Mount Fuji and Fujigoko

October 29, 2012 after a night at the "minshuku" like university farm sleeping quarters we were served a breakfast rivaling that of many an "onsen" or spa hotel in Japan. After a last admiring look at Fuji-san from this vantage point we left the farm and began a day of tourism.
We stopped at Narusawa where some of us examined the icy entrails of one of many caves surrounding Fuji-san. Yayoi was thrilled to have a Japanese chickadee land on her hand.
After Naoki drove us up a long drive to the fifth station on Fuji-san or as high as cars are permitted. The station reminded us not of Banff, not of Jasper, but possibly a bit like Whistler, British Columbia. We admired the views and then drove back down to the Fujigoko area to see the colours and more of Fuji-san. But first we stopped at one of the many places in Japan that serve a variety of breads and had a delicious late lunch. You can never have too many photographs of Fuji-san or fall colours. It was extremely difficult paring down the photos for publication.
Tsutomu-san is very interested in animals so when we spotted a man and a performing Japanese monkey we had to watch. I estimate that if we were as athletic we could jump four meters from a standing start.
We ambled back to the beach to view Fuji-san as the sun set to the right.
What a magnificent day and on the drive back to Ome we were fortunate to just miss a traffic jam up ahead and drove until we spotted a restaurant serving pasta where we had spaghetti served with all the attention to detail that would embarrass North American 'eating places'.

Click on link to see photographs on Picasa.

Fujigoko

Click on link to see photographs on Picasa.

Fuji-san