Motosuko Walk and Canoe Trip

This weekend a few coworkers and I decided to get out of Yokohama and go to one of the five Fuji Lakes. We left for Yokohama Station at 6:30am and caught the bus to Kawaguchiko Station. From this station we got onto another bus that took us to Lake Motosu (=本栖湖). From the Lake bus stop we started our walk around the lake. On the walk there was tons of butterflies and views of the lake. We also saw a few snakes. 

Fuji View and 1000 yen View

On the other side of the lake is a great view point. The view is actually captured on the 1000 yen note. Too bad there were clouds hiding Fuji, but you can get the idea. Just after the view point we ate lunch at a little lake side inn. I had a lovely rice bowl. From there we rented canoes and set out for the lake.

Once we were on the lake Fuji started to come out a little more. We canoed around the lake for about an hour and a half. Motosuko is the deepest and clearest of all the Fuji Five Lakes. So it was pretty nice to canoe. After canoeing I gave a little rock skipping lesson to one of my friends and after a few tries she mastered the rock skip. After rock skipping we started to make our way back around the lake to the bus stop. We realized a little ways into the walk that we were going to need to hustle to get the the bus stop before the last bus left. Two of us decided to walk/run to catch the bus. We got the the bus stop one minute before the bus was to leave. We convinced the bus driver to wait an extra 5 minutes while the other two in our group hitchhiked with some park service workers to the bus stop. We were all very relieved to make it onto the bus. Once we got back to Kawaguchiko Station we boarded a train and made our way back towards Yokohama. This was a great trip to get away for just a little while, have a little time to relax and have some fun adventures. 

Here is a map I made of our route. 

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1594821

Oh the places I've been part two...

Here is the second part of my Spring Break Japan Tour. 

Here is Kyoto. Above is the Golden Temple.
Right: The Philosopher's Path

        People love cherry blossoms in Japan!!! The next part of the trip we traveled to Hiroshima.

The Hiroshima Peace Dome

Miyajima 

        

The next part of our trip we went to Iki Island off of Kyushu. It was a great little island, I think we were the only foreigners on the island. People really liked to stare at us. But what's new....  

the view from our hotel room. 

Literally what I ate for breakfast at our hotel. 

We found a dolphin park. 

Monkey Rock... I wonder how they came up with the name?

Lovely beaches! 

Aleece and me

Our boat back. We had a great trip and were able to see a lot of Japan! 

Oh the places I've been...

Sorry it's been a while... I've been busy traveling around Japan. I have now been to all four major islands of Japan. Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kuyshu. I figure I am doing pretty good in my Japan travels. The last week of March and first week of April our school had our spring break. I have two different friends come to visit from the states during this time. I am now a certified tour guide... The first week my friend Nathan came to visit. Here are some pictures of his visit. 

Endoshima 

 Endoshima

Tokyo Tower 

The first week Nathan we here I was in work still so we made a few little trips near Yokohama. We visited Endoshima and Tokyo Tower. The next week I was off of school so we traveled to Nagano and Yudanaka to visit the snow monkeys. After Nagano we took a Shinkansen to Nikko. Nikko was pretty cool. The temples were awesome and so was Lake Chuzenji.

 The original hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys. 

This trip was really fun. We got to see a lot of history, a cool lake, two waterfalls, and to top it off we found the best fish hatchery ever.
Once we got back to Yokohama we went to a garden to see if the cherry blossoms had started.

There were a few blossoms but most were still not opened up. The next day we went to Lake Ashi and Odawara Castle. 

Overall this was a great trip with Nathan. We saw some really old things and some really amazing views. 

Hakuba Snowshoeing

 This last weekend I went with a group of co-workers to Hakuba. Hakuba is an hour and a half outside of Nagano Japan in the Japanese Alps. We left rainy Yokohama on Friday after school and took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagano. We spent the night in Nagano near the station and headed out early the next morning for Hakuba. Once we were in Hakuba we checked into the hotel and set out on our first adventure. We headed out from the hotel to Iwatake Ski Resort. The trail was well marked as many snowshoers had been there before us. We hiked around and had a snack break of hot coco and maple cookies. After that we continued our trek through the snow covered wilderness. We stumbled across some interesting tracks in the snow... The two ladies I was with were convinced that it was a bear... I voted rabbit... they asked the patrol guy once we got back, and he confirmed my rabbit vote. While we were hiking the clouds lifted a bit and gave us an amazing view of the valley bellow. 

After our hike we asked another person skiing by and asked her to take our picture. One of the ladies we were with tripped over her snowshoes and fell, and the lady taking our picture was awesome and kept on taking pictures. It made my day. After our hike we ate lunch at the ski resort at the top of the hill and then rode the gondola back down the hill. After we got back to town we found a lovely coffee shop and had coffee and played cards for a bit until everyone else was done skiing. While we were walking around we saw a bunch of people with snowshoes walking around, so we asked where they had gone. They were very nice and gave us a map and verbal directions on how to get to the start of the trek. So we were very excited to have a plan for the next day. 

The next day we took the Tsugike Kogen Gondola to the start of the trail at about 5,200 feet. Basically we were traversing up an old ski route. The upper lifts are shut down for some reason. The traverse was relatively simple but took us a while. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, which really made the mountains stand out. By the end of the hike I was down to a t-shirt and my snow pants. I also got a pretty awesome sunburn. Near the top of our hike the area is normally a marsh land so there are relatively few trees. But it made for great hiking and great pictures. From the start of the hike to the top of the hill took us about 3 hours and we climbed 1,112 feet. 

We ended up at the summit of out little hill (6,289 ft) with great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. We hung out near the top for a while and ate onigiri (rice balls) for lunch and had tea. Once we ate lunch we made our way down the hill and back to the gondola. It only took us about one hour to make it down the hill, mainly due to some creative trail making down the hill. I had a really cool app running on my phone the whole time which tracked our hike. Overall it was a great trip, it's always great to get outside and play in the snow. 

Here is a link to my Trail Map I created.