Another early wake up call today. Our plan is to visit the surrounding tourist attractions and the Kawaguchiko 5th Station of Mt Fuji.
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| Mt Fuji in the morning |
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| Breakfast |
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| Kawaguchiko Music Forest |
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| Performance Hall |
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| Wedding Chapel |
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| Original Music Box |
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| One of the earliest music boxes |
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| Music boxes for sale |
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| Huge music box cum doll house |
The attraction that attracted us most was the Kawaguchiko Music Forest. It is said to be beautiful during Sakura season, too bad we were slightly too early for that. The Mt Kachi Kachi Ropeway was also interesting but again, was better viewed during Sakura season.
The Music Forest was still full of interesting Victorian style buildings and was essentially a music box museum. There was a performance hall and a giant music box cum doll house where the dolls will move when the music is activated.
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| Mt Fuji from the Music Forest |
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| Wedding Chapel from the outside |
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| Cappuccino |
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| Ice Cream Sundae |
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| Strawberry Shortcake |
While we were walking around the Music Forest, we were seduced by the pictures of the desserts on offer by the Cafe. Everything was delicious, the fresh, sweet strawberries helped. The cake was very light and fluffy.
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| 100 year old music box |
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| Victorian Ornament |
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| One of the earliest music boxes |
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| Self-playing violin |
Located in the Music Forest is a museum with many antique music boxes. They also sell many kinds of music boxes, including some costing a few thousand Singapore dollars!
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| Bus up to Kawaguchiko fifth station |
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| Kawaguchiko fourth station |
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| Rest station |
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| Japanese Yong Tau Foo |
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| Snowing like mad! |
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| Road to fifth station closed! |
Our next stop is at the Kawaguchiko fifth station but we were informed by the bus driver that due to bad weather, our last stop would have to be at the fourth station. Bet the rest station owner didn't have as many guests before!. We had a quick snack, bought some Japanese Yong Tau Foo and headed back as our bus was the last bus down. Even the rest station owner closed shop.
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| Hoto Fudo |
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| Traditional design |
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| Logo |
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| Menu |
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| Hoto Noodles |
Our lunch today is Hoto Noodles, the dish consists of thick wheat noodles served in an iron pot. It resembles extra thick udon
noodles. The soup is a miso
based broth with pumpkin and other seasonal vegetables added. There is no meat. This is a dish local to Yamanashi Prefecture.
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| Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro room |
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| Hokkaido corn |
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| BBQ beef set |
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| Fresh prawns |
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| Ika |
It took the whole afternoon to travel to Shinjuku from Kawaguchiko station. The best way is by coach. Train rides will need a transfer and the luggage would be a problem.
We stayed at Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro which cost us about $130 SGD. Its about 8 walk from one of the Ikebukuro station exits. The entrance is in an alley but it's well lit and there's a 24 hour cafe at the first floor.
The hotel rooms were as small as Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku but not near as nice. The hotel lobby was cramped and only had one lift, it was more like a backpacker's hotel. The toilet bowl's seat warmer and bidet function was disabled and the hot water wasn't sufficient to supply both the shower and the sink. That is, if someone's taking a bath, only wash your hands if u hate them!
I would not recommend anyone to stay nor stay here again another time.
Our dinner was at a Korean BBQ restaurant near the hotel. Don't ask me why we had korean food in Japan! And the food was ordinary too -_-! However, it was much cheaper than if one was to have the same food in Singapore. Either the reports of Tokyo being an expensive city were exaggerated or Singapore has become very expensive.
On hindsight, Tokyo may be expensive but at least their pay is high. Singapore is expensive yet our pay is low. Sighz.. And of course only a certain elite class of Singaporeans have salaries rising as fast as our hyper inflation.
