nakasendo 2024

Mt Fuji

Lesley got up sufficiently early to get some great pictures of sunrise over Mt Fuji

An early start for us (7am) for a visit to the Shiraito no Taki waterfalls. James and Julie took the e-bikes to get there; Lesley and I were driven by our guide and host Chieko, who has been wonderful. (She’s very smart; did a Masters of Ag Science, went to Malawi and Gabon in Africa for several years).

The waterfalls come from Mt Fuji and it takes 10 years for the water to reach the falls. Both the falls and Mt Fuji are classified as cultural heritage assets under UNESCO. Mt Fuji didn’t meet the criteria for a UNESCO nature classification because it’s just another mountain (nothing special), climbers had left lots of rubbish, and it was a pilgrimage path (so hence, culture).

The waterfalls were stunning which meant we took lots of pictures.

Then of course we needed some breakfast, which was sitting on the table when we returned from the falls.

After breakfast, we went to a beautiful shrine, called the Yamamiya Sengen-jinja shrine. It didn’t have the traditional house, because this shrine’s house was Mt Fuji. Chieko showed us how to approach the shrine – first washing our hands and taking some water, then ringing a bell, throwing a coin into a box, bowing twice, clapping twice, and then bowing to make a wish (quite a procedure really!)

Then we headed towards Mt Fuji and about two thirds of the way up the mountain, we climbed to see three volcanic craters which had erupted thousands of years ago.

It was very windy on the craters. Walking down one of the craters was a couple with a gorgeous dog who wore a yellow jumper because she was being trained as a guide dog…6 month old and very friendly ( and as it turns out, our driver’s wife trains guide dogs and this little dog would go into training with her soon)

Time for lunch, so off we went to a rainbow trout fishery, which had a restaurant which served very fresh rainbow trout sashimi, and the new rice which had just been harvested.

We had to make our own dinner tonight …the accommodation supplied lots of local veggies and meat, and we made the barbecue.

And of course we had to finish around the fire, toasting marshmallows!

Can’t leave here without sharing some images of Mt Fuji, which we were very lucky to see (even though there was no snow on the top.