We had an early start today and needed to be down at breakfast by 6.30. Unfortunately it was too early for even our preferred coffee shop to be open. So I enlisted the help of Google Translate to try and order a proper coffee to our liking at the hotel. Fortunately it worked.

We spent a couple of hours on the bus heading out to Mt Fuji. We had a stop along the way, at what was effectively, a highway stop. It had a huge souvenir shop, food court and service station. It even had a dog park so pets could stretch their legs and run around.

There are 5 stages in the ascent upto Mt Fuji and at the moment buses were allowed upto Stage 3. As we drove up the hill the landscape was hidden behind a thick fog and we were quite worried that we wouldn’t have much of a view when we got to the lookout. What I didn’t comprehend was that Stage 3 is above all the fog – however when we arrived I realised that is was quite cloudy which didn’t help. Fortunately the cloud cover cleared in time and we got some really good photos of the summit – which even in the middle of summer had traces of snow on it.

From Mt Fuji we headed down to a traditional Japanese restaurant for lunch. This area is inhabited by farmers who would take something similar for their lunch while they worked on the fields. Due to the cold weather, they would set the noodles and vegetables in broth to cook while they tended the crops and it would boil for hours. We had a similar meal which was served in large cast iron pots – almost like cauldrons – with steaming soup and vegetables. The noodles were very thick which allowed them to cook over hours without getting mushy.

It was another long-ish drive to the cable car station at Togendai and rode up to Owakundani. Most of the area around Owakundani is considered an active volcanic zone since its creation from the eruption of Mount Hakone some 3,000 years ago – with the last eruption having only a few years ago. We could still see gas emanating from various parts of the mountain and the smell of sulphuric acid was very strong. There is a traditional boiled egg (black egg) that is made by cooking the egg in the volcanic hot spring. It turns the egg shell black – almost marbled – and eating it is meant to extend your life. We both had a couple each for good luck.

Next we took a Shinkansen – or bullet train – for a 15 minute journey. To be honest, it was a lot more impressive standing on the platform and watching one of the express bullet trains whizz past. Being on one didn’t give you the same sense of speed as you got from watching it travel. I also realised how methodical and rule-abiding the Japanese are – and how proficient they are in dealing with queues. Everywhere we went there were orderly queues in place and hundreds of people got on and off the trains without any delay or nudging/pushing.

We finally arrived at our hotel in time for dinner which was a traditional Japanese Kaiseki banquet dinner. The meals were served individually with a number of items, a couple with their own flames to heat underneath. Our room is a traditional Japanese Tatami room with mattresses on the floor.