the last stop for this bus route. It took us through the north side of the lake, then went up north away from the lake into the highlands. My wife later told me she was nervous, wondering of all places, how the heck did I pick such a remote place to stay the night, deep in the middle of the country! We had a good laugh about that now, but really when you drove up there for the first time, and not knowing where is where, it's a real tax on your confidence!
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The bus reached its last stop at a turn-around just inside of Pension Village. The pension was a charming house owned by a lovely retired couple just around the corner from the bus stop, on the other side of the bridge. We saw many of the pensions that we ran across on the web while searching for a place to stay.
The owners warmly greeted us into the house, and served us hot tea and sweets. The inner of the house was even more charming than the outside, with a separate dinning area with 3 dining tables. The sitting area has a long rugged table that could sit 10 people, with book shelves running the wall's length. A grandfather clock and a fireplace gave the area a cozy feeling. There was a corner with a laptop, a lounge chair and a coffee table.
The room was very clean, with the same high-tech toilet, yukatas and slippers. The windows could slide open and to lock it there was a screw pin that you inserted into a slot and turned until tightened. Old fashioned stuff but quite effective. A simple small glass vase with a branch of maple brought a bit of nature into the room. Quite Japanese-esque.
It's 3pm, and dinner was not until 6pm, so we had 3 hours. After discussing with the lady, we decided to walk to the lake. She was unsure that we could walk that far. Well we came here not to just sit around, so we went any way after borrowing a tourist guide book.
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Walking out of the house, we struck a pleasant conversation with a man who turned out to be working as a chef at one of the pension houses here. He used to lived in Australia for 4 years so his English was quite good. He also seemed to be unsure about walking to the lake. It seemed like we were the only people staying here crazy enough to walk 30 minutes. I saw some foreigners' faces in some of the houses, but the majority of people staying here were vacationing Japanese with their cars. But we're determined.
It was a pleasant afternoon, with clouds covering the sky. The village was right at the foot of the Ōishi hills, but a brand-new repaved 2 lane road connecting the village and the surrounding town to the loop road which ran around the lake. The village was currently the end of the road, but we're told that construction continued and they were building a tunnel beyond this point.
This area seemed to be a tennis community, there were a couple tennis courses just outside of the village.
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We were the only 2 souls walking the sidewalk, but magic filled the cool afternoon air. Though at the time we didn't know what this road would lead us, we couldn't help but taking in the tranquil beauty of the valley. Suddenly the sun break through the cloud and my wife shouted to me to look to the left. This was what she saw. We both were fixated by that and watched as the cloud drape moved to reveal this one. This was probably the Shindo hills.
It's fall harvest time, and we walked by small golden rice fields. I would imagine they are all family run. Though small, farmers use quite modern machines to harvest and package right on the spot like this one. We saw a field harvested with a combine machine that cut, dry and bag all in one pass. But more often we saw people just cut whole stalks and bound them into bundles then hung them to dry, as seen in this picture. This way the straws could be sold to cow farms, I heard.
My wife asked which direction should we looked for Mt Fuji. I checked my trusty compass and told her it should be on the right side of the road. She looked and exclaimed she could see it! Actually only the right side shadow of the mountain showed through, but this was the first time any of us saw any part of the mountain with our own eyes so it was pretty exciting. Its presence was very much commanding to the 2 of us walking along a valley road.
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We reached the loop road and turned left. Now the lake was on the right of us, and we checked a couple of spots to see which one let us down the the lake and gave us a better view of the mountain. My wife found Hanakaidori (花街道) lane which led through Urban Resort Villa to the back of the Natural Living Center which lies right on the edge of the lake.
The Natural Living Center cultivates blueberries and fresh herbs, a place where visitors could learn about the local industry and pick berries and make jams (when in season).
As we walked down this lane, passing the Urban Resort Villa, we struck a conversation with an elderly man who went for an afternoon stroll. He was eager to show us all the cosmos in bloom there, and even offered tips on taking pictures of Mt Fuji with the flower fields in the foreground. Nice man.
It's a tranquil afternoon, barely anyone around except several going for a walk. The afternoon sky changed constantly, so lighting condition for my picture taking changed literally every minute. I was fortunate to hit several good shots with the gold afternoon light, such as with the feather reed grass (葦, ashi) glowing in the late afternoon sun. The clouds were very active this afternoon, so Mt Fuji went through quite several impressions as the afternoon turned late.
It's time to go back, the walk would take 30 minutes and we didn't want to be late for dinner.
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At dinner we met 2 other couples also staying at the house. One has a child and were from Kyoto where we're heading next week. Dinner started quietly but gradually turned quite cheerful as people warmed up to the presence of strangers. Each table had a plaque with the name of the room so we would not be sitting at the wrong table. Our room name, Ki no neru, was on the room door.
It was quite an enjoyable and relaxing dinner. Earlier we asked them about the kinds of grapes we bought, and at dinner they showed us a booklet talking about the wine industry in Japan with pictures of all kinds of grapes. And with that, we were served a local white wine, a salad and an appetizer plate, then the main dish of grilled steak with rice.
After dinner we asked to use the laptop. It's been a week without connection to the world. Then we lounged about for a bit, bought some locally made calendars, then excused ourselves to go for a quick dip in the onsen bath tub, then retired to bed.
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