Old Classy Kawaguchi!

As our peaceful night at Hakone Tent Hostel dragged on...the sun ray of next morning has warmly welcomed us, meaning it's time to say goodbye to Hakone, and depart for our next stop, "Kawaguchiko" My itinerary specifies that we can easily take Tozan Bus (G) from Gora Station to Gotemba Station where we will then board another bus to Kawaguchiko Station. Our expectation was successfully met (for the first time! haha) as we traveled accordingly to the provided bus timetable! BIG APPLAUSE FOR US!

Well the way to Kawaguchi was a combination of countless curves, local Japanese traditional houses, and Fujisan surrounded by the so-called famous Five Lakes. It was very impressive and could imply the good sign of yet another clear-blue-sky-day to admire Mt. Fuji from afar. YES!

So without further ado...as soon as we stuffed our heavy luggages in the coin lockers at the station, we headed to Oshino Hakkai village. The truth is, I always fantasized about this place since I had read loads of positive reviews about how unique this village would be for quite some time, so no doubt, Oshino Hakkai was on my top must-see-list from the very beginning.

Our high anticipation almost trembled down when we first thought the place was temporarily closed on the day visited...turning out that we were sneaking through the wooden front gate to admire the heavenly stunning view of the wrong place for almost 40 minutes! Hahaha so STUPID! But seriously who would have thought it's not Oshino Hakkai that we were looking for since the scenery before us was so picturesque with perfect composition of vividly blue sky embraced the snow-covered-top of Mt. Fuji, and Japanese garden set serenely down there. Too bad that my DSLR camera couldn't capture that spectacular view due to technical problems (hahaha need more props!), so anyway what I saw there, I could only save it for myself! sorry guys...

Alright so back here...Oshino Hakkai is a touristy set of eight ponds that are fed by snow melt from the slopes of nearby Mt. Fuji. The ponds are renowned for having very clear spring water, you can even see the ground below in the 8 meter-dept water! We spent about an hour roaming around this little village, mostly focus on shopping hahah. Anyway, as we planned this trip, we were fully aware that a number of buses running on this route were quite limited and the last thing you wanted to do was to miss that last bus back to

Kawaguchiko. As everything was planned ahead, we knew exactly we had to be at the bus stop at least 15 min. before schedule. So we waited and waited...but the bus still didn't show up! we almost lost hope and decided to walk back to the station. Finally, the bus came, 10 min. late, so unusual for Japanese transportation system I have to say LOL.

So the first half day has passed, and we still had one more to go! Alright, so our next destination was the place we commonly see on the postcard, but not many people really visit it. Yeah I'm talking about Chureito Pogoada as known as "The Red Pagoda" I reckon most people give up on this because they need to climb stairs to the top which takes at least another 30 min. or so, it required quite a strong leg muscles I admitted, but it was climbable hill hence there were few stopping bays where you could overlook the whole town

and and of course Mt. Fuji down there. I bet this place must be crowded during Spring or Autumn, imagine the the Sakura blossom over the hill or the leaf foliage fill the passage way to the summit!! Aww...so romantic!! (Not a single leaf left on the tree when I visited...What a shame LOL)

Once finished, we enjoyed our climb back down to the foot hill and walked ourselves back to the train station. It was late in the evening and Kawakuchiko Station was glowing by the sun dusk...what a SIGHT! The station itself looked so antique and has ranked number One for my favorite train station! The staff there are also very professional, speaking English fluently, one of them advised us to catch the local bus to our hostel in time!

Tonight we stayed at Komaya Ryokan where we were warmly greeted by local Japanese. The hostel that we specifically chose was traditional JapaneseRyokan Style in which it typically featured tatami-matted rooms and offered a Yukata dress for guests to be worn inside the hostel. This place also offered a private Onsen where I spent a heavenly good 20 min. in the tub. I found it very fascinating how the hot spring could relax all of my tensed muscles that had been overused in the past days. Jeez...how I wish I could do it all over again!

So let me drown myself in this serene environment and bid a good night sleep to everyone for now.