Lake Kawaguchiko

Lake Kawaguchiko is located near the centre of Japan, it is one of the five lakes that surround Mt Fuji and is supposed to have some of the best view of Mt Fuji in Japan.

We decided to stay here in hopes of relaxing and catching some beautiful views. 

We stayed at a really cute little historical hotel, it was built pre-WWII and apparently the Emperor at the time used to stay here during his visits to the area (there was a photo in the lobby haha).

We spent the first afternoon here meandering around the local town (which is very small) and found some decent views across the late itself. 

Michael tried out his 'selective focus' photo skills. 

As you can see in the lake photos, it was pretty cloudy, so Fuji was more or less hidden. We told ourselves it would clear up the next day (I had lots of great photo opportunities in mind). 

When we returned to our hotel room (which featured a Fuji view), she was out! The photo on the left is Michael's and on the right is mine. We felt pretty hopeful that the skies would be clearing the following day, although Michael joked that our best view of Fuji would be from our hotel room (which turned out to be a not-so-funny joke!).

As we were staying in a reasonably nice hotel, it included an onsen (spa) on the top floor, with views of Fuji or the lake. Their policy / procedure for using the onsen is actually quite strict. Men and women must use separate 'baths' for starters, then you have to wear a robe to go to the onsen and, once there, there are signs everywhere saying that you must not enter the onsen with any clothing on (the woman at the front desk also told us this). 

I decided to be brave and try out the onsen - above is my enormous robe!

Once I arrived, I was thrilled that nobody else was using it! Although, the idea of stripping off in a public place felt oddly rebellious, even though it was a rule. Since nobody was around, I took the opportunity to snap a few selfies before hopping into the onsen. 

The water was boiling!

I had brought my kindle and though I could relax for an hour or so and get into my book, but the water was so hot, and the room started to steam up, I only lasted about 30 mins before I had to call it and go and have a cool shower!

The following day, our plans were dashed when we woke up to extremely grey skies!

Regardless, we decided to walk around the lake to some of the 'Fuji viewing' spots that I had read about online. 

This was the result - nothing but grey skies and my exceptional photo editing skills, there is no way to tell that that isn't really Mt Fuji in the distance (haha). As it turned out, Michael's joke had come true and that 15 minute view of Mr Fuji from our hotel window really was the best view we would get the whole time we were there!

We spent most of the day walking around the lake - since the weather did not make for good Fuji viewing it was very quiet (weirdly quiet). 

We also planned to go to a Sake Brewery - but then that was closed, our plans were really not working out!

Everything was forgiven when we stumbled upon an excellent tempura restaurant - called Ninja Tempura (they also had Ninja Beer) - bottom left photos. Good food really does improve my mood. Also, late we somehow found the best coffee that we had had in Japan (right side photos). A man was selling coffee out of this tiny little coffee van but damn it was good (good coffee also does wonders for my mood haha). 

So, that's about it for our time in Lake Kawaguiko, once again, the weather bested our plans!

From here, onto Kyoto, where the weather promises to be much nicer to us!