MT FUJI SOUVENIRS

I picked up a few cute souvenirs from the Tourist Centre at Mt Fuji

I thought I could frame this photo of Fuji and pretend we actually saw it !

The souvenir shop at the Hakone cable car was probably the best I shopped at. It was huge and had a great variety of items.

MT FUJI & HAKONE

Tokyo Tower
Today we visited Mt Fuji and the Five Lakes district. During our whole 10 days stay, we had to pick the one and only day with bad weather to visit Mt Fuji, which I have wanted to see since forever. So, we actually didn't see Mt Fuji at all due to cloud and fog. Very disappointing !

So this is what we saw of Fuji from the base of the mountain. We were meant to drive up to the 5th station, but the weather was so bad, we only made it to the toilet block.

We visited the Mt Fuji visitor centre, which had some informative displays, and an very nice souvenir shop.

So, that was it for Mt Fuji ! Next, we were taken to a lovely hotel for a traditional lunch. The food was beautifully presented of course.

As we ate our lunch, it beagn to snow, which apparently is quite rare in this area. By the time we had finished lunch, the hotel gardens had tranformed into a winter snowscape. This was very exciting for our kids, as they had never seen snow before. So this was some compensation for not seeing the mountain.

Very pretty indeed

Our tour guide gave us a Mt Fuji chocolate to apologise to the tour group for not seeing Fuji.

We then went to the Five Lakes district. The lakes were formed by the volcanic activity from Fuji. It's a popular holiday destination, especially in summer.

We travelled in a cable car to the top of the mountain. We could actually see the clouds rolling in over the lake as we were ascending.

Lastly, we caught a ferry to the other side of the lake.

And the Shinkansen took us back into Tokyo. Hopefully, we will get to see the illusive Mt Fuji on our next trip!