Japan day 4, Mt. Fuji and onsen

Mt. Fuji folks. Oh yeah. 

I got there for my second day trip outside Tokyo

The Traveller

Being winter, there was no way to actually climb Mt. Fuji, so I went to a small town around lake Kawaguchi to admire the viewand enjoy the hot springs (Onsen)

It was not turism season, so the city was extremely quiet. As the small alleys in Tokyo gave me a sense of Italy, this small lake town reminded me of a small seaside city on the Adriatic shore of Italy I used to go to when I was little

Here is my lovely japanese style accomodation!

Being a very small city, the best way to get around the lake was on a bike!

I WILL REGRET THAT

So, I started biking around looking for good view spots to take some pictures

Listed below there's only a few of the thousands pictures I've got

Kawaguchi-ko & Fuji-yama

The amazing thing about Mt Fuji is that there's no other mountain around it. So it just stands there, in the middle of nothing, proudly, like a samurai.

Beautiful

Real Japanese Bonsai!!!

And this awesome shot costed me the bike

I walked backwards trying to get the best angle, and I bumped into my bike, which fell and broke

It was almost impossibile to cycle anymore and I was on the other side of the lake

I tried my best to get back to the hostel by myself

 ( because I didn't want to pay for it )

(￣▽￣")

Problem is, I was in the middle of nowhere. Damn.

So I had to go on until I found an Hotel, and luckily I found someone inside that helped me calling the Hostel, which then came top pick me up with a van

Best part? No charge

they didn't even want me to pay for the time I used the bike

It may even be because I never said it was my fault...still, another point for Japanese people!

Onsen

After coming back all sweat from the biking, I headed to the hot springs

Japanese hot springs are a little peculiar. First of all, no tattoo allowed.

Because apparently in Japan most people with tattoos are Mafia people, so they don't want such people to get into public baths and "bother" other costumers.

Personally, I think this is extremely 80'/90' mentality and should be applied now. But whatever, when you go to Rome you do what Romans do, right? So I hadto find an hot spring with tattoo allowance

Got there, you have to go in totally naked, no towels

Or at least it wasn't clear how far I could go with towels and flipflops. Luckily I was the only one there, so I wasn't worried to make any mistake

So in the first room you leave all your clothing

then you get into the second room and wash yourself

Then you go OUTSIDE NAKED ( 0 C' degrees at that time! ) and get into one of the natural hot sping pool of your choice (usually, 100 C' degrees! Holy cow!)

The overall experience was really cool. 0 degrees outside, and 100 inside the water, total silence, maximum relax

wow

THE EATER

No Weird or Otaku stuff today, but a good eating experiece

I was suggested to go to a Japanese tavern (the equal to an Italian trattoria) but, of course, it was closed that day.

So I went to this restaurant serving specialties of the area.

I DID NOT REGRET THAT

take a look at this place, DAYUM!

I ordered one of the specialties of the house, Pumpkin Thick Soda Noodles. Praticamente delle tagliatelle giganti! bonissime...

This instead, was disgusting. I'm not even gonna waste my time to describe what it was, but it was cute enough to deserve a picture (and 200 yen...)

THE ARTIST

As always, I'll leave you with some good shots.

Next episode, even better fuji pics, Ghibli Museum, and Kill Bill restaurant!