Jackie's World: Day 4: Central Japan (Fujinomiya, Mount Fuji & Azagawa)

Gooood morning, Isawa Hotspring!

As usual, we had to wake up very early, as if we're like preparing to go to work.
However, we're preparing to go for our holiday trip. wheeeee~:D
To be honest, holidays or travelling actually has its own sets of stress. But it's actually a kinda different stress lah~ ;)

1. First, we had our breakfast at the hotel.

Japanese style buffet breakfast whereby we decorated our food on the plate with lil' cute portions which made us felt soooo appetising :D

Baldie statue and I.

The signboard says it all. :)

The hotel's landscape view.

2. Then, we departed at around 8.10am to Otodome and Shiraito Waterfalls which are both located at Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture.
(waterfall in Mandarin = pu pu and Lake = hu)

Stopped by the parking area and bought this Ginger sweets to try. Quite spicyyy sweety taste~

We've reached the waterfalls. On our way walking towards the falls.

Toilets or loos at the falls area. So pristine clean and dry! One could actually sleep soundly inside.
Feeling Zen inside the toilet~ LMAO~

First stop: Me at part of the Otodome no Taki Waterfalls.
This waterfall is located at East of Shiraito (25 metre high). Otodome means "stop the sound". This is based on an old tales saying that there were 2 brothers were trying to have a quiet moment in the planning of the revenge of the killing of their father. Thus, the roar of the waterfalls was being silenced by the Soga brothers.

Otodome no Taki Waterfalls surrounded by the green foliage.

Japanese "rambutan" fruits.

Second stop: Walked further down and one could find some shops selling fruits and souvenirs on the left side. Then, we'll reach the Shiraito Waterfalls by turning to the right side to walk down the staircases.

Map: Its signboard says it all.

Magnificent Shiraito Waterfalls. Nature at its best at the 150 metre high!
One could hear the loud roaring and feel the natural sprinkling spring water from the volcano.

On our way departing to Gotemba Premium Outlet. We saw this car sales shop. Based on our observation, most Japanese prefer short cars such as Suzuki, Honda pet, Toyota pet.

3. After spending like half an hour there, we departed to the Gotemba Premium Outlet which is also located at Shizuoka Prefecture. No shopping pictures ya~ Was too lazy and tired to take any pics at that time. Loitered and looking around at the area for an hour.
We only went for window shopping and checking out outlet prices so that I could estimate and compare with my home country prices.
I found certain things which were reasonable to buy such as the the Michael Kors handbag that was around RM1200 and the long wallet costed around RM800 (after converting to our current rate).
I wasn't so into the branded bags as I've already had my Desigual bag which I bought in Italy. Besides, too much bags will have to resort in getting a bigger wardrobe to store all those items. Anyway, I would only want to aim for one of these super branded items such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry in the future. ;P
Owning one super branded stuff in life is suffice to me. No need too many lahh, such a wastage. :D
Another item that i felt okay was the Shu Uemura Tsuya Serum (30mL) which costed around RM200. Was deliberating to buy it at that time. However, I am currently using Sulwhasoo brand from Korea. I used to use this Shu Uemura brand from Japan after being recommended by a dear friend few years ago. After that, when I met her again a couple of years later, she recommended me Sulwhasoo brand. This brand is more expensive than the former brand and that the sales representative gave me a lot of samples to try them on. That was the most dangerous thingy to attract a customer like me. FML~
So, take note sales ppl.
This Korean brand uses traditional herbs and I felt that it was mild and good to my face so far *touch wood* Thank God!
I was so afraid of acne and pimples~ Had 2 incidences of acne and pimples diseases before and it took a lot of effort and money to get my face and back body to recover (will leave this to another story telling time).

4. Next, we went for our lunch. Forgot the name of the restaurant. First time, we were served with a bowl of hot udon noodles, rice with white tiny fishes in a Bento set. The Bento set came with some cold preserved vegetables. At that moment onwards, I found that I dislike eating cold preserved food without a hot bowl of porridge.

Our lunchie for the day.

5. Later, we stopped by for a walk at the Oshino Hakkai Springs, a cultural heritage site with the 8 ponds attraction formed due to the Mount Fuji volcano eruption till Yoshino Village, located at Yamanashi Prefecture.
We could actually observe Mount Fuji's crater from this village too but our tour guide just left us wondering by ourselves at the area for just a limited amount of time. T.T
(We've also been told in Mandarin language = Len Ye Pa Hai = Eight sea springs)

Wakuike Pond.

Wakuike Pond and its signboard.
There are 8 different ponds. Each pond has its own legend based on the description at the signboard.

Flowerrrrrrs~

Pretty flowers.

Flowers :)

Flowers.

Beautiful flowers.

Scenery at the Oshino Hakkai Village.
A lil' tad too crowded with tourists though. Nothing much there except for the natural ponds.

Is that an Arowana fish with gold ingots, koi? A fengshui fish!

Overlooking some mountains from the Oshino Hakkai village.
Actually, we didn't have much time to scout around the area as we were given limited amount of time to walk around.
I found that one could take a picture of the Mount Fuji from this village.

Looks like a dwarf-like sunflower species?

Signboard of Okamaike Pond.

One of the Oshino Hakkai Ponds: Okamaike Pond.
Look at the dense blue water colour. This is due to its water depth.

6. After our heritage walk, our bus departed to Fuji-San (Mount Fuji). We went until the 5th Station which is at 2305m high. It was the coldest temperature (around 13 degree C) we've felt so far in Japan, compared to our whole trip. We were given about 40 min there. Nothing much at 5th Station, except for the hiking (but it was closed in Autumn during our trip), enjoying the breathtaking scenery and weather. The highest point for Fuji-San (peak = crater area) is at 3776m. When we were at the 5th Station, I honestly didn't think that it looked that high (as I could manage to take a sneak peek at the peak only at certain time). But it looks so high from pictures. hehe~

Overlooking the buildings of the souvenirs and gift shops.

Some description about Mount Fuji.

Awaiting to take a peek at the shy crater of Mount Fuji. Hidden by the clouds. T.T

Foggy scenery and cold weather at 5th station at Mount Fuji. Breathtaking!

Overlooking the crater, behind me!

Looooooook! Fuji-san is right thereeeeeeeeeeee~

7. Lastly, we departed to our hotel at Azagawa, also located at Yamanashi Prefecture, nearby to Mount Fuji. We pastby the huge Lake Kawaguchi in order to get to our hotel. This hotel does have a hotspring spa facility as well but we didn't manage to go as there were more hotel guests staying in this hotel this time and thus, we were feeling more embarrassed to go naked with so many ppl looking at us. :P
When we've reached our hotel, known as Tominoko Hotel, we were told that we would get the room view overlooking the magnificent and beautiful active Mount Fuji (how scary with its still active volcano, although the last eruption was in year 1708.
We were actually feeling so excited! However..................... Mount Fuji was too shy to let us see it all the time. It kept playing hide and seek with us, with the clouds blocking at most of the time.
Thus, left us feeling really tiring. LOL~
We had our dinner at the hotel itself, served in buffet style- fusion of Western and Japanese style.

Celebrated Mooncake Festival in Japan.
There was no mooncake served, so, we took some sweet tooth for our souls such as cakes, mochi, peaches, miso soup :D