Japan vacation, pt4
This was a little parking spot next to Lake Saiko, with a gorgeous view of Mt Fuji. Unfortunately, the crappy front-cam of my cellphone couldn’t handle the lighting situation. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
There was an open-air museum with farmhouses with traditional thatched roofs, also with a view of Mt Fuji. (Because face it: it’s so high that no matter where you go in the area, you have a view of Mt Fuji.)
Next day, we decided to do the extra-touristy thing and take a boat ride on the lake. This is us in line.
Breathtaking view of Mt Fuji from the water. It was a bit cold and windy, but it was absolutely worth it.
We had a combination ticket of the boat and the ropeway up Mt Katcha-Katcha (which has a really brutal story associated with it, of a rabbit burning a raccoon dog alive, but you wouldn’t know it from the cute rabiit and raccoon figures sprinkled about). It was very busy, so we got a numbered ticket and went to buy cookies and something to drink. We relaxed at the water’s edge and kept an eye on the website that kept track. This is us finally in line to board the car - we were really jam-packed in there!
The view was worth it, though.
We also went to the Kubota Art Museum, which displays the mind-numbingly beautiful tie-dyed kimono Mr Kubota made. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside. And I still can’t understand why the souvenir shop didn’t have a nice photo book of his work - because we probably would have bought two. This is the main gate to the ‘front garden’.
The only place you were allowed to take photos inside was in the cafe, which used to be the room where Mr Kubota did his design drawings, apparently.
The next day, we went to Kofu! The cherry trees were in full bloom at the shrine we visited. After lunch we went to (the site of) Kofu Castle, which had an excellent view of the city.
Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.