Fuji-san!

"Well, you know we're having good days
And we hope they're going to last
Our future still looks brighter than our past.
We feel no need to worry
No reason to be sad
Our memories remind us
Maybe road life's not so bad..."


When we last left our intrepid adventurers, they were careening down a mountain in the middle of the night with nothing but a mostly dead iPhone. Even MacGyver would have been concerned.

Well, as we continued our descent, streetlights began to appear at regular intervals and that slightly panicky feeling we had was slowly fading as it became obvious we really WERE going to make it into Lake Yamanaka, something that a few hours earlier seemed rather impossible. Consulting our terrible map once again, we arrived at the proper street....and couldn't find the place. I called the ryoukan once again to try and get directions. Now, trying to get directions over the phone in a foreign language after 16 hours of constant, strenuous activity in the middle of the night from a woman who speaks absolutely no English may have been almost as much of a challenge as the bike ride, but thanks to landmarks and a helpful neighbor business, we finally limped into Ryoukan Kajiyasou at almost 9PM.

The owner of the large inn was quite friendly, and ushered us into her private dining room for tea. We had woken her up when we called earlier (she is 74 and runs the inn and an onsen across the lake with her "younger" sister). She and one of the other, apparently regular, guests spoke with us while we drank tea. It was a heroic effort to stay awake, let alone converse in Japanese, but we had a nice chat. They are always amazed when a white guy can understand them. They looked at me kind of funny when I asked if we'd be able to see Fuji-san tomorrow even though it was supposed to be cloudy, but said yes and pointed to where it should be. We finally were shown to our enormous room and told to take a "yukkuri" bath, meaning we were supposed to take our time and enjoy it. I literally nodded off in the bath, only waking up because my face was under water. I cannot remember a time I was more exhausted.

Despite all of this, we were awake at 5AM (thanks, jet-lag!) with a hazy glow of sunlight coming in through the large window and birds chirping away outside. Looking out the window, we saw a large lake with misty fog rising from it and not much else. The room was gorgeous.

Not bad for 80 bucks...

Before we knew it, we had passed out again and were woken up by the younger sister of the owner at 9AM. Getting up and looking out our window, we saw the fog had lifted, revealing

Not a bad view for....just, wow.

Fuji-san is as amazing as you would imagine, a giant summit in a mountain range full of majestic peaks. Being able to see it up close almost made yesterday worth it. Almost. What made it all worth it came later in the day.

It took us an amazingly long time to get moving. The younger sister had us in for coffee with another regular guest from Saitama, who had brought some gyoza from home (delicious!) and liked to talk as much as her sister did last night. She was also quite friendly, and was showing us pictures of previous foreign guests (kind of a rarity in more traditional places like this). She loves English and can read and write quite a bit, though she doesn't speak much, and has pen-pals across the US she corresponds with. Before we knew it, it was after 11, and we needed to get moving if we were to get to our next planned stop before dark.

Our ride around Lake Yamanaka was quiet and uneventful, with a nice bike path and trees surrounding the large lake that many sports clubs from the area use for summer "training camps". There were many resort-like campgrounds with modern facilities, especially tennis courts, which seem to be the popular sport in the area. For us, though, it was wonderful because it was flat.

That smile wasn't there yesterday.

On the outskirts of town, there was a large flower park, with a large variety of flowering plants on display. We didn't want to pay to go inside and see the greenhouse plants and such, but we loved the scenery

Sumi-san, Fuji-san and Flowers

There was also a shokudou, an informal restaurant where you sit at long, cafeteria-type tables. This one had a ticket vending machine that you used to order your meals. We mainly went in to get out of the wind, that had kicked up, but we were also treated to our first real hot meal since arriving.

Curry Udon with Beef

Once we left the city limits of Lake Yamanaka, our cycling guide had us riding on a very busy, urban road for a stretch. I felt like I was riding through downtown Milwaukee, with the bumpy roads, the loud, constant traffic and the lack of consistent sidewalks. It was the only way to get around Fuji-san at this point, though, so we suffered through it to get to the wonderful Route 71.

Route 71

Route 71 is a quiet, two-lane highway through a mountain forest. Even though we still had 400 meters to climb, it was so beautiful and so peaceful (and such a contrast to the urban riding we had just done for the last few hours), our tired legs didn't mind so much. One of the main reasons the route took us along 71, other than avoiding traffic, was to get closer to Fuji-san on the northeast side.

The other beautiful thing about Route 71 was the descent. After almost a day and a half of constant climbing, we finally hit the top. What followed was almost an hour of coasting for over 20 miles and speeds of up to 30 mph along the eastern side of Fuji-san. We barely pedaled for the rest of the day, arriving at our hotel in Fujinomiya around 5PM. Having Fuji-san as a backdrop all day and that hour flying down the mountain was what made the awfulness of yesterday worth all the pain.