Day 18&19 - Rainy weather and Chureito Pagoda

Day 18 - September 8, 2023

Halli Hello, or Konnichi wa, as they always say here,

Today is our first day in Fujiyoshida and due to the typhoon, which turned out to be a cyclone, we wanted to make it a calm one. Somehow the last 2 1/2 weeks were just very exhausting. We average 17,000 steps a day and we're really not used to that. Our bodies also don't know how much fresh air there is. The rainy weather made for a great calm day.

We slept as long as we wanted, i.e. 11:30. Moritz could hardly believe his luck when he answered his question “When do we get up tomorrow?” When should I set the alarm?” was given a “We don’t have to set an alarm and we can sleep in”. You should have seen his face.

So we chilled in our cozy room in the rain and didn't get ready until around 1 p.m. We wanted to continue looking for an adapter for Moritz and there was a shop here that might have one.

Of course there wasn't one there, but there was a supermarket.

So we decided not to go to a convenience store today - it's hard to believe - and so we got our lunch from the supermarket.

There we were initially looked at strangely by several people and some didn't even dare to go into the same aisle. We really do look very dangerous, I understand that. I keep forgetting that you can tell from looking at us that we're not Japanese. This is sometimes a bit unusual.

So we had a huge lunch for around €10, which we then ate in the hostel. We had a large salad, 2 onigiri, 3x fried fish/vegetables, kimchi, brownies, water and I think something else, which didn't seem to be too important since I forgot what it was.

Strengthened, we then took a break. So we went back to the room and chilled out a bit and then at some point started leafing through the magazine that we had gotten yesterday. Since there really wasn't much in town, we were happy to find a few things. Unfortunately, everything was a 45 minute - 1 1/2 hour walk from us as there was no public transport that could have taken us there. The progress here is sometimes really sensational! So we decided not to explore anything in particular because we didn't feel like traipsing back and forth to a shrine for ages and three days.

So the plan was just to walk around a bit. Since it was still raining, we armed ourselves with an umbrella and rain jacket and set off. There was hardly anything going on on the streets.

All of a sudden a loud announcement came from several streets, announced over loudspeakers. We thought “omg what’s going on here?!” Has war broken out? Is something bad happening??”. So I quickly turned on Google Translate - voice translation, only to find out that the garbage collection was coming... but hey, that's important!

Since we didn't feel like wandering around aimlessly after 25 minutes, I looked for the nearest landmark, which was only 18 minutes away, and we walked there.

It turned out that the landmark was Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine. This is the shrine in Japan with the largest torii gate and is also the first shrine that hikers have to pass through on the way up to Mt. Fuji. And it's also the shrine we didn't want to visit because it's 45 minutes away from the hostel...too late I would say. But it was very nice there.

It was a really great experience, especially in the gloomy rainy weather.

The shrine was located in a forest, surrounded by many Japanese sickle trees, some of which were very old.

The temple complex was also very beautifully designed. There was a huge tree right next to the building, which even had to be held together with boards and nails.

We looked at the temple complex and found a thick string of white paper tied to some stones, trees and also small buildings. After a little research we found out that this indicates that it is a sacred tree/place/etc. and it represents a certain holiness.

We also found a stone that had an indentation and it was filled with water. There were plants and small fish inside. That looked very sweet.

At some point we went back, just in time, because the Insta-tourists seemed to be slowly arriving.

We were back at the hostel around 5:30 p.m. and rested again until we got hungry. After searching for a while, we found the best option: another small Japanese restaurant.

After we arrived after 15 minutes, again in drizzle, we went in and a friendly woman greeted us. There were all kinds of food to choose from. For Moritz there was gyoza and a ramen bowl with egg, corn, fish cakes and a lot more, and for me there was kimchiramen and egg with lots of chives. We also order homemade wild sesame juice. All of this made us very full and there were also two different types of tea that you could drink for free and water. As an apology because she didn't bring my starter until after dinner, we were both given free ice cream. All of this only cost €18!

Afterwards we were totally full and we went back and watched another series in our room.

Today we didn't see Mt. Fuji at all because it was cloudy, so we hoped to see it tomorrow at a shrine that was located on a mountain.

Day 19 - September 9, 2023

On the second full day in Fujiyoshida we were able to sleep in again in the morning. Of course we did that and woke up fresh. Since it was a little later than usual, we decided not to eat breakfast and just wait until lunch. When lunchtime rolled around, we walked to the local supermarket and got some food. We quickly went back to the hostel and ate it too.

Since the time was already a bit advanced and we still had a little more to do, we soon set off. Our first stop was the Chureito Pagoda Shrine. This is located on the slope of a mountain and from its viewing platform you can easily see Mount Fuji. At least in theory, since that day was a bit cloudy. First, however, we had to climb steps to get to the shrine. Since cloudy doesn't always mean cool here, we naturally started sweating. When we arrived at the top, slightly dripping, our fears came true; unfortunately we could only guess at Mount Fuji. Since the weather was still nice, we waited a while, hoping to see him after all. The wait was even worth it, as you could see the peak and slopes of the mountain from time to time. During this time we even talked to a guy we met upstairs for quite a while.

After a little more than an hour, it was our time and we turned back because the weather was not improving. When we reached the bottom, Jule bought us some ice cream. Soft ice cream for her and ice cream for me (who?). In any case, that was very good given the weather. Not far from the shrine, we also found a temple, which of course was visited. However, since we were the only ones there, we didn't stay there long. It was a bit uncomfortable. After this little digression we walked back to the hostel to rest.

After that, we relaxed and went back to the supermarket, because we were hungry again and wanted to have dinner. We did this again in the hostel. Afterwards we went back to the convenience store to get ice cream and water. When we got back we had some more tea and played cards for a while. When we had enough of it, we went back to our room and slipped into bed. Thank you as always for your interest, even on this rather unspectacular day. Greetings to everyone who has made it this far.