Today we traveled to Kawaguchiko, a town on the foothills of Fuji. Since there’s no direct train there from Nagoya, we had to go via Tokyo. Naturally therefore our first leg (back to Tokyo) was on a Shinkansen.
The train was much busier than four days ago, since we’re now entering into the new year holiday, which is one of Japans biggest travel periods. The stations were busy with people heading home for new year, gifts in hand.
Once we got to Tokyo we had to take three more trains to Kawaguchiko, and in total the travel took a little under six hours. Probably the most single-day train travel we’ve ever done in our lives!
And once we got to our hotel and opened the door, this was our view. Here’s a better look at what we see from our room:
That’s Lake Kawaguchi, and it’s surrounded by lots of onsen (hot springs hotels), including the one we are staying in. I’m sick as a dog and KLS is recovering, so for the next few days we’ll relax and enjoy the onsen life!
We started by booking a private hot spring, which we just returned from. It was open-air, which means chilly above the water and toasty below. Here’s what it looked like:
We had a good soak and then some ramen for dinner:
Now it’s time to loaf around and watch idols on TV. Tomorrow we’ll go and check out some tourist stuff around the lake, but tonight it’s time to sleep without an alarm for the first time this trip 🙂