Short holiday in Japan...
We begin our holiday visiting the Fuji-san (Mount Fuji). The Shinkansen (bullet train) took around two hours and half until we arrive at Mishima Station, but from Shizuoka Station is already possible see the Fuji-san, the highest mountain in Japan.
Mt. Fuji stands at 12,388ft/3,776m high and is surrounded by five lakes: Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Yamanaka, Lake Sai, Lake Motosu and Lake Shoji. They, and nearby Lake Ashi, provide excellent views of the mountain. It is part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu Nacional Park. It is also an active stratovolcano. Unfortunately we could not climb the mount 'cause now it is closed, there is a lot of snow and it is very dangerous to climb it. It is only allowed to climb the Mount Fuji in summer (from July 1 to August 27).
Well, from Mishima Station, we took the Fujikyu bus and almost 2 hours later we arrived at the Kawaguchiko Station. We called the hotel and they picked us up at the station. The landscape through the way to the hotel was fantastic and the hotel localization is perfect. The hotel is in front of the Lake Kawaguchi (just 5 minutes from the station) and from our room, we could appreciate not only the lake but also the Mount Fuji all the time.
Mont Fuji - Big Budha - Asakusa - Imperial Palace (Tokyo)
After we spent 2 days around Mount Fuji, we took the train to Yokohama direction, but our intention was to visit the big Budha in Kamakura city, close to Yokohama. The target was reached almost 3 hours later! We took the train from Kawaguchiko Station, but we had to change the train several times... thus that we arrive in Yokohama, we had a lunch and relaxed a little bit. We leave the luggages in the locker and we took the train to Kamakura Station.
Kamakura is a cute small city, famous because of the deverse Temples, gardens, flowers, of the great Budha and beach. If the day is clean, you can see the Mount Fuji from the beach. We had a nice time in Kamakura. After visit not so many places in Kamakura, we went back to Yokohama Station to take the luggages and took the train to Tokyo Station.
On the next day, we woke up early and went to visit the Imperial Palace. We could not go inside the Palace because it is open to visit only twice a year (on January 2 - New Year's Greeting and December 23 - Emperor's Birthday), you are able to enter the inner palace grounds and see the members of the Imperial Family.
After that we went to Asakusa, which is one of the districts and it has preserved a certain atmosphere of the old Tokyo. We saw the Sensoji Temple, the Asakusa Shrine, etc. We did a nice Sumida River sightseeing Cruise until Hama Rikyu Garden. Then we went to Akihabara, the shopping district for discount electronics - Amazing!!
On Sunday, we went to Odaiba district. Among the attractions of Odaiba are several shopping and entertainment centers, theme parks, museums and the futuristic architecture and city planning, really nice!
