Sightseeing around Fuji

As much as I thought climbing Fuji-san was a waste of time and energy, the Fuji 5 Lakes area and Hakone are very worthy of much more time than the 2 days we spent on them (we had to pass on the monkey preserve and the Porsche museum!). It looks and feels a lot like the Tahoe area – mountains, water, lots of people but obviously a vacation place so there’s a peacefulness about it. The only caveat is that it’s really a Japanese tourist place. It’s really hard to find information about the area before you get there (at least, information not in Japanese), and once you get there, there is surprisingly little English. But then again, that’s pretty much par for the course on this trip.

The whole area is built up on layers of lava from Fuji and surrounding volcanoes. On the base of Fuji itself is a forest (Aokigahara Sea of Trees) that grows entirely in a few inches of soil on top of lava rock. The rock is magnetic and messes up compasses, so it’s fairly easy to get lost if you stray off the trail (assuming you don’t have a GPS gadget with you). For this reason, it’s become a favorite spot for people to commit suicide. We saw no ghosts, but it is a very odd feeling forest!

The lava also lends itself to caves. From the literature we managed to collect, we had three options: the bat cave (the biggest cave with “countless bats”), the wind cave (used to store silkworm eggs), and the ice cave (used for pre-refrigerator summer ice storage). Since it was a hot day, we opted for the ice cave. It’s very non-OSHA approved, but they obligingly had this very clear drawing of the dangers you’re likely to face. The steps do have railings, but then you have to crouch through the tiny areas, trying not to slip on the ice or touch the wall to catch your balance. The one thing the sign doesn’t say is to bring your sweatshirt because it’s cold. I know, it seems rather obvious that it would be cold in an ice cave, but you don’t think of that when it’s 90+ degrees in the sun. I think that’s the coldest I’ve ever been in Japan.








Hakone is in the basin of another, much older and larger volcano. The only way you can even tell you’re in a volcano basin is by the ring of “mountains” around you, and the steaming sulfur pits. The pits are fascinating, if repelling. The Japanese also seem to think that eating eggs cooked in the steam is good for your health, but XDirtPushr is convinced that they bring their kids to eat blackened eggs to retard their growth and keep the population short.













In the center of Hakone is another lake, complete with what is possibly the most famous torii in Japan. If the day had been clearer, you would see Fuji off in the distance to the left in the picture.




An hour on the toll road (and a little bit of speeding) brought us back to the traffic and smog and heat that is Tokyo. Why do people live here again?