I got up and ate the rest of the noodles for breakfast. The Japanese man at the reception put a bowl of warm water on the table, put soy sauce in it, and indicated that I shoud put the noodles in it. He had a point, it tasted much better that way!
It started to rain, so I decided to do something indoors. The Japanese man recommended the Fujiyama onsen, which has a free shuttle bus service from the train station. The bus passed by Fuji-Q Highlands, an attraction park .
The onsen had separate sections for men and women, as people don’t wear swimsuits. I got a small towel and a bath robe for relaxing afterwards. To take a shower, people sit on a plastic thing with a hole on top. Additionally one should run water over one’s body before taking a bath.
They offered several basins, one with salty water, with sparking water, with special salt, one outside, a large one, and a cold basin. I tried them all and liked the outside and the sparking basin the most. I also went into the sauna. The sun started to shine and I enjoyed laying outside enjoying the sun rays.
I had a look at the other floors, and found several relaxing and massage rooms. I sat for some minutes, but then decided to go and see the city. The next shuttle bus would go in 10 minutes! I caught it just-in-time, and did the shoe laces inside the bus. (In Japan you have to take off the shoes almost everywhere, so don’t take socks with holes on your trip)
Back in the hostel I took one of the bikes and went to a five story pagoda. Going there went downhill for 10 minutes. I verdrängte the thought of going up again. To get to the pagoda I had to go up about 400 steps, but I got compensated by the view! Although Mount Fuji didn’t want to show himself and hid behind a huge cloud. But I could still take some marvelous pictures.
I took the bike in the opposite direction to the shrine, stopping shortly at the Pilgrim’s Inn. In the olden times, pilgrims would sleep there over night, before going to the Shrine to prepare mentally the ascend to Mount Fuji. I only planed to go to the Shrine.
I arrived at the shrine at the end of dawn (which happens somewhere between 5pm and 6pm in October, imagine!). The shrine looked beautiful. I had to play with the settings of my camera (exposure time, white balance, …) to make some reasonable pictures.
Back in the hostel I asked whether they have glue to fix my shoes. The Japanese man even cut a piece of wood for me, so that I could press it together with a Zange . (But the glue didn’t last long, it didn’t survive the next day)
I started to talk with Heike, a German girl, who quit Germany to work in Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, … She said that when she returns to Germany, it takes some days for her to speak reasonable German again. We drank the rest of the plum wine that I bought yesterday.
I haven’ eaten anything yet for dinner, so I asked the Japanese girl at the reception for a hint. Heike and I went to a restaurant managed my an old lady and her son. Both are very kind people, but only the sun speaks a little bit English. We drank tap beer and I ordered something vegetarian for me. I got salad, noodle soup, tofu and a brown thing which I could not identify. I asked the son how they made it, and he showed me a huge root of a plant, some kind of Japanese radish. We had a really good time trying to communicate half-English half-Japanese.