This country is called Land of the rising sun for a reason, the sun rises and then stays in the sky for far too long and far too hot.
Oh well.
There wasn't much planned for our only full day in the town at the base of Mount Fuji so once again we ended up splitting up.
Matt, Colin, Cristian and Ambernay went to visit the wind cave and Marise and I headed towards the other side of the lake to head to a Museum.
It was about an hours walk but the view was lovely and worth it.
Along the way we actually came across something called the "Gem Museum" and i'm a big fan of rocks so we took a small detour. It was 600 yen (about 6 bucks) to get in and they had some really cool high quality Gemstones as well as some interesting things done with gems from all over the world.
The ended up having some of the largest geodes and ammonite specimens i've ever seen. Also some massive pieces of petrified wood. Won't lie I did buy something from that store (i would call it a gift shop but it felt more like the store was the focus and the exhibit was additional.
Still with that mall detail out of the way we made our way to the bridge that would help us cros the lake It gave us a stunning view of Mount Fuji
We ended up on the side of the bridge where the sidewalk ended so we took a small detour under the bridge in order to get to the other side, there was a shrine on top of a steep walkway. I didn't have to guts but Marise said it was a nice little shrine.
Then we continued down the path and eventually made our way to the Ichiku Kubota Art museum and this was great. We knew he was mostly famous for his Kimono's but the museum was so much more then that.
You are greeted by an attendant who can help you is many different languages. Handed an english pamphlet (but there were at least 4 other choices) and explained the layout of the museum.
The gift store had both Ichiku styles as well as Fuji specific souvineers. But for now we went to a side room which had a lovely exhibit of another artist who used colours in way that just made me smile. We weren't allowed to take any pictures but when i get back i'll scan the pamphlet i got.
Next was the bead exhibit where you are greeted with your choice of warm or cold drink then escorted to a patio area with the perfect view of Mount Fuji.
This is where you see his inspiration really went further then just Japan and it was very interesting.
Finally the main show, the Kimonos. Ichiku was famous for being inspired by a lost art and after spending 20 years to figure out how it was done he then spent the rest of his life working on Kimonos. Each one taking about a year to complete. We know all this cause they brought us to a room and played an english video for us.
The kimonos really were amazing but again no pictures and even if they had been allowed it wouldn't be able to convey what we saw in person.
After al that we went outside and enjoyed the foot path because this artist had designed everything to be stunning and i was able to take pictures of that.
After that we made our way back. We however needed lunch so we stumbled into a place that specialiesed in udon and Soba and dug in.
Then we had to cross the bridge... the only Robles this time was that the sun was high in the sky and angry. Even though i lathered up it didn't matter I still ended up a tomato.
On the other side of the bridge our mission was clear. We hunted for some ice cream. This wasn't hard as no matter where you looked someone was serving it. The place we happened to pick had three flavours. Vanilla, Lavender and Mixed.
So i decided why not and got a mixed cone and it was surprisingly nice. It was thankfully very subtle so it wasn't like eating perfume.
Then before heading to the Inn we tried to find a bunny shrine but we ended up failing that adventure.
Finally we headed back to the inn and hoped dinner old be edible (it wasn't really but i'm also far too picky)
And thus the only full day we are spending in Fuji comes to an end.
Tomorrow we have a decent length ride on the bus in order to get to the Shinkansen (bullet train) that'll bring us to the next place. (Which will be another few hours... but hopefully it's nice and comfy.)
At least the next place should be the end to any large purchases for me. I've gotten all my souvenirs taken care of. Now i just need to go to one final collab event and the gallery i bought tickets for months ago. I'm not going to lie i'm still super excited for it.
Should have wifi in the next place but may not so for now... signing off!
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