Japan Trip Day 4 - Mount Fuji & Hakone

I have previously booked a 1 day tour to Mount Fuji and Hakone from the agent. We were picked up from the hotel early in the morning. A lot of other people also took the same tour, but none from the same hotel.

finally saw the first sign of autumn!

Our tour-guide was an elderly Japanese man who speak quite good english. He taught us how to make a erupted-mount-fuji-origami. Unfortunately I was too tired to take photo of the steps (and we were the fastest to fall asleep during the journey ;D )

The drawback from joining a tour like this was that the time is very limited. We were only given 30 minutes to explore the shops at the fifth station of Mount Fuji (luckily it was a clear day).

I bought a Naruto charm and the bell was given free from the shrine (which I only managed to take photo of the red gate). The bell is a lucky charm for longevity.

I also bought a pack of green tea and a box of seasoned scallop (the purple box on the right). Many of the sellers recognized the totoro hat that I was wearing; so they call me Totoro-chan and my mom Totoro-mama. :D

After that we ate a simple Japanese dish from the nearby hotel. I really love how they displayed the food - so colorful and pretty.

We took a small short cruise along Lake Ashi. It was very cold that day and my mom wore her full-gear (sunglasses, shawl, mitten, and the jacket's hood); which I took photo to show to my dad XD

Then we continued walking to ride this ropeway. Upon arriving at the high peak, we could see Mount Fuji and the view was amazing.

The steps that we had to take to reach the shrine.

I didn't know that it took such a long time to get back to Tokyo again, and I have planned myself to be dropped at Ginza afterwards. It was close to 9 p.m. by the time we reached there, so went to check the Ginza Tokyu Hands (which is very small, so I wouldn't really recommend anyone to go there). Then we ate yakitori under the JR line since it was being recommended by my small Tokyo guide book.

This was my mom's beer, of course. I can't drink soda, but it was the safest choice available. I tried the beer though (not my taste!)

We also bought this cute beer charm each before going onboard - you can shake it and the "bubble foam" will rise to the top - so cute, right? ;)

our "table"

mushroom with "original" miso paste

pork set

chicken set

Frankly the food was not suitable for our taste (chicken's soft bone (?), gizzard, pig's head, etc.) But the place is so unique for us. Yes, we were being the stupid tourists who take photos of everything LMAO! Maybe if you went with us, you'll be sitting far far away and pretend like you never know us at all ;)

Unfortunately the shops are closing down by the time we finished eating, so we went back to the hotel (we were tired anyway).

Continue to Japan Trip Day 5...