Mitsu-toge yama [三つ峠山] - day 2

Day TWO!!! - and after a nice little sleep on the most plastic version of tatami [畳] I have ever come across. I woke up to be able to see a crystal clear sky and Mount Fuji [富士山] out of the window.

After a quick brekkie of rice, we headed out and turned left out of the hut to get to Mitsu-touge peak...the route passed by the climbing area (which looked fantastic!) and took us past some very strange, plastic-looking ice which covered the ground. The path was heavily eroded, which was rather sad, and some of the wooden steps which had been placed to stop soil from transporting itself down hill had been eroded soo much that they had been completely dug out of the ground.

<- The strange ice, which probably developed during the windy cold night.... The peak itself had a beautiful view of Fuji [富士山] and stood at 1786m (just next to a very unattractive television antenna).

So we started our decent into the valley...and on our way, we took lots of photos with mount Fuji...but they weren't as nice as the ones we took near the top, on the account of clouds gathering during the day...and the nice lady at the mountain hut had told us the night before the weather outlook. she turned out to be right. We didn't come across too many people on our way up or down (although a mountain biker did whizz past us at one point) apparently (again according to the nice mountain hut lady) people train on this and other similar small mountains on normal weekends, when they are short of time, making only a 2day hike possible. Then on Golden week swarm to more challenging hikes which are longer. So, it was a nice and quiet hike.

On the way down, we followed all the little signs to Kachi-Kachi Ropeway [カチカチ・ロープウェイ], passing a small shrine, Tenjou-yama [天上山], on the way (quite close to the ropeway entrance).

Tenjo yama [天上山]

The ropeway terminal looked a bit like a theme park in itself and had a platform for viewing the valley and lakes below. We got a good view of FujiQ highland (the amusement park we went to last summer, link here). There were also several statues of a raccoon and a rabbit (Tanuki and usagi, [狸と兔、たぬき・うさぎ]) which we didn't understand at all, but were obviously the theme of the ropeway...

Apparently, there is a folk tale about these two animals, hence the name Kachi-Kachi for the ropeway, the story of the raccoon and rabbit here. There was even a statue on each of the cable cars, one rabbit and one raccoon. We took the raccoon down. Then had a nice rest during lunch...then another rest by the lake side, watching swan-shaped pedal boats being thrown about by the wake if huge motor boats vying for the same space...

After a nice rest in the warmth of the sun, and the company of ants, we decided to try and catch one of the trains to Shinjuku [新宿], preferably a nice express train. On the way to the station we passed a small temple on the way, which had a beautiful stone carving of a Daruma at the door, and a huge daruma as an offering at one of the shrines. Greg was approached by a lady with her family, who was trying to lead him towards the door. I eventually followed over to find that the lady was trying to show him what we probably should have done when we entered the temple gates. At the gates there was a small granite box, with some pebbles in a tray at the bottom. I thought it was for donations, but apparently you are just meant to pick up one of the round pebbles from the tray and pop it into the hole near the top, which then causes the box to make a nice ringing sound.

We had a bit of an argument, well confusion - which was all my fault really for not understanding a very very simple ticket pricing system, at the train station. Where I thought you could do the thing you can usually do in Tokyo; buy the cheapest ticket and then do a 'fare adjustment' at the other (terminating) station. The guard, however, disagreed. So, we were very good and bought the correct ticket. Ending up on the fastest scheduled train to Shinjuku for less than we were expecting; on account of Greg's guide book telling us that the fastest trains to Kawaguchiko [河口湖] on the Fuji-kyukou line [富士急行], where we were at the time, close to double of trains just taking 20 or so mins longer. But apparently from Kawaguchiko the type of train it ended up being on the Chuo Line [中央線] didn't matter. The long train ride was quite nice, especially as we didn't have to change trains, and resulted in a nice nap.

The End.