We started Day 6 of our trip with a visit to Oshino Village. There were quite a few places to shop with interesting food and souvenirs in this area built around several natural springs. It was drizzling today, but we did get a good look at lots of Koi fish swimming in the deep, mossy-green and crystal-clear ponds.
We boarded our bus once more and headed for the Mount Fuji visitors center. Our tour itinerary indicated we might get a clear view of the massive volcano from here, but the visibility was very low. The rainy fog made it difficult to see much of anything, let alone Mt Fuji. As a rather poor substitute, we instead saw a DVD that explained the natural history and cultural significance of the mountain.
Next, we made our way to Lake Yamanakako, one of the five lakes that surround Mt Fuji. This lake with water from melted snow was clear like the springs we saw earlier that day. We left our bus and went to ride a cable car up a nearby mountain. When we reached the top, visibility was still low, so there weren’t many great pictures to be taken.
Following the cable car excursion back down the mountain, we left on our bus and headed for our next hotel. We stopped at an expressway rest stop for lunch, which had surprisingly good food (you easily could expect to pay more for a comparable lunch in the United States; the quality of all restaurants in Japan are just that good). Our brief pit stop was followed by a ride through the Japanese Alps with beautiful, tree-covered mountains, the occasional village and river, and lots of roadway tunnels.
