[Travel Log - Japan] In Spring: Day 6 - Getting around Mt.Fuji!

Click here to read from the 1st post of this travel log! 😊

Day 6: Off to visit Mt.Fuji

16 April 2019, Tuesday

Walked out to an extremely clear sky and view of Mt.Fuji from the entrance of Hotel Mystays! (see that roller coaster ride right next to Mt.Fuji? - that will be coming up in the next post! a.k.a Terror rides)

We made a quick pit stop at Lawsons (as usual) for a quick bite and off we walked to the Fuji-Q Highland Bus Stop to start our Fuji tour. 

Our 1st stop of the day: 

Narusawa Ice Cave （鳴沢氷穴）

Map: 8533 Narusawa, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi 401-0320, Japan

 

[IIRC, there's was a special entrance rate for getting entrance passes to visit both the Ice and Wind cave, available at 600円.]

Its really pretty interesting because there was a rack of safety helmets where you need to grab one yourself to wear and its relatively self-service and self-tour. 

It was quite a short trail but a very cool experience (also meant literally...😂)! 

Next stop, the wind cave!

Fugaku Wind Cave （富岳風穴）

Map: Japan, 〒401-0332 Yamanashi, Minamitsuru District, Fujikawaguchiko, Saiko, 青木ケ原２０６８−１

Started the day with caves and next up it was time for waterfall! (I love waterfalls, there's just something about waterfalls that give that calming sensation... don't you think? 😍)

The bus journey to the falls took approx. over an hour or so... and it was lunch time, so... 

Sakai Soba Restaurant （酒井そば店）

Map: 303-1 Kamiide, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka 418-0103, Japan

Disclaimer: this is hilarious because... I'm not 100% sure that its this place and this picture is all I got, but the place looks familiar so, I hope my intuition is right. LOL

Shiraito Falls （白糸の滝）

Map: 273-1 Kamiide, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka 418-0103, Japan

Perfect weather, 

And... our last stop for the day... the Pink Moss Festival in Mt. Fuji.

Fuji Shibazakura Festival （富士芝桜まつり）

Map: 212 Motosu, Fujikawaguchiko, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi 401-0337, Japan

Be prepared, for the greatest disappointment.... 

HAHA. that is right... it was not ready. We definitely see the potential of this place when the flowers are in bloom, but too bad for us, we were simply too early in the season. 

So, the tiny specks of pink... 

Hoto Fudo （ほうとう不動 河口湖駅前店）

Map: 3631-2 Funatsu, Fujikawaguchiko, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi 401-0301, Japan

Dinner ✩

And that sums up the day around Mt.Fuji. 

On a side note, in the vicinity of the hotel, there is a pretty big supermarket which is really convenient too...

Watahan Super Center （綿半スーパーセンター富士河口湖店）

Map: 4910 Funatsu, Fujikawaguchiko, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi 401-0301, Japan

Just look at these (flavours not found in SG 😭)

Next post: [Travel Log - Japan] In Spring: Day 7 - Fujikyu Highlands! 
Previous post: [Travel Log - Japan] In Spring: Day 5 - Off to visit Mt.Fuji

[Travel Log - Japan] In Spring: Day 5 - Off to visit Mt.Fuji

Click here to read from the 1st post of this travel log! 😊

Day 5: Off to visit Mt.Fuji

15 April 2019, Monday

Off off off we go to... MT. FUJI. 🌄 

Being on the Mt.Fuji-Shizuoka JR Pass (local JR trains only, does not include the Shinkansen), we decided to maximise our journey by making pit stops along the way to our accommodation located at Fujikyuu-highlands. 

To enjoy a hassle-free travel experience, we made use of the lockers located at one of the major stations along the route before exploring the Fuji area. 

(There are many of such lockers around at stations, most major stops would have them)

After doing away with our barang (luggage, etc), we headed straight for lunch!

Uogashi Maruten Restaurant (魚河岸丸天 みなと店)

Map: Japan, 〒410-0845 Shizuoka, Numazu, 千本港町100-1

To get to the restaurant, it takes just a short bus ride from Numazu station. 

(My memory is failing me since I'm blogging this a year on... 😭)

We definitely... ordered a little too much for 4 girls, but just look at how sumptuous it is. 

After a heavy meal, we took a short stroll along the pier.. 💖

Mishima Sky Walk (三島スカイウォーク)

Map: 313 Sasahara Shinden, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-0012, Japan

A very clear view of Mt.Fuji

Forest Adventure... located within the sky walk (link)

If we knew about the forest trail... we would probably have reserved a whole day for this place (本当に、残念でした😭). I've always wanted to go on a trail like this but its too humid and expensive in Singapore. Apart from this forest trail, there's also a zipline right next to the sky walk that visitors can use to get from the opposite end back to the side where the entrance is - how cool is that?! 

-special appearance by my travel buddy-

Even the washrooms look luxurious... hahahahahhaha

HOTEL MYSTAYS, FUJI ONSEN (ホテルマイステイズ富士山)

Map: 2654 Arakura, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi 403-0011, Japan

Our most luxurious accommodation throughout the trip, at Hotel Mystays! - Located right next to Fujikyuu-highlands theme park. 

With 4 of us in a room, some of us chose to go to the public bath area instead to speed up our showering time. (Its really quite convenient once you get used to the procedures in a public bath... hahahaha)

Next post: [Travel Log - Japan] In Spring: Day 6 - Getting around Mt.Fuji! 
Previous post: [Travel Log - Japan] In Spring: Day 4 - A Day Trip to Hamamatsu

[Life Updates] Circuit Breaker in SG, ... etc

Day 9 of Circuit Breaker in Singapore

Its been a crazy crazy time with the Covid-19 situation in Singapore. I've been caught up with life and mostly maplestorym (a.k.a msm) the past months, -that I pretty much threw my blog under the carpet-, and the endless backlog of my blog posts just keeps accumulating (LOL to all my backdated posts).

So, its day 9 since Singapore went into Circuit Breaker, which is a measure to minimize the community spread of the Covid-19 (first known as the wuhan virus). The whole situation is pretty crazy, there's legit no other words that best describe the whole thing. This is, hands down, the most disruptive virus in the century, since I was born, even more so than SARS.

Being in an essential services line of work, the past weeks have been pretty usual for me, with the exception of split teams which did bring some level of inconvenience to work in general. Currently, the workplace is ever-changing in their employee arrangements as the government introduces more  and increasingly strict measures to fight against the Covid-19.

That aside, I really wanted to document how productive my long extended weekend was, hence, though very reluctant, I'm about to break my streak of Travel Logs for this.

I took the past 2 days off work in extension to the good Friday weekend and it was the best long weekend I have had in a while as I got so many things done, including getting back into posting my travel logs which are now exactly a year overdue LOL.

But before that, just to document what went on before Circuit Breaker happened, as our community progressively introduced safe distancing measures:

At some point badminton courts looked like this - empty:

And lifts are limited to 4 people, in the respective corners:

Haha. So, back to my very productive weekend. I finally got rid of one of these wooden shelves and made some space for my chair to roll about -it has always been very cramp 😑, been wanting to throw that out for quite a while now, so I'm really glad I finally did just that-. I spent pretty much the whole day thrashing and moving things about from the shelves, and the storage under my table. Even then, I can hardly say that its done because I still have a pile of blank notebooks which I have no idea where to stash them. My brain is telling me to thrash them out because I'll probably never use them but, my heart is saying no. *internal struggles so lets just leave that hanging for now, LOL*.

I managed to squeeze that hanger to clip on the side of the shelf which now houses the ukelele and I really like the feel of it (will I finally pick it up and practice again 😂). 

Who would have expected, my first ever shake shack (from SG branch) would be through delivery?!

(FoodPanda has them though limited deliverable areas)

Also, after weeks of procrastination, I finally shipped this out.

(Yes, CircleDNA, I had been going back and forth on this for quite a couple of months before my curiosity took over when I saw it in the stores of Watson's (CircleDNA x Watsons collaboration). I bought it online during the International Women Day sales which costs SGD 680.99 for their premium kit. Its a hefty price to pay for curiosity but if its for a lifetime then.. why not. lolol. Product review to come soon once everything is done). 

And the random moments, 

Prawn Mee take out for brekkie, yesterday!  

AND, I baked. Jole forwarded me an Insta-story a couple of days ago by @taytay_xx which showcased her Crispy Ribbon Roasted Potatoes recipe. 

I wasn't gonna end the perfect long weekend without trying these. I love LOVED the potatoes. Rosemary with salted butter and garlic is da bomb and I think this sauce might go well with button mushrooms too (because rosemary x button mushrooms is a thing)!  

And that's all the updates, signing off to a new week of uncertainty in the office, 

Its mid-week! Stay safe, Mask up, may Covid-19 end soon. 

Peace out. 😎