mount fuji (day 2)

Day 2 started "super" early, like before sunrise...

we wanted to catch "beni-fuji", this is when the rising sun casts a light pink (beni) color onto Mount Fuji.

It apparently happens 10 minutes or so before the sun rises.

Once the sun rises the lighting changes, so you only have a few minutes to snap some pictures.

Here's the photo I had posted on Instagram.

After sunrise, we had some breakfast, checked out and were ready for our tour...

Oshino-Hakkai, is an area made up of 8 fresh water ponds that receives its water from Mount Fuji.

Many of the buildings in this area have thatched roof tops.

We paid 300 yen admission per person to get into this museum area, it is perfect for taking some photos and definitely worth it.

Then we were off to Lake Kawaguchi.

We stopped at Oishi Park. They have a little shop as well as great views.

The view of Mount Fuji from the Music Box Museum wasn't too spectacular, but this is where we got to see an amazing "sand art" show, I found a video of a similar performance, here.

This is where we also had lunch.

A nice hot bowl of houtou, a regional dish of Yamanashi prefecture. The original version is flat noodles (like fettuccine) cooked with vegetables in a soup of miso.

The version I got for lunch was a pumpkin potage. Satoshi had a tan-tan men version...both were different but hit the spot on such a cool day.

I have been seeing Cremia on various social media sites and even though it was too cold for soft serve, Satoshi and I shared this one (Can you see Mount Fuji in the background?!).

This soft serve uses 25% cream and has 12.5% milk fat...super rich!

Love the langue de chat cone!(literally tongue of cat, similar to YokuMoku cookies)

After lunch, we drove along the lake to Lake Sai and Lake Shoji (part of the 5 lakes of Mount Fuji).

We also stopped at Lake Motosu. This is the same lake that is apparently printed on the backside of the 1000 yen bill.

Then it was back on the bus as we continued to make our way around Mount Fuji...

A view from the Asagirikogen Rest Area.

And then we hiked down (there were steps all the way down) to see Shiraito Falls.

The water is apparently from Mount Fuji.

To actually see Mount Fuji with the falls, hike up 90 more meters (295 feet) to the lookout point.

Satoshi got this shot.

And then it was a bento for dinner on the train ride back to Osaka.

Super short trip and we were blessed with good weather.

I'm glad we were able to do this again and this time around we were thankful that we got to see Mount Fuji.

Hope you enjoyed this trip as much as we did.