Big in Japan 2005 - Day 4
This morning, we travelled on the road for 2 hours to Mount Fuji. This 2 hours spent on the road is very relaxing thanks to our driver who drives very smoothly. In fact as I noticed, most japanese drives very courteously and steadily on the road. We were told that this could be due to the very strict traffic ruling. In fact, it is very difficult for them to attain their driving licenses as well. Do you know that japanese do not have identity cards? Their best form of identification is their driving license, which could save them the hassle of going down to the local municipal to get documentation proof when they are getting employment.

Enough said, back to our trip. Mount Fuji is well loved by Japanese as it is symbolic to them. Mountains in Japan has gender and Mount Fuji is a 'she' mountain. She tends to be elusive and our tour guide explains that she is only viewable for 75 days in a year. Unfortunately during our stay, we are not in those 75 days. We only managed to see her silhouette from far. A sad rumour which we heard about Mount Fuji is that she is due to erupt. Historical records showed that she blow her top every 300 years and the last known time of eruption is in 1706. That last eruption causd 5 lakes to be formed. (Lake Ashinoko being one of them). Unfortunately, even with modern technologies, there is no accurate way to predict a volcano eruption. The best warning system they have used is to station a lot of CCTVs to monitor the natural habitats of the wildlife in the mountains. Should there be any sign of unusual activity among the wildlife, it may be an indication and the people living within the central prefectures may be evacuated. Today we are on our way to the 5th step of Mount Fuji. On our way we passed by the infamous 'Black Forest'. This is a creepy columns of trees and we were briefed that a lot of Japanese committed suicide in this forest. As this area is near the area with seismic activity, compasses do not work. People who wants to leave the world just need to step right in. There is an annual forest cleaning activity whereby volunteers would sweep across the forest. More often than not, they will discover dead bodies. In fact, this forest has grown to be so 'popular' with people seeking death that the government placed a lot of counselling lines at all entrance of the forest. These lines are 24 hours manned by professional consellers whom will help to dissuade the potential victims who picked up the lines. This tactic has effectively helped to lower the incident rate.

We visited the souveneir shop at the 5th step. The toilets there have no flushing capability as water is precious and 'bio-waste' are chemically cleansed away. If you are interested in the red-bean mo-chii, this is the place to purchase them as both my wife and I find them nicest here. Afterwhich, we spend most of our time outdoor hapily snapping the beautiful scenery. Noticed that some of the leaves have also reddened due to the colder temperature at the highland.

After a quick lunch, we were rushed to the other side of the lake Ashi to take a short 10 mins cruise around the beautiful lake. As it was drizzling, the cruise itself is not that interesting.
After the cruise, we were brought to Owakudani Valley. It is an area filled with heavy sulphuric smell due to the heated water from the volcanic activity in the vicinity. From where the coach is parked, we have to climb a extremely long flight of steps to reach the top of the valley where there is an eating area which sells eggs cooked from the steam of the heated water. It is sooted black and taste just like normal hard boiled egg. The locals have rumours stating that eating such an egg can increase your lifespan by 7 years. Haha, we were treated to one by our fellow tour members (Thanx Ernest and partner!).

After a long day, we were off to the hot spring spa hotel. We were really excited when we open the hotel door. It remind us of Doraemon (Xiao Ting Dang) house. We would be sleeping on tatami. The entire tour group put on the hotel yukata and we were treated to a sumptuous japanese steamboat dinner.In this traditional japanese inn, yukata are allowed around the hotel as well as to the shops outside the hotel. We had a very good sleep after the relaxing hot spring spa.