The Great Japan Pilgrimage: Yamanashi

Wednesday 4^th January

Could be a map of Tokyo-
this however is the Narusawa ice cave

I’ll skip over the part that involved a near emotional break down when we finally surfaced from the Tokyo Underground to find no bus station…One subway sandwich later we were ready to face Shinjuku again and were finally booked on to a Kawaguchiko bound bus later that afternoon.

I realised as we navigated congested streets of the city that I was having worse culture shock going from Akita to Tokyo than I had done from Wellington to Akita. Passing a shop on our way to a bridge that linked two buildings three floors up, watching the rat race below us, a calm female voice informed us via a speaker that foreigners could receive up to 10% off on the presentation of a passport. I realised that this is how Marty McFly must have felt landing in 2015 - and that was two years ago!

With bridges linking buildings, roads stacked one on top of the other like pick up sticks and the rumble of the subway below you, even with your feet on solid ground you were buried between the thousands of people walking above, below and on both sides of you.

Our bus chased the sunset between the houses as we left the heart of Tokyo and made our way through the suburbs. A few hours later we caught a glimpse of Fujikyuu Highland before we reached Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi.

Despite our sudden drop in latitude the cold was still having a decent nip at us as we wandered around the now dark lake before hunting out what seemed to be the only restaurant open after 6pm.

Thursday 5^th January

Fuji at Sunrise

Someone had the bright idea of hiking up the nearby Mt Kachikachi (formally known as Mt Tenjo) to catch the sunrise over Mt Fuji.

As a result two someone’s found themselves racing the sun, pre breakfast, pre coffee,  con copious profanities and frustrated grumbles (note as the someone with long legs had actually been doing exercise it was the vertically challenged individual took it upon herself to so most of the swearing).

The sky was tinted pink and orange when we finally made it to the look out – which we had completely to ourselves. The morning was totally still but for the infrequent scuffling of gravel as Henry sprinted from one side of the lookout to the other capturing each change of colour in the sky.

The temperature was somewhere sub-zero and I nearly told Henry off for screwing the lid of my water bottle on too tight before I realised that it had actually frozen shut.

As the sun rose, so did the monkeys. They scuttled across the path in groups and into the trees catching the first rays of morning. After a mum didn’t look too happy about there being humans around while she was cradling her baby we decided to leg it down the hill before the path was blocked off by the rather vocal father.

One breakfast du Lawson later we were on the bus to the Narusawa ice cave. The caves were formed by an eruption from Mount Fuji and icicles are formed from the melted snow that runs from Fuji down through the rocks. With temperatures ranging from 0~3 degrees Celsius, the cavers were a natural refrigerator pre-electricity and were often frequented in the hot summer months. The Jiichan at the office looked pointedly at the 6’2” Henry when we told us to take a safety helmet as the ceilings got very low in places. Ironically it wasn’t Henry that hit his head on the first “watch your head” sign…

The ceiling was indeed rather low in places, forcing us to crab crawl through a couple of areas (the lowest point in the cave was around 3 feet, meaning Henry was literally bent double). This was one occasion when I was grateful that Japan’s health and safety measures were a little more lax than those back home.

The ice had been carved into bricks (I assume to represent their transportation from the caves in olden times) where it wasn’t forming stalactites and columns.

We walked along the road to the wind cave, noticing where the ground had sunk or caved in as a result of the underground caves that riddled the area. Once again donning hard hats we made our way down into the (slightly more spacious) wind cave that was home not only to icicles but also Silkworm eggs that had a history of being preserved there.

Entrance to the Ice cave

We stumbled across a walking track through the forest that returned us to the ice cave entrance. On our return trip to Kawaguchiko we got off of the bus a couple of stops early to have a wander around some shops, inadvertently discovering an Udon bar where you could order a $4 bowl of noodles in broth and add variously priced tempura. Henry left the shops armed with a newly purchased dip pen and ink and we returned to the lake. Wandering to the far side we caught the sun setting over the water and Mount Fuji.

After smashing out a number of the postcards that we were slowly accumulating, we went out in search of a restaurant that was open, and ended up exactly where we had been the previous night.

Sunset over Mt. Fuji and Kawaguchiko

I am now writing these posts a couple of weeks after we returned from the trip so I realised that my writing style is switching erratically between that of a want-to-be poetic five year-old who has just learnt how to use personification and that of a teenage drama queen who is yet to learn the difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’. So to anyone who has managed to stick it out this far – thank you.

Next stop: Nagano.