Mt. Fuji & Shinjuku at Night

As I write this it is Wednesday evening and I’m relaxing in my hotel room in Tokyo hiding from the rain and having just woken up from a nap. I haven’t been feeling well the past day and a half and I think I caught a cold. So the rainy weather caused by a typhoon on its way was the perfect excuse to spend the latter part of the day indoors. Plus, I have to be up at 4am tomorrow for my flight which I hope still takes off!

But this post isn’t about the weather or my cold – well okay, it’s a little about the weather because it did effect our day trip a little. On Tuesday, we went on another Sunrise Tours day trip, this time to Mt. Fuji. I had heard that it is difficult to actually see the mountain. Much like Mt. Denali in Alaska, some people wait days and never see it. The bus left around 8:30am and we drove two hours to a viewpoint, but it was way too cloudy and foggy to see anything. We drove a little farther up the mountain to the 5th station where there is a Shinto shrine and a big tourist center/general store. Still too cloudy and foggy but it started to lift a little so we could see a tiny bit of the sides of the mountain. While there we also were given lucky bells that are teeny tiny bells, but they are pretty loud for being so small! The bells are supposed to bring your prosperity.

We left the 5th station and drove down the mountain and got lunch. I don’t know the name of the restaurant but it was in an amusement park called Fuji-Q Highland. The lunch was really good and I’ll write all about it in my food post in a few days!

After lunch we drove further in to the crater of the mountain range to Lake Ashi. The lake was so so beautiful. We rode a boat to the Hakone Ropeway which is a sky ride/gondola up the Hakone Mountain where we would hopefully see a view of Mt. Fuji across the water. No such luck – we were surrounded by fog! It was actually pretty eerie!

We headed back down the mountain and got some snacks from the shops before heading to the bus to meet the rest of the group. Just when we got to the parking lot, the clouds parted and fog lifted and Mt. Fuji appeared!

It’s kind of hazy, but you can see it!

After the 2 hour bus ride back to Tokyo, we were dropped off at Shinjuku Station and decided to get dinner around there. We decided to find a nearby Sushi Zanmai after our fish market guide, Naomi, told us about it the day before. It did not disappoint and you’ll hear all about it soon on the blog! Tokyo is so pretty all lit up at night and although I haven’t been out at night in the city in other areas other than Shinjuku, I couldn’t resist taking photos of the area.

I didn’t get to see as much of Tokyo as I had wanted but the week was jam packed with things, plus my last full day was marred with me not feeling well and it storming outside. But Japan is a country I definitely intend to visit again so I will just have to make sure I see the things I didn’t get to this time, next time! This weekend I will recap my last full day in the city. Hopefully when this post goes live, I’ll be in Hong Kong!