Day 6 @ Kawaguchiko

We woke up very early at 4 am to chase after Mount Fuji . We were very lucky indeed to see the beautiful Mount Fuji near Kawguchiko Lake early in the morning before the clouds cover it up. 

 View from Family Mart near Lake Kawaguchiko @ 6 am :

Since Japan is the founder of quick mee so we make it our breakfast at Lake
Kawaguchiko . We bought 4 packets at 198 yen each ( RM 8 each). The japanese
products are thoiughtfully made with perforated holes on top in order to pour in
hot water. There is also a very crispy piece of thing inside to go with the mee. We bought
all the mee w/o knowing what is inside because all the writings are in Japanese.

This is very sweet, not nice, they are muachi soaked in brown sugar

After a heavy breakfast of instant noodle , we are going out to the Kawaguchiko area
by retro bus @ 1300 yen for 2 days pass.

There is no one day pass so we are forced to buy the 2 days pass , since it is cheaper so else one stop will cost us around 300 yen depending  on the distance .















Our main focus is Saiko area - the Saiko Iyashi no sato NENBA, ice cave and wind cave.  Actually with the 2 day pass, you can go to many places like Art Musuem, Kawaguchiko herb Hall, Craft park, Muse Musuem, Music Forest Museum etc etc. Due to time constraint we, only selected to visit 3 places above.

First stop : The Kawaguchiko Herb hall.

 This was not on our list of places to visit but since we got on the wrong line of bus so the kind bus driver drop us off at this herb hall to catch the retro bus.

Next stop : Saiko Iyashi no sato NENBA

We stepped into this old Japanese village -This place used to be one of the most beautiful thatch roofing houses village in Japan. This village is a reconstruction of what was known as the most beautiful group of kayabuki(thatched-roof) houses in Japan. The original village was 

destroyed by a typhoon in 1936.

The Healing Village, command Mt. Fuji and mysterious Aokigahara Sea of forest, 

restored the old village, that used to be there, to new thatch houses village of 21 centuries.

Single step into the village will take you back to the Showa Period (1926-1989). And put 

yourself in a healing atmosphere with magnificent view of Mt. Fuji. The Healing Village 

features not only beautiful scenery but also a variety of hands-on-activities, including 

Japanese paper making, hanging hina doll making. Dining, including alimentary yam 

paste cuisine or Soba noodle is available at the village.


Entrance fee : 300 yen with the retro bus pass, instead of the usual 350 yen.

Next stop : Lava cave ( also known as Fugaku Wind Cave)

Actually we only intended to go for Ice cave , but we were told that if we visited 2 caves
it would only be 400 yen instead of one cave at 250 yen

Fugaku Wind Cave is the cave formed by Lava from Mt.Fuji, located in Aokigahara Jukai
(the Sea of Forest). The average temperature is about 37F for all year, so this cave was
used for a cold storage for silkworms. It is about 600ft. length and 27ft. height. Somehow,
 there is no echo sound in this cave even though such a closed cave. There is ice wall.
Fugaku Wind Cave is one of natural monuments.

The cave was created by lava from Mt.Fuji. The entire cave is formed when lava cools
down, the gas of lava pushed up the rock. The floor of the cave is also called Lava pool.
The wind Cave is very important for geologic because of Tree Mold Lava Spiracle.

Next we looked high and low for Ice cave thinking that it was somewhere nearby...only
to find out that it was a 20-25 minutes walk to the cave through a 1000 years old forest...
.....One of my friends has problem with her knee cap and her body were all covered
with medicated plasters and magnets. If we had not bought the entrance fees at the wind
entrance for 2 caves, we would have left and abandon our walk to the Ice cave.


Narusawa Ice Cave 鳴沢氷穴:

Narusawa Ice Cave (鳴沢氷穴, narusawahyoketsu) is the cave formed by Lava from Mt.Fuji,
 located in Aokigahara Jukai(the Sea of Forest). The average temperature is about
37F for all year. The cave is covered with ice all year, and also icicle are every where.
An icicle sometimes grown up 90ft. long and 1.5 ft. wide. The entire cave is 450ft.
Narusawa Ice Cave is one of natural monuments.

Entrance to the ice cave:

Somebody in my group said those ice must had been moved into the cave by the Japanese,
after seeing lots of  plastic food that look so very real at the entrance of most Japanese
eateries.

  It was a very low cave and quite difficult to went through and because of 
  the  ice it was slippery too.


Only later when I reached Kuching and I found out that actually when we walked to
Ice cave from the wind cave we were passing Aokigahara Jukai – The Sea of Trees
Aokigahara Jukai is a dense dark forest at the base of Mount Fuji that was formed over
volcanic rock from when Fuji-san last errupted.

One of the reasons why Aokigahara Jukai is visited is that it is the site of popular tourist
 attractions like the Ice and Wind cave which are just two of the many lava formed caves
 in the area. The other reason is much darker.

Aokigahara Jukai is also known as the “Death Forest”, “Suicide Forest”, and as the
Kuroi Jukai – the Black Sea of Trees. This forest is known as the 'Death Forest' or
'Sea of Trees', it is widely known to be a place of death. The forest is famous for suicides,
and has an annual body hunt each year by the local police to find anyone who may
have killed themselves during the previous 12 months.

Reading this article about Aokigahara Jukai really makes my hairs stand on end, knowing
 that I had actually been inside that forest !!! In this article this person was actually
exorcised by the spirit of a man who has committed suicide at the tree that person was
leaning onto.

                                           Errie feeling right?

When we saw this sign , we thought that it was just telling us to keep onto the track:

Actually it means for the suicidal not to go onto those tracks

The innocent trio:

  Luckily after the Ice cave we decided to use the main road to go back to Retro bus stop
 near Wind cave or else we would have walked back into that scary forest again.

After a long and tiring day we went for onsen @ 800 yen per person near K' s House.

When we left Kawaguchiko for Shinjuku by Keiyo bus , Mount Fuji came out to wave
 us goodbye.

We went back to Tokyo by using Keio bus from Kawaguchiko bus station . It was
an express bus from Kawaguchiko to Shinjuku - travel time 1 hour 50 minutess and fare
was 1700 yen.