Oshino Village, Nigori-ike pond and the Shinnasho-gawa river

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back from the shrine, we got back to the van and drove to teh Oshino Village.

It is a village that is preserved in its original state. This place reminded us of Ballarat in Australia for many reasons.

The ponds, the huts, the little details all transported us to a different place and time. Then we walked behind the village along bamboo fences to the river banks lined with Cherry trees. The blossoms were just amazing!

The river was flowing gently and the flower petals were everywhere on the gently flowing water. It was an amazing experience.. We also got to eat large Fuji apples.. the original! They were delicious! The rest of the group had a peach tea also which they loved.

Here are the photos from this leg of the trip..

and a video highlights reel..

Our driver said there was one more stop before lunch and we had to rush a bit if we wanted to get back to Tokyo before getting stuck in traffic. So off we went to the next stop.

Cherry blossom dream come true at Mt. Fuji shrine

The previous post in this series is here..

Our second stop in the Mt. Fuji area was to climb up a bill to the Arakurayama shrine and see views of the valley and Mt. Fuji from this hill top shrine.

We were told that it was a pretty hard hike. My friends son was not feeling well that morning and he braved it to this point but needed rest. So four of us went up. We promised to do our best to go as fast as we could and come back. There was a short drive from Lake Kawaguchiko to a parking lot for this shrine. We crossed a road and were faced with a bunch of steps that keep coming.

The beauty was that there were cherry blossoms everywhere at this high altitude. We thought Kyoto was our last interaction. This was mind boggling. We enjoyed the hike to the top, got to soak in some amazing views and came back down.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlight reel..

Every stop on this day was one upping the previous stop.. that in the next post..

Mt. Fuji from Lake Kawaguchiko - Japan Trip Day 7

The previous post in this series is here..

We were up and ready outside the hotel by 5:30 AM. Our Pakistani driver was very courteous and told us that every 30 minutes makes a difference. Some folks leave at 6 from Tokyo and never even get to Mt. Fuji in traffic and come back. That is why he wanted us to leave at 4:30 AM so we beat traffic both ways. He wanted to speak in HIndi but not everyone in our group was fluent in Hindi so we kept telling him to talk in English if possible and he tried his best.

We drove a good 2+ hours to lake Kawaguchiko area with beautiful views of Mt. Fuji from various angles for the last 30 minutes of the drvie. Once we parked at the first parking lot, we got to walk through a flower garden with some amazing views. Also saw a dog in the middle of the garden. Have never seen such a beautiful dog. Eventually the owner came and walked away. It was just hanging out all by itself, a sight to behold.

Photos.. didn’t even have to edit them..

Video highlights reel.

We did a photoshoot next to the flower beds and lake and drove to the next parking lot for the next stop…