Is it really August already....? Here's my second post for #wmjapan17, where we went to Kawaguchiko in search of Mount Fuji!
Fresh bakes from Gontran Cherrier to start off our second day in Japan!
Everything looks so damn good, look at those layers on the croissants!
Bakery hustle and bustle early in the morning in Shinjuku.
We settled for a chocolate pain au lait~
Headed up to the Shinjuku Express Bus Terminal at Level 5 of the building. Heck, this was pretty hard to find. Hahahah.
Collected our bus tickets to Kawaguchiko! We reserved these bus tickets wayyyy in advance, about 2 months before? You can reserve bus tickets to Mount Fuji HERE. The bus ride takes around ~2 hours, and it costs about ¥1,750 for a single ride either to/fro.
Can't wait to finally see Mount Fuji~~~
First few cherry blossoms we spotted, apparently W was more concerned about dozing off than to see those cherry blossoms with me :'(
After dozing on and off on the bus ride, we spotted Fuji-Q Highland!
Yay, we've reached Kawaguchiko Station!! Look at how cute and squarish Omni Bus is, haha.
Hello Melody ^^
Walked around the souvenir shop at Kawaguchiko Station for a bit while waiting for the train ride to the next destination.
Lolol at the Mount Fuji cartoon.
A map of the sightseeing spots around Kawaguchiko~
And....about to board the train towards...Shimoyoshida Station!
Spotted this super kawaii Mount Fuji train. Other than taking bus, you can also make your way down here using the train system too!
We came to Shimoyoshida Station because...
We're gonna make our way to the Chureito Pagoda!
We've made it to the bottom of the steps towards the pagoda, now we just have to climb allll the way up, lol.
Mid-way to Chureito Pagoda~
We made it!! And we spotted some plum blossoms! So pretty ♥___♥
A pity we didn't manage to see Mount Fuji and all that cherry blossoms lining up the stairs after climbing nearly 400 steps till all the way up here :( Still a very pretty shot of us that I adore :') We sat at the sightseeing spot for quite some time with a few other tourists, all hoping for some view of Mount Fuji but the mountain just refused to come out at all. Basically, the weather was just plain gloomy...
Came too early, no cherry blossoms too :( Can't imagine how pretty it'd be with all the pink sakura!
After all that waiting,
We stopped by the ice cream truck mid-way!
Had a matcha one, but mehhhh.
We made our way back to Shimoyoshida Station, then to Kawaguchiko Station, then we walked towards our accommodation for the night :)
After a 10 minutes walk, we've reached Hotel Konansou Yamanashi! The hotel actually provides free shuttle bus from Kawaguchiko Station, you simply have to get the station staff to make a call. However, we thought we'd just walk since it's only 10 minutes away plus the weather was pretty cooling and we didn't have any luggage with us (we stored it at the lobby of Shinjuku Granbell Hotel since we were going back tomorrow).
Luxurious lobby...
We were being ushered into our room quickly.
The view of our room with the outdoor bath!! Too bad we weren't greeted with the glorious view of Mount Fuji. Please come out alreadyyyy??
Private hot spring onsen bath right in our room~
The staff gave us a room tour as well...
The bathroom
Welcome snacks~
There was hot tea to welcome us into the room as well ^^
If there's one day in the future that I have to get botox for nose wrinkles, it's all gonna be your fault for making me laugh too much.
We were so famished by then, we were looking for a place for a good dinner! We were provided a list of dining places near the hotel and we made a decision to choose....
Robataryori Sanroukuen, serving up fireside cuisine!
Hmmmm, giving the menu some serious thought and thinking if we made the wrong choice to come here (although it's only a 3 minutes cab ride here).
Here comes the food~ I don't quite remember but I think we ordered 1 Hida set and 1 Koushu set.
The boss (I think) explaining how to cook the food to us.
We started to grill the rainbow trout and the corn jelly, just like a campfire.
Gloves are provided, so no worries!
The owner initiated to help us take a photo, lol.
To be honest, the food does look really good from here, hahah.
There was the Japanese noodles in miso soup too, super huge bowl!
Sooooo filling...
After finishing and paying for our meal, I asked W to give me an expression in a photo that tells us what he thought of the dinner... Lolol.
Sanrokuen
3370-1 Funatsu, 富士河口湖町 Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture 401-0301, Japan
Verdict: The unique fireside cuisine wasn't quite up our alley, although it's not hard to admit having to BBQ the food DIY on a charcoal fire pit right in front of us was a fun experience. The dango was the savoury kind and they served the raw quail bloody so we gave it to some other Caucasian tourists beside us. The 2 of us just can't put that down into the fire! The usual BBQ items like pork and corn didn't fail. But still, the entire dining experience was too unique and we both felt that we'd rather have a normal Japanese BBQ dinner.
While walking back to our hotel, we went shopping around a little in the convenience stores.
Only in Japan, an entire packet of ikura in convenience stores for like what, SGD$2?!?!?!?!?!?
Obsessed with Japanese iced lattes.
Spotted these pretty bottles of soda (?) at the shop in the hotel's lobby. Is it some kinda Mount Fuji soda..?
Finally reached back to the ultimate comfort of our hotel, time to change into our yukatas!
Guess who did we see on local TV? LOL.
A mandatory photoshoot in our yukatas.
愛しています!!! ♥
