For breakfast we found food on the street to eat because
breakfast didn’t really exist in the area we were, so I ate spring rolls to
start my day and off to Mt. Fuji we went. The place we stayed at was called
Fujikawaguchiko, and there was snow everywhere! During the day we hiked up a
small mountain and soaked in the view of the small town with Mt. Fuji in the
background. I decided to jump in the snow at the top and ended up falling
because it was much deeper than expected. I ended up falling in the snow up to
my shins. That night was extremely cold
and it was hard to find a place to eat. The place we chose was wonderful
though. There was a little platform with a small table and we sat on pillows.
The table was just tall enough for us to fit our legs under. That night we
slept in a hostel type place and it looked very traditional. The floors were
bamboo strips and there was another tiny table in the center with pillows and
free tea for us to drink. We had to set up are own beds which consisted of a
thin padding, a feathered blanket, and a blanket to sleep under, and the
pillows seemed to be made out of rice. Even though it was not the most
comfortable nights sleep the view from the room was stunning. The window looked
directly at Mt. Fuji. That night I tried my first bathhouse! This is a communal
bathtub, separate rooms for each gender. I was odd to try out but definitely a
fun experience.
Next stop…
Mishima, another very small town that we stopped in to wait for our night bus.
The town was filled with little parks and there were stream running thought the
streets. We saw a lot of school kids in their uniforms and they loved to stare
at us. That night we caught our sleeper bus to Osaka. The seats were actually
very larger and reclined back farther than expected. Each seat came with a
blanket and attached to the headrest was a cover type thing. You pull it down
over your head and it looks like an astronaut helmet. The bus arrived to Osaka at 6AM and we took a
connecting train to Nara. There we went to Todai-ji temple, the largest wooden
structure in the world housing the largest Buddha in Japan. It was absolutely
amazing and took my breath away. Not to mention that the park was filled with
deer that loved people. We were able to pet them and hug them and they would
love it. Everywhere you looked there were deer, hundreds of them. In the temple I lit a candle for my brother
Ryan and his well being, I told Buddha I missed him and to keep him safe. When
we left the temple we walked up a massive hill and into another temple to see
the view of the city and it was beautiful. We had a clear day and it wasn’t
unbearably cold. While up there we met an older man named Yoshi. He loved
talking to us because he wanted to practice his English. He ended up taking us
around, and showing us places that other wise we never would have seen. He then took the three of us to lunch and
paid for our meal! He also helped us find our train to Kobe and sent us off in
the right direction.
Leaving
Japan was very sad; their culture was so amazing. As the ship was pulling away
they had a band playing and huge posters of hands waving us goodbye, although
leaving was sad they made it fun. Although there were cars every where not a
single one honked their horn, and even though there were hundreds of people in
the trains and the stations, it was quite. Japanese tend to keep to themselves
and I loved that. Not to mention that every single person was extremely
friendly even if they couldn’t speak English. Instead of pointing to where a
place was they would actually walk you there even if it was out of the way.
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