Regard this picture. How would you describe it? Serene? Beautiful? Picturesque? Inviting, even? This weekend was to be a relaxing trip to the Mt Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes region. According to a friend of one of our group members, we were to walk from Lake Kawaguchiko to Lake Saiko up a slope with beautiful views, to an area of grass plains, perfect picnic spots and ideal lake swimming. Does this all sound overly romanticised? I hope so. Because here we are, sweating our way up steep slopes, lost in dense forest, and racing against time to catch the last bus before we were stranded in the middle of nowhere.
To cut a very long rant story short, things didn't exactly go to plan. The Saturday was fine, even though I felt like a mild version of death and really wished that I drank alcohol so I would have an excuse for being part-zombie. We attended a matsuri (a festival) held at a shrine in Yamashite. Imagine a fair with lots of little food stalls and game stalls. Now make it really quaint and Japanese-y ie. everything will have smiley faces, all the stalls will be colourful with flags, the food won't be crap, and the games will be simple and old-fashioned. For example, Antony tried to win a turtle by using a rice paper cup and dipping it into water to capture three before the cup disintegrated. (He succeeded on his second attempt and turtle AKA Matsu is doing fine).
Now if I'd happened upon a matsuri as a child, I would have thrown up in over-excitement. Matsuri would have been synonymous with magic. Take a look at some of the pictures. It's a very child-oriented affair so I snapped some pictures of particularly kawaii (cute) kids.
There were also some amateur sumo fights!
Things then went wrong...pretty much from the moment I woke up on Sunday still feeling like death, and had to accept I was and probably shouldn't be going on a trip to the lakes. Nevertheless, I set off with the group at 5.45am and we caught our 7.10am without trouble. The 1hr45min journey then took OVER FOUR HOURS due to "holiday traffic" (Monday was "Aged people's day" in Japan. I want to know why did they make it a holiday? It's not like aged people are working.) On arrival at Kawaguchiko, half of us got on a train, accidentally leaving the other half behind, to then receive a phone call telling us there was no need to head to the hostel yet as all the "stuff to see" was near the station.
Now I like to think I'm an honest person. I dislike liars and try to avoid it at all costs. But I was pretty annoyed at having wasted 290Yen and then having to pay for a return journey. So on arrival I tried to tell the ticket man that I'd come from the nearest station. He looked at me, picked up the phone, spoke rapid Japanese, hung up and faced me:
"Tell me the true station. Tell me the true. Guilty. Guilty! GUILTY!"
Oh, OK then :-( The hammer of judgement fell and I meekly handed over the fare.
The day didn't improve as we soon discovered it was way too far to walk from Lake Kawaguchiko to Lake Saiko and notions of a relaxing walk, especially considering the lateness in the day, were rapidly vanishing. We caught an over-priced bus, abandoned it at first sight of Lake Saiko and the keen amongst us rapidly threw ourselves in, trying to avoid the weeds that tangled round our ankles. I state this now: this was probably the best half an hour of the day. And no, that's not saying a lot. But it genuinely was fantastic water to swim in.
Some of us then decided to catch the bus in search of beautiful forest walks and the "Sea of Trees" only to be caught in more traffic and have not one clue where to get off. We eventually hopped off, examined a tourist map and joined a trail in search of a lookout over Mt Fuji. Sweating, stumbling and swearing, we began to fear we'd never find it when we bumped into a very helpful tourist. It was only 10 minutes away. Quick, everyone! Let's get there before we miss our bus! We panted and we staggered our way up. So here was the view:
To the right, you can just about see Mt Fuji. He's a bit shy. Or maybe he's just hiding his face because the bastard is laughing so much at us. Who knows?
We then take a different route back, find a bus stop, and a bus arrived within 10 minutes. There must be light at the end of the tunnel. Wait, no, it's just the tail lights of all the other cars in anoth hour long traffic jam.
Thankfully, our hostel - Mt Fuji Hostel Michael's - was very clean and new, with a very friendly owner.
The next day was considerably better. We walked to an enchanting hillside shrine only 20 minutes from the the hostel with great views over the town and mountains.
We returned to Lake Kawaguchiko and went up the ropeway with great views of the lake, only it was clearly Fuji's day off again from being visible. We then took a lakeside walk. And only about then, with some time to spare before the return journey, did we have time to properly appreciate the lake and its beauty.
Of course, we also had some fun:
And I was very interested in the giant yellow-and-black spiders. Isn't it kawaii?!
It probably doesn't need to be said but the return journey didn't take 1hr45 back, surprise surprise. It took 3.5hours. But if there's one thing I've learnt from reflecting on the weekend, it's that things are far more interesting to write about when they don't go smoothly.
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