No gym for us this morning – we have an early pick up at 6:45 – and our guide, Mohammed was right on time.  We hopped in the car and were off, chatting all along the 2 hour drive to Hakone.  Mohammed is originally from Pakistan, moved here a couple years ago to work for this tour company, the same one he worked for in Pakistan.  He’s great, knowledgeable, friendly and totally fun pointing out different things along the highway as we go. Like the Sweets Hotel, a specific brand of “sweets” to be had at that hotel. Commonly called “love hotels,” they are found quite frequently along the highways here in Japan – as a matter of fact, Mohammed points out a few more as we drive along.  Such a weird concept in what we would consider a really buttoned up culture.

While we’re thoroughly enjoying the companionship, we do start calling him MTM – Mohammed The Madman – for how he drove. Ay yi yi. But he got us to Hakone safely, took us to all the great sites to view Mt. Fuji – in the sunshine without a cloud in the sky – another perfect day.

Making a pit stop at a gas station for the restrooms, we decided to buy coffee, not realizing we had to buy the coffee cups before we pushed the coffee button!  We thought it was one of those automatic dispenser machines we had used in the train station before – where the cup comes out and then the coffee.  Nope.  Buy the cup from the store clerk, then go push the coffee button dummies.  Oops.

After about an hour of driving, Mt. Fuji appears in the distance.  We have some spectacular views from here on out as we circle around the mountain heading to our first stop, Oishi park, located on the shores of Lake Kawaguchiko. 

Arriving here, we follow Mohammad around to the Lake where he turns into Mr. professional Photographer.  I swear, he had my phone more than I did!  No matter, though, he took some great pictures of us as we wandered all over the park, past the beautiful blooming spring flowers with Mt. Fuji in the background.  Just gorgeous. 

Pictures handled (for now), we head off to our next stop, the Naruzawa Ice Cave!  There are more than 100 caves around the base of Mt. Fuji, all created by lava tubes as the molten lava flowed through during eruptions.  Legend has it that this particular cave is the home of the Black Dragon, the God of water, because before the great eruption of Mount Fuji there was a vast ocean called Senoumi that was buried during the eruption.  The dragon is sacred and guards the north, it also punishes sinners (as in people who commit suicide) by dragging them to the bottom of the sea.  The legends, spirits and beliefs here are so intriguing….  And then there is the actual cave! 

It is a natural refrigerator (we dare say freezer!) due to the depth of the cave and the frozen ground underneath it from the snow melt off of Mt. Fuji, the cold temperatures and the winds as well as the ground water (in Japanese translation Ground “watter”) that runs around it.  And oh boy – is it every cold!  And small and narrow – we had to crawl in some places.  And there was definitely ice down there and it was definitely freezing! 

We had a blast exploring down there.  There is a shrine to Toyotama-hime, the daughter of the Sea God (so really the daughter of the dragon, who is said to be the mother of the first emperor or some such thing!).  There are ice blocks, built like a wall.  Icicles instead of stalactites, of course! Oh and frozen ice stalagmites too.  Really fun and cool – literally and figuratively.

Back up on warmer ground, we wandered through the gift shop, of course buying a Black Dragon T-shirt for Ed.  I almost got the No Bear shirt, but decided against it – and the cookies, but they were hard to resist!

Then we are back to the car, and off to our 3^rd stop, Shiraito Falls, where we had been before, but still….  On the way, we had more great views of Mt. Fuji – such a perfect day!

Once at Shiraito Falls, Mohammed put on his photographer hat again and off we went.  Down to the falls, all around the pathways with spectacular views of the curtain falls, even out onto the rocks for my very own personal photo shoot!

Reunited with Ed, we had more photo time – I’m telling you, MTM loved that phone camera almost as much as Hamid in Tangier! – including a video (in which you can see all the people we successfully avoided by getting down there first!).

MTM left us there and went back up to the car, letting us wander off on our own.  We climbed up to a view point above the falls, then back past the falls themselves and up through the congested shopping area to the lookout along the upper falls.  We traded photographer duty with some other visitors (he didn’t really get the idea of taking a photo of us WITH Mt. Fuji in the background), then decided to have lunch at the Yakisoba restaurant, Restaurant Hiraishiya, there on the property.

They had a huge menu with tons of dishes, but after we sat down, Mamma came out and said only Yakisoba – “with pork, pork ok?”  Sure!  What the heck. Makes choosing easy.  And it turned out to be an excellent meal.  Big portion, authentic taste even for a touristy place like this. 

Reuniting with MTM, we tried to get him to take some photos of us at the reflecting pool, but he just couldn’t get the whole “reflecting” idea. We even tried twice!  Oh well – we have enough photos.

Oh, you think so?  Nope, we are continuing on with more gorgeous Fuji photos from across the fields and then on to our 4^th stop, the Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Jinja Shrine which is over 400 years old.  A beautiful old shrine with the ancient trees – believed to contain spirits – and all the trappings of a traditional shrine.  It is beautiful and serene to wander around here, even with people all around.  There is also a forest trail that leads to some great views of Fuji, but we are content to just meander through the forest for a bit, looking at the ancient cemetery and the different small shrines placed along the path here.

On our way back to the car, we stop for some Cherry Blossom photos – the first of our trip – then hop back into the car for our last stop of the day:  The Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine and the Chureito Pagoda.

Here, we climbed up a huge mountain for great views of Mt. Fuji and the Chureito Pagoda, both framed by the just blooming Cherry Blossoms.  Good exercise, and quite the rewarding views at the top of the mountain. 

Wow! Great tour!  Back in the car, MTM gets us safely back to Yokohama after a full 9-hour day.  Absolutely the best, we are so glad we decided to do this, we lucked out with MTM and we were able to change the date to today.  All around perfection.

After dumping all our daytrip gear, we walked across the street through the flower festival, but there wasn’t much there that appealed to us.  Not like the food truck festival during our previous visit.  Ended up going back to DonQuixote for more coffee and batteries – don’t ask – then decided to brave Chinatown for dinner.

Oh, and brave it was – and it wasn’t even as crazy as it was the first time we visited!  People everywhere, these photos don’t really do it justice, but you get the idea.  After perusing a ton of places, we ended up at the far end of the main street at Qing Hai Xing (Blue Sea Star) restaurant for Dim sum and Cantonese cuisine.  We were some of the only non-Asians there (always a good sign) as we dug into an excellent (and hardy meal) of pork dumplings, Shrimp Shumai, some sort of octopus balls – not Takoyaki, but still – and a sliced chicken dish over veggies.  So glad we finally had our Chinatown meal.

And to top off our evening, we wandered further down to the very end of the street where there was an open-air shop selling fresh (as in he just pulled them off the grill) sesame red bean paste balls. OMG – we should have bought so many more, they were totally delicious.

Walking back to the hotel, the crowds had thinned out, leaving mostly younger people milling about.  We easily navigated the crowds, walking under the entrance gate and past our AF gym, then onto our room in the sky for a night cap and to prepare for embarkation day tomorrow!