The ground shook beneath our feet as we ate breakfast this morning. It took us a few seconds to realize there was an earthquake as the wooden house we are staying in creaked like a sailboat tossed in the waves. Our realization evaporated in seconds when all was quiet again. We turned on the tv. Nothing but golf, soccer, and Judy Woodruff on PBS Newshour with voice over in Japanese. The Internet said that there are so many earthquakes in Japan, that unless it a magnitude 5 or over they pay no attention to it. So we guess this one was under five.
We rolled out the door by 9:00 this morning as we had a a distance to go. We weaved in and out of heavy Sunday traffic on narrow roads, glad to be following in the wake of a big bus.
Pampas grass grows everywhere here, so why this man in a pink shirt was choosing to risk his life on the side of this skinny road cutting pieces was beyond us.
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| The bus is not pulled over, it is driving this close to the shoulder. |
Our plan today was to drive around the back of Mount Fuji to the Five Lakes Area. We made it to lakes 1 and 2. The first lake was Yamanakako. The sun came out long enough for a quick photo of the brightly colored paddle boats floating on the brown waters of this lake.
As I stood on the dock taking photos there was some thrashing going on at water level by my feet. EEEgads! Big wide mouth carp were swimming around looking for a handout. I think this would not be a place I would want to go swimming.
Our second lake was Kawaguchiko. We stopped in one park to turn around and get our bearings. I photographed a man walking his dog with paralyzed back legs and a wheeled apparatus to support the hind legs and let the dog pretend it was walking.
Turned out we saw two other dog walkers during the day with dogs who had paralyzed back legs. One man was walking bent over, pulling up on his dog's tail, and another lady had a harness around her dog's middle that she could pull up to assist the dog's back legs. I don't know that I usually pay much attention to dog walkers unless they are conducting their business on our lawn, but today was unusual in that there seemed to be so many dogs with back leg paralysis.
Parking at lake Kawaguchiko was difficult, and we found ourselves a little ways out of town to park the car, find a nearby geocache, and have lunch. The neighborhoold park was a busy place. We ate lunch and shared a table with a lady intently watching all of the fishing boats on the water. Turns out there was some sort of fishing derby happening. As soon as all the boats came in at 12:50, she packed it up and went to the water's edge to meet some fishermen, who were rushing their fish and paperwork up the hill to the finish line.
We did find a geocache and photographed our visiting travel bugs.
They were excited. I asked if they would actually like us to take a video of the dance they were practicing and they were both shy and excited. Russ took the video and I played the music on the their smart phone. It was really cute. When they were done, I asked if I could also video their dance. By this time they were very excited....we told them we were Hollywood movie producers....haha....just kidding.
Anyway, we all had a good time.
Turns out the ladies are in a wedding party next month and are just getting their groove on before the wedding. All college graduates, two worked in offices, and one was a middle school special education teacher. The middle school teacher spoke the best English, but we all communicated happily with one another.
From here, we walked into town to find the museum. We found it...it was a little store front with one nice man, one Shinto statue and some interesting branding irons that hikers up Mount Fuji can burn into their walking sticks.
Each branding iron is specific to a station of a certain elevation. We asked the man who spoke very little English where Mt. Fuji was. He walked us out the door and pointed in a direction into thick clouds. Not promising!
From here we walked another couple of blocks up to the Kachi Kachi Yama Ropeway...a tram,that pulled us up a very tall mountain.
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| Roller Coaster Theme Park in the City Below |
The promise was a great view of the lakes and maybe a good view of Mt. Fuji. Like yesterday, we weren't too optimistic about seeing the mountain.
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| A little perspective of how Fuji looms over the valley. |
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| Swiss Photographer |
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| Thai Photogapher |
So much better than selfies!
There was a Shinto shrine at the first lookout platform. The Shinto religion believes that god is everywhere in the trees, stones, rocks, rivers. Their shrines are very simple, usually a distinctive red gate.
Two statuary animals, real land mythical, protect the entrance of the shrine. This particular shrine was protected by a rabbit (signifying luck and fertility), and one other creature (not sure what it was, maybe another rabbit with its paws over its head) guarded the shrine. Little children and adults like to touch and pet the rabbit for good luck.
It was close to three o'clock by the time we tried the Mt. Fuji dumpling on a stick
and left Lake Kawaguchiko for home. We stopped to pick up some dinner to go and got back to the house after dark. If we thought the narrow roads were a challenge during the day, they were terrifying at night.
We got back, ate our dinner, watched some news on the internet, worked up the blog, and tonight is the night we are soaking in the big wooden tub in the bathroom. First we wash down and clean our bodies, then we soak in the tub. Grabbing my towel! This looks fantastic.....
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Oyasumi |
and it was!
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