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Japanese Food, Japanese Culture and Japanese Travel

Mount Fuji

 Mount Fuji and the surrounding areas.

Mount Fuji (富士山) is the highest mountain in Japan at 3776m and is an active strato volcano. Many people want to climb

Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji once in their own life.  Especially they would like to watch the sun rise from the top of Mt. Fuji but it is not easy for beginners.

The first time I saw the beautiful Mount Fuji was from the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) during a school trip. Every student was stuck to the one side of windows and we all said “Wow!! Beautiful!”.

 

 

The area near Mount Fuji is a great place to visit. Places such as;

  • Hakone
  • Fuji Five Lakes
  • Shiraito no Taki (waterfall)
  • Oshino Hakkai (springs of Mt. Fuji)
  • Fuji Safari Park
  • Fuji-Q Highland (amusement park)
  • And many nice driving courses

Hakone is one and a half hours from Tokyo by express train called “Romancecar”.

You can choose your accommodation from traditional Japanese Inn, resort hotel and simple style hotel and most of them contain Onsen baths.Some of them have a private Onsen bath just for you. It is very important to notice the accommodation price normally includes traditional dinner and breakfast or buffet style meal.

So please double check it when you book the hotels.

You will eat many delicious meals and I have listed of examples below.

Japanese Kaiseki Dinner

Japanese Kaiseki Dinner

 

Buffet style meal

 

Japanese breakfast

Japanese breakfast

 

You could even do a day trip from Tokyo for Onsen and Lunch. If you have a time to stay for a couple of days or more, you could get a reasonably priced travel pass called “Hakone Freepass”.

 

I recommend you visit the following places.

Owakudani

Owakudani

Owakudani Valley, used be called Jigokudani (“the Valley of Hell”) via Hakone ropeway. It is volcanic valley, so you could see thermal volcanic pools. You have to eat Kuro-Tamago (black boiling egg) there.

The eggs are cooked in the area’s thermal heat sources. If you eat one, your life is supposed to be extended by 7 more years, so legends say anyway.

So if you eat two of them you should have 14 years more life! Obviously this is just a legend and probably not true.

 

And you should take the Hakone Tozan Railway (mountain railway), as you can see the best view with many colourful hydrangea in mid-June to mid-July.

Hakone Tozan Railway

Hakone Tozan Railway

 

I like Oshino Hakkai as well. It has very clean spring water from Mt. Fuji and is very deep (around 10 meters) but you can still see the bottom.

Oshino-Hakkai

Oshino-Hakkai

 

 

When you feel hungry, Soba (buckwheat noodles) and Sushi are very good choices. Because of the famous good quality of the underground water from Mt. Fuji, the soba is cooked with this water, so the taste will be better!

For the same reason I recommend Tofu as well, as it is very yummy. You could eat fresh Sushi, just because the nearest fishing port is only 10 minute away and the second nearest fishing port is also only 40 minutes away. Himono (half dried fish) is very delicious too.

Nigiri Sushi

Nigiri Sushi

 

Soba

Soba

 

Himono

Himono

 

Regarding Onsen (hot spring) in Hakone, there are 17 different hot springs here in a relatively small area. Some of them are white muddy colour with sulphur smell and this onsen’s source is from Owakudani.

Examples of the white muddy hot springs are Sengokubara, Ubako and Goura areas.

If you would like to get a nice smooth skin, you should go to a type of Onsen called ‘Bihada no yu’. These types of hot springs have no smell, no colour and silky onsen water at the Hakone Yumoto and Ashinoyu areas.

If you are big fan of roller coasters, you definitely have to go to the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park!

There are many roller coasters and other attractions. The Eejyanaika roller coaster has the highest total number of spins in the world. The Dodonpa roller coaster is the world’s most exhilarating roller coaster. Another roller coaster in Fuji-Q Highland is called Takabisya and you can see a video below.

But do not worry. There are many attractions for kids as well such as merry-go-round, Thomas Land, Water Paddler, Go-Kart and Tea Cups etc. There have really nice views from the big wheel and you can see the beautiful Mount Fuji. Have fun!

I hope you enjoyed this small guide.

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