I was on a bus going to Mt. Fuji yesterday when my guide said ”its warm today so you can see plenty of people outside walking, but looking not so happy maybe because they are going to work, they not go to Mt. Fuji like us”I shook off my tiredness and thought, she’s right, i dont have to work today, I am going to Mt. Fuji the highest point in Japan. Sometimes this is unreal.

I did in fact go to the base of Mt. Fuji yesterday. Its covered with snow and beautiful. You can not go any further than the 1st station as they call it because it is the off season. Most people climb from June to August i believe.

What i didnt know is that Mt. Fuji (the Japanese Goddess as they say here) is actually a volcano. Albeit a dormant one.  To be more precise, she is actually 3 volcanos.  Two volcanos were side by side ages ago and the old one erupted and created the new Mt. Fuji. She stands almost 4000 meter tall and in the winter wears a blanket of snow. In the old days people would climb as an act of worship, but now for recreation.

Japan actually has many many volcanoes because it sits at the cross of 4 tectonic plates (or so my guide said). Its also a pretty mountainous place with 70 percent of its land covered by forested mountains. You can see this in many of my pictures. Last fact — and because of all of its volcanoes here are over 3000 hotspring resorts. Which is why the onsens are a very popular thing to do here. Pics of Me and Mt. Fuji below

After Fuji we went to Hakone to the 2nd tallest volcano in Japan. We rode up a cable car and you could see a view of a few lakes and even out to the ocean behind the clouds. Unfortunately at the top, it was completely white and cloudy so that was the end of that.

To top off the day of rising to new heights, i went 45 floors in 45 seconds to the top of  Tokyo, i.e. the Municipal Government Building Observatory. From above Tokyo was flashy, sheik and went on forever it seemed like.

To complete a perfectly good day, i had free Sake and Plum wine courtesy of my hostel.

Randomness

Today I am off to see Sumo wrestling on my last afternoon here before i fly out to Cairns Australia. I hope to swim with the fishes and see some Aboriginal people while I am there. More on the plight of the Aboriginal ppl in Australia later.

Tokyo is a cool city, but i can’t really say there is much in the city i was really itching to see. I went to Ginza, which  is like 5th avenue, to the Sony building to see floors and floors of their newest electronics and today maybe a museum or two. They have alot of Art Museums here and Shrines as well.

Last thoughts on Japan. I generally like it, its beautiful (outside of the city), people you meet are nice (besides those pushing/rushing on the subway), i love the way I am always greeted with a smile and head bow when i arrive and leave a store or establishment and the food is good. And its clean.Not bad.

Other thing, I wanted to do Karaoke but here you just order your own personal room with friends. Me and Naomi were going to go, but 2 people are no fun. I prefer embarrassing myself in a room full of strangers and maybe a few friends.

Oh and I made an origami Mt. Fuji.