Holiday in Japan - Mount Fuji and Izu

Chihro's family took us on a day trip up and around Fuji-san, which was totally breathtaking. It was really lucky weather because Fuji is often covered in clouds, but there were only a few, and it was really sunny. It was in early autumn, so of course Fuji-san was looking a bit bald... For lunch we went to a traditonal sobaya restraunt in the forest. It was quite popular so we had to wait a little while for some spare tables, and the little foyer was filled with everyone's shoes! The restaurant was built in the traditional style out of wood, and decorated with historical things. I really enjoyed sitting on the tatami mats in the traditional setting while eating a delicious meal of duck with soba noodles.

We drove through the mountains and stopped by a lake at Hakone, a resort town that used to be a Tokkaido sekishyo (checkpoint along the old highway) during the Tokugawa era. We visited an interesting museum, which included a re-creation of part of the checkpoint. It was amazing how brutal the Tokugawa samurai were to anyone who disobeyed them. To top the day off, Chihiro's aunt and uncle treated us to dinner at Sawayaka, a kind of gourmet hamburger restaunt, where we all had Australian beef burgers!

Chihiro and I also did a lot of traveling by ourselves. I'm so lucky she was there to read signs and translate, otherwise I'm sure I would have gotten very lost! One of the nicest places we went to was a little coastal town called Toi, on the Izu peninsular. We caught a ferry there from Shimizu, and enjoyed great weather - not too much wind or sun. It was just after the summer holiday season, so the town was nice and quiet. The main attraction in the area is koibito misaki (lover's point) which is a very popular place for couples to visit. Several tour-busses full of them came and went while we were there! The coastline was spectacularly beautiful though, and we had fun ringing the lover's bell!

Back in Toi we checked into a traditional onsen (hotel with hot-spring baths), which was an amazing experience in itself! We were escorted to a waiting room where we were given hot hand-towels and served ocha with gold flakes. After a few formalities, we were taken to our room which was quite large had several other adjoining rooms and its own private garden! That evening we spent some time in the private onsen we'd reserved, which was extremely luxurious! Afterwards we heard some instruments playing neaby, so we went to investigate and found some children playing different drums and flutes at a community centre for a festival. For dinner we went to a tiny restaurant (only 2 tables!) run by an old couple who lived out the back. After dinner we went for a walk down by the seaside and were treated to some fireworks that a local family was setting off.

Unfortunately we could only stay one night at the onsen, but the next day we caught another ferry to Numazu. It travelled along the coastline, and when we got there it was lunchtime, so we decided to eat at Uogashi, a famous seafood restaurant. We ordered sashimi and for AU$10 we could try 8 different types of seafood with seaweed soup and sushi rice. To work off our full bellies I though it would be a good idea to walk the 2.3 kms from there to Goyotei, the 150 year old summer palace of the emperor. Unfortunately I'm not a very good navigator without a map, and we took a few wrong turns making us walk about 4 kms! The palace itself was a very large and beautiful wooden building just dripping with Feng Shui. We spent a while resting on the grass by the sea until after it closed, and we were chased off the grounds by a curator.