03JAN19 My family and I went on another Mt. Fuji day tour courtesy of H.I.S Japan Local Tour. This was our 2nd time to embark on this snowy mountain yet what's more exciting is that we're going here for the winter experience!You may check out Tokyo (Part2) about my trip to Mt.Fuji's 5th station.
However,there were a few setbacks when we booked this tour via Viator.
1) The Departure Time is not specified on the itinerary.
-It was hard contacting both the travel agency and Viator regarding the starting time of our trip. Unfortunately, they did not return any of our queries so we just went early to the meeting place (Cocoon Tower). So to be safe,be there before 8AM
2)I have been to many tours in Japan and by far, the tour guide we had can be the least accommodating (Sorry!We didn't even know her name). We were with a mix of Chinese and Pinoys at the bus and yet she can't converse well in English. Good thing there were banners for us to follow. :l
Inspite those cons, the trip went well as I'm more keen to see snow! Haha. It was a very long day since it was also a holiday when we got there. The ride took 3 hours from Tokyo to Shizuoka plus traffic---highway traffic.
The first stop was at Lake Ashi where we had a 30minute sightseeing cruise. The pirate ship that we rode was very spacious with loads of cabin and pirate statues.Though of course, the best view can be taken at the shipdeck.
Seasick is real like here I go again. Lol. Also,my hands were damn freezing that I couldn’t feel them anymore!The weather was about 2 degrees celsius with mild winds. But the view was breathtaking.❤️ As we reached the stop (Togendai), we went to Grinpa Ski Resort.
The place is a Sylvanian Family-inspired theme park which felt like these miniature creatures have come to life!Soo cute.
I wasn’t able to take a pic of the whole area but its restaurants,souvenir shops and the playground really looked like those dollhouse collectibles.❤️
Our set lunch: dimsum,chicken karaage and Chankonabe aka “Japanese Sumo Stew”. It’s so delicious,perfect for the cold weather and also, it contains a lot of vegetable and protein as they said that this is the usual meal of sumo wrestlers; Hence, the name itself got it there. ;D Outside the resto was a kiddie skating rink.
And here’s the sledding station overlooking the beautiful Fuji-San ❤️ The sleds can be rented for an unlimited time (not sure how much ‘cause it was part of our tour).
I tried and enjoyed it a lot! Though it was nervewrecking at first;I have no fear of heights but being on top of the hill then sliding slippery can be difficult. So sit back and hold those ropes tight! I’ve a short clip of my sledding experience on my Instagram :)
Finally, we had a few shopping time at Gotemba Shopping Outlets. Our tour gave a coupon booklet and it was very useful! Some brands have a remarkable price reduction that’ll gonna make you buy more.Havingsaid that it’s also my second time here, the items are worth buying ;D
Sooo that concludes my Tokyo trip last January! I’ll try to come again the soonest as Japan’s always close to my ❤️ I swear you’ll never get tired of going back to this country.Haha
PS: I might get on hiatus for the coming weeks as I’ll be touring Europe! I’ll surely miss the wonders of Asia but I’ll definitely return on the second half ^^
‘til then!
