神奈川縣: 箱根 Hakone National Park & Mt Fuji

Date: Monday, 14th April 2008 (Morning) - Day 4

Weather: 11˚C~12˚C (daytime) / below 10˚C (night time)




In the morning, 盈盈 told us we will be visiting Hakone National Park 箱根. The locals believed that before going up to Mt Fuji, it is good to do prayer at the park as it will ensure smooth sailing! This practice is popular among the hikers and mountain climbers. If everything is ok, they can reach the last station - 10th station. But....before we reached Hakone, skies turned dark and downpour started, it was extremely cold... gggggghhhhh...

[ Hakone (situated at Kanagawa 神奈川縣) is an internationally well-known holiday resort that includes many renowned spas and Lake Ashino-ko, which was created by Mt. Fuji's repetitive volcanic activity. In Hakone, there are said to be "Hakone Thirteen Spas 箱根十三汤", or some even say "Hakone Seventeen Spas 箱根十七汤" altogether distinguished from each other by their distinctive ingredients and different healing effects. ]

When Hakone visit is over, we were transferred to Mt Fuji 富士山. Good news! Coaches are allowed to drive through to 4th station. Along the steep road up to Mt Fuji, we saw plenty of ice covered the grasses and the landscapes at the side of the hills - pure & white, wuuuhhhoooo !!

[ Mt. Fuji is 3,776m high and is the highest mountain in Japan situated at the border of southeastern Yamanashi and Shizuoka. Mt. Fuji has long been the center for the mountain worship of ancient Japan. Today, it is a popular mountain to climb, and many people climb Mt. Fuji to watch the sunrise called Goraiko from the top. ]

The view is so magnificent! Mom & I took many photos here... We may not see such scenic if were here a day earlier. No wonder the local says Mt Fuji has got his moods :-)

Our lunch was arranged at another 'highway restaurant/gifts store'. All orders will be done through a machine but the noodles was collected at a different counter. As for drinks, we help ourselves with the machines lor - the noodles = ¥580.00 per bowl + can drink = ¥130 per can, it was good, cheap2!

3rd picture above is a cigarettes machine - no worries if someone runs out of cigarettes :-)

As explained by 盈盈, after WW2, Japan is very poor, the leftover is just volcanoes - same for Mt Fuji, no one knows it can become a popular scenic spot that attracted thousands and thousands of overseas tourists. It was told that generations after generations, the great grandfather/ancestors want to make Mt Fuji a tourist spot but he could not undergo the construction works (e.g. building holiday resorts, houses or restaurants as huge budgets $$$ needed), so he is hoping his sons will carry it on when he passed away. It didn't matter when this 'vision & mission' materialised as long as it succeeded (maybe after 50 or 100 years)..... Well, eventually his wishes came true....