Our penultimate day in Japan and our final day in Yamanashi prefecture, a sad day. We awoke at 3am as we wanted to get to the north shore of Kawaguch-ko for sunrise, and without a car this walk is almost 2 miles, so we needed a quick start. It was the darkest morning we had … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 17; Kawaguchi-ko and Narita-san
So we awoke in our plush and fancy hotel for sunrise (as usual), we had bought breakfast with us as we were getting up around 3am to watch the sunrise. Sadly, the clouds from the day before had stayed and obscured the sunrise. As the clouds were obscuring the view we decided to explore the … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 16; Kawaguchi-ko part 7; a cloudy day
On our 6th day in Kawaguchi-ko we were up at 4am again and decided to walk around Kawaugchi-ko and try some of the local attractions. We first returned to the northern shore to see how the blossom was getting on. Luckily they were at full bloom against the blue sky, perfect for photography! It was … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 15- Kawaguchi-ko pt 6; boats and ropes
Day 14 and another morning of no visible Fuji for sunrise, such a shame. We headed off at around 6am to get to Chureito Pagoda, as from the night before we knew it was all in full bloom. Although the flowers were on our side, the weather was not, and Fuji had a cloudy hat … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 14- Kawaguchi-ko pt 5; Chureito Pagoda & Oshino Hakkai
Day 12 was going to be another fun packed day of adventuring around the fuji five lakes area. On this morning we decided to pick another spot for sunrise and got up very early to drive over to the other side of Ohashi bridge, to a little spot of rocky shore line. Unfortunately no red … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 12 – Kawaguchi-ko pt 3; Yamanaka-ko, Gotemba, shrines and mountains
Pretty much this whole trip to Japan for was the sole purpose of seeing and photographing Mount Fuji. This is my 4th trip to Japan and the 4th time of travelling to the five lakes area to try and see the elusive Fujisan. One of my errors in my previous trips was banking all hopes … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 10 – Kawaguchiko pt. 1
Today was the day to leave Kyoto, after five nights of travelling far and wide each day we headed towards Hachioji, a small area on the Western edge of Tokyo. The only claim to fame for Hachioji is the nearby Mt Takao, a popular hiking spot with a view of Mt Fuji on a clear … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 9 – Hachioji & Mt Takao
For our third day "in" Kyoto we headed to the nearby Mie prefecture to spend some time in unspoilt nature. Mie prefecture is not well known among the Japanese prefectures by international tourists which leaves a very quaint feeling here, we loved it! The journey was a little tricky using local trains to a small … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 8 – Akame 48 waterfalls & Nara
Staying overnight in Hiroshima enabled us to travel over to the very famous Miyajima, in Hiroshima bay. To get there you need to take a local train to the ferry station (JR pass can be used) and then get the ferry. There are two ferry companies running frequent boats between the port and island, both … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 7 – Miyajima island
For our next trip, getting the most out of our JR passes, we headed far to the south, our destination for a nights stay was Hiroshima. We managed to book (not by choice) very early tickets on the shinkansen with a planned stop in Himeji, as we were forced to get an earlier train than … Continue reading Japan 2017: Day 6 – Himeji & Hiroshima
My Nihon 