Mt. Fuji Sightseeing Tour

Mt. Fuji (or Fuji-san in Japanese) is another symbolic icon when you think of Japan so we were really excited to take advantage of a sightseeing tour the base offered last weekend. It took about three hours to get there by bus so Bern and I just slept pretty much the whole time since we left Yokosuka at 5:30am. Our first stop on the tour was the Fuji Peace Park; which is home to a massive 155' tall Buddhist Pagoda. Inside this pagoda is a shrine with an actual bone from Buddha's body. The path is aligned with guardian dog statues from different Asian countries that practice Buddhism.

 

 

Weather permitting, we were supposed to get a view of Mt. Fuji from this Peace Park similar to this: 

 

 

But due to the lousy weather conditions that day, we got:

 

Nonetheless, we still enjoyed walking around the unique site.

 

 

The next stop was the Yamanashi Prefectural Fuji Visitor Center to watch a short video about Mt. Fuji. Learned some interesting facts about this prestigious mountain, here are just a couple I thought you might enjoy:

1. Mt. Fuji is an active volcano which last erupted in 1707.

2. Because of all the volcanic activity throughout its history, Mt. Fuji is actually made up of four different volcanos in one.

After the visitor center, we then drove up to the 5th station of Mt. Fuji which was about 7,600 feet above sea level (a little more than half way up the 12,388 feet high summit). This is somewhat the unofficial starting point to climb Mt. Fuji. Here we grabbed lunch and picked up a few souvenirs.

 

This place was crowded due to the fact that we were right in the middle of the climbing season, which started on July 1st and ends in late-August. Bern and I plan on climbing up Fujisan either next year or in 2015 in case you're interested in joining us! Let's do this!  

 

 

Following the 5th station, we drove back down to the foot of Mt. Fuji and arrived at the Sengen Jinja, a shrine dedicated to the Shinto deity of Fujisan.

Built in 1615, this is just one of the several "1st stations" on the journey to climb up Mt. Fuji.



1st station

The shrine is right in the middle of these humongous trees which are approximately 75 feet wide and about 1,000 years old.

 

 

The last stop on our tour was Oshino Hakkai, a small village area with eight famous ponds resulting from the eruption of Mt. Fuji.

 

 

 

These ponds are still fed by the melted snow coming down from Mt. Fuji. It's then filtered down the mountain by the all the layers of volcanic lava rock resulting in the freshest, cleanest spring water you can drink. We both tried it and could instantly tell the difference or as Bobby Boucher would say in the movie The Waterboy, "Thas Quality H2O!"

 

   

This purification pond tested our focus by seeing if we could leave our hands in extremely cold water for at least 30 seconds. Right when you put your hands in, it's like a thousand needles hitting you at once that totally numbs your bones. Bern seemed to enjoy it though saying it felt therapeutic; so much so that she did it twice...CRAZY! haha  

 

As we were about ready to leave the area and head back for home, the clouds parted ways slightly to give a tiny glimpse of Mt. Fuji. We were so thrilled that we got to see Fujisan atleast once during this trip!   

 

 

Until next time Mt. Fuji!