Getting to Lake Kawaguchi was no easy feat. From Osaka, we had to transfer trains twice to get to Kawaguchi-ko station and then another hour by bus to our hotel. The journey took 6.5 hours, and by the time we got to the hotel, it was already late afternoon. Here's the beautiful view that greeted us from our hotel, Konansou.
Service was personalized in this hotel. We had an obahsan taking care of our every needs. She brewed green tea for us when we arrived, showed us where the yukatas (Japanese robes) and futons were kept, got our dinner ready in a private room and even gave us a call to remind us about dinner. As I was the one who made the hotel booking, my last name was neatly transcripted onto this reservation slip.
We decided not to venture too far from our hotel as we didn't have much time before dinner. All voted in favour of the Mt. Kachi Kachi ropeway which will bring us to the top of a hill for a view of Mt. Fuji, if we were lucky enough. We did catch a glimpse of the elusive Mt. Fuji but the photo's nothing to brag about.
Bird's eye view of Lake Kawaguchi.
At the top of the hill, there was a heart-shaped metal structure with a bell in the middle. We weren't quite sure of the story behind this but all couples were already busy posing for photos...so who cares? I suppose it's a sort of good-luck love charm - if you take a photo here, you will be bestowed with eternal love and happiness. That's my version :)
Posing with the Kachi-kachi friends.
View of Lake Kawaguchi. The swan boats are available for rental to paddle around Lake Kawaguchi. As it was getting dark and cold, we gave this a pass.
Evening view of Lake Kawaguchi.
Dinner time! Us gals all dressed up in yukata. Don't we look the part of sweet, demure Japanese schoolgirls?
Can't say the same for the guys though...the one on the left looks gangster-ish, the one on the right seems to be picking at his food, and the one in the middle just escaped from Disneyland (check out his Mickey mouse ears)!
This was the kaiseki dinner we had. From top left clockwise: steaming udon in crab soup, grilled steak with mushroom and asparagus, curried pork, assorted sashimi, a tiny marinated sardine, tofu and an appetiser dish (made up of a tiny perfectly-shaped octopus, raw fish and Japanese escargot?). Verdict? Only the udon, steak and sashimi were palatable. The curried pork, according to my friends, tasted like dog food. And the rest just tasted weird.
Day 8: Picturesque Hakone
Like Mt. Fuji, Hakone wasn't easy to get to. We had to take a bus from Kawaguchi-ko station to Gotemba station, and then another bus to get to Lodge Fujimien, our hotel in Hakone. The view from our room really wowed us, enough for us to momentarily forget the stale/stinky smell in our room. But I thought the hotel was decent.
Our initial plan was to go to Yunnesun, a hot spring theme park in Hakone. But the owner of Lodge Fujimien, Mrs. R Abe (who spoke impeccable English, by the way) dissuaded us from going. So we ended up whiling our time away grabbing lunch at Togendai (near Lake Ashi), strolling around and soaking in the fresh air and beautiful scenery.
My G9 was on auto mode but it just couldn't capture all of us in the air together. Mr Lee was undoubtedly the best jumper in our group! The worst 2 were Ms Vong, who was too hungry to jump and Tyre, who was supposed to count down to each jump but not a single photo captured him in the air. Definitely not a multi-tasker, this boy.
I love these shots of us standing around in a staggered fashion - gives the photo depth!
This is the 2nd series of the "wedding" style photos. The grass was so green and inviting! Here's Ms To and tyre in the "we're-more-than-just friends" pose.
The Vongs in the "we're-so-kawaii" pose.
And Mr Lee and I in the "we-have-long-legs" pose.
One of the very rare group photos that we have. We shared a private joke about bedroom habits here (Hahaha).
After lunch, someone (I can't remember who) suggested going to Lawson (chain convenience store in Japan) which we glimpsed from the bus on the way to our hotel. We decided to try walking there as we desperately wanted to load up on beer (to avoid a sleepless night) and snacks (we weren't expecting to get filled up by our 2nd kaiseki dinner, obviously).
The 6 of us walked from Togendai in search of Lawson. We walked...and walked...and walked...but Lawson was no where to be seen. By this time, we had walked for about an hour I reckon and a few members of our troop had started to show signs of fatigue and wanted to drop out of the search. Mr Lee and I decided to persist, despite the threatening dark clouds weighing heavy on us.
YES! We found Lawson 20 minutes after our friends deserted us! I insisted on taking a picture of it to remind ourselves that we made it there! Boy were we exhausted!
2nd kaiseki dinner @ Lodge Fujimien. Again, we didn't enjoy the dinner too much. The plum wine was darn good though!
And of course, the instant noodles, snacks and beer came in useful!
5 comments:
miss lak !!!! write a story book of our adventures leh. so vivid. hahhaha thanks for the blog.
And yah thanks for posting Mickey, Grrrr!!!!
ya better put the thoughts in record before they slip away! Heh, the picture is cute and damn funny, I couldn't resist!
Kachi-kachi friends? your name for them???
they r the residents of mt kachi!
hhaha i like the part about mr vong's mickey ears and the long leg pose!
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