Yong took this when we woke up.
Ami and I took the opportunity to head down to the onsen one last time before leaving.
This was at about 6am in the morning.
Really quiet and quaint little town that caters to tourists both local and foreign.
Good Morning!
This was about an hour later from the room.
Breath taking view!
Our first Japanese breakfast.
Apparently, we were not supposed to eat porridge on the first day of new year but we did..hahaha...
Can someone tell me why first day of new year cannot eat porridge please??
Yes, Yong was wearing tee while I was all warmed up in wool.
Headed outdoors to take some shots of the scenery.
This was the onsen we stayed at.
Can you see Mt Fuji?
There! This is not super-imposed!!
HAPPY VALENTINES' DAY!!
That's not a 'V' its a 'U'!
My finger was freezing cold!!
Yong got me this V day card and a 10,000 Yen bill folded into a heart shape (which I wanted to keep but was forced by him to use it).
He still owes me a S$50 folded into a heart shape.
2 posers! hahahaa...
Our jackets looked exactly the same!!!
This was my best shot at capturing the shy Fuji while the bus travelled to Oshino Hakkai.
Doesn't this look like a postcard?
In case you are wondering what time this was taken, it was about 8am in the morning.
Probably the last clear photo of the majestic but shy Mt Fuji.
Oshino Hakkai (忍野八海) is the eight springs located in Oshino, Yamanashi. The spring water at Oshino Hakkai is underground water from Mt. Fuji. It begins with the snow on the top of Mt. Fuji. When the snow melts to water, the water sink into deep underground of Mt. Fuji, and filtered by rocks of lava. The water travel over 80 years to finally spring at Oshino Hakkai. After filtration by lava, the water become so pure and contain the large amount of minerals.
Oshino Village is used be a lake called Lake Utsu for long time ago. When Mt. Fuji erupted, Lava from Mt. Fuji coverd north part of Lake Utsu. Then, the south part of Lake Utsu (宇津湖) becomes Lake Yamanaka, and covered area became Oshino Village. The spring spots of Mt. Fuji were still left in the same spots. So, eventually water spring in Oshino Village, and they were called Oshino Hakkai.
Because Mt. Fuji is believed as spiritual mountain, the water of Oshino Hakkai was called “The spring of God.” Those believes created many local legends. Now, Oshino Hakkai is one of the National Treasure of Japan, and 100 best water of Japan.
Our guide told us to bring bottles to collect water from the flowing tap in the middle of the spring behind us.
When we arrived, we actually saw koi or carp fishes living in the water.
We were wondering if the water we drank has fish excretions in them...
As usual, Michelle found food.
Was pretty tasty with the red bean filling..
Since it was snowing the past 3 days in this region, Mt Fuji has been closed for 2 days.
Not sure if it was a stroke of luck (bad or good) we managed to go only to station 1 which was the lowest.
Sad face coz cannot go further..hahaha..
Nevermind..there's still tons of snow around!
Like Winter Sonata not? hahahaha...
Bye Bye Ms. Fuji...
Next up, Hello Kitty Sanrio Puroland!
Time to act cute!
The Lucky Bag I'm carrying was meant for LNY apparently.
They put various Hello Kitty items in the bag ( pouch, fan, note book, stickers, blanket etc) and sold it for 1,000 Yen (S$16)!
That was so so so cheap so I grabbed 1!
Tickets and maps.. psst..see the date...
Ami got 1 bag too..
We had to settle our own lunch so we headed to MacDonalds'.
The fastest way to settle lunch..
The streets outside Puroland was filled with shops.
When we entered, guess who came out?!
snap, snap, snap & snap!
Some game where you pay 500 Yen and get a lucky draw chance..
For the fun of it...I got a small pink pouch..
It's a place to look stupid without really looking stupid..cute??
Look at the entrance to the toilet..so dreamy can!?
Candy store setup..cannot eat only can see...
Bakery store setup..
It was really an eye-opener since it was my first time in Hello Kitty Land.
To those that would like to go, my advice is to go if you are a huge Sanrio fan (I really mean HUGE fan).
There are rides there but mostly catered for small kids.
We headed down to Ameyoko street next for some shopping.
Ameyoko was the site of a black market after World War Two.
The name "Ameyoko" is a short form for "Ameya Yokocho" (candy store alley), as candies were traditionally sold there. Alternatively, "Ame" also stands for "America", because a lot of American products used to be available on the black market.
We bought discounted clothes that were like 1,000 - 1,500 yen each.
Yong patiently waited for us.
Waiting for the coach to pick us up to proceed to Shinjuku.
At Shinjuku, we did not walk with the group.
We had to search for Hotel Sunroute to drop off our big luggages as we will be staying there for our extension.
Our guide very kindly walked and searched for the location of the hotel with us.
After that we headed back to Kabuki-cho to meet the team for dinner.
The brief history of why this area in Shinjuku was named Kabuki-cho was because there was a man who wanted to build a Kabuki theater in this area when then Europeans came into Japan.
However, there was no interest in Kabuki acts but more of vice activities thus becoming the largest red light district.
Walking through the streets to our dinner we saw many touters - looking for both customers and 'staffs'.
Michelle was approached by one such touter although we are not sure what he said.
Blame it on her purple hair...
Erhm..we didn't take any photos of the bright lights..
Buffet Shabu Shabu for dinner!
Their shabu shabu is cooked in boiling water and not soup.
The water is plain water which was something new for me.
The peanut sauce was good though.
After that we headed to Ikebukuro to check in to our hotel.
Since it was only around 9, we decided to walk around the vicinity.
As usual, we went to the drugstore look at beauty goods.
er.. just to clarify.. My Lucky Bag was a gift from Michelle... (for V day)
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