Results tagged “theme parks” from little lost tokyo :: travel blog
I spent three nights at this great little tourist spot. I say little, but of course Mt. Fuji is Japan's largest mountain and at this time of year was still capped with its famous snowy top.
I stayed around Kawaguchiko, one of the five lakes that scatter the flat basin in which Fuji resides. Although you couldn't see it from the hostel, a short walk around a clump of trees saw the monstrously sized mountain standing over the entire horizon. It seemed particularly intimidating and beautiful (I do realise I've used that word a lot on this blog) even though it is far from being the tallest in the world; maybe its down to it's symmetry of shape or the fact that it stands alone with no other mountains to contend its shear presence. Whatever the reason, you just can't help but look at it every time a tree line breaks, or it pokes just over a ridge, or a concrete jungle recedes and reveals the perfect cone.
Travelling up to the fifth station by bus (I would be severely under-equipped for such a hike before anyone asks) took an hour winding back and forth around the hillside of Fuji-san. Arriving at the station you are greeted by a gaudy faux-swiss cabin pandering to the tourists (the Japanese ones more than anything I think). After marveling at being so close and wandering around the gift shop there isn't much to do but head back down. I'm sure that at the height of summer when the upper half of the mountain is open it will be brimming with activity but for the moment I think the best way to enjoy Fuji is from afar where you can get pictures of it reflecting in the lakes - when it's not surrounded by cloud!
I found out while I was there that Fujikyu Highland, a theme park just a five minute train ride away and one you have to pass on your way to Kawaguchiko, has the worlds highest 4D rollercoaster that holds a world record for the most number of inversions. For those trying to work out the physics of a 4D rollercoaster, it is one where the seats rotate independently of the car that moves along the track and as a result this one, where the track only inverts three times, inverts the riders 14 times during the course of the experience.
Needless to say, since the weather was cooling off by this point and the wind was picking up a bit, I decided to spend the afternoon at the park - the coasters offered superb views of the mountain before you were plunged over the top.
They also had an awesome haunted house based on a derelict hospital just like those from a Japanese horror movie.
The next day I got up early and rented a bike from the hostel and thankfully, unlike the one I rented back in Nagasaki, this one was a mountain bike with actual gears! (Shock! Horror!) I cycled around two of the five lakes and visited a Lava cave and an Ice cave - I missed the Bat cave because it wasn't sign posted as such near the site, despite the whole route around the second lake being littered with signs for the 'Bat Cave' - where I met an American that taught English and his Japanese friend who were visiting the Lava Cave because the forest in which it was located was has the highest suicide rate of all of Japan. It was mentioned in a novel I think a while back and ever since has had a following of youths who come here to kill themselves.
This girls shoes made it though the cave, even later on when it turn more into pot-holing and the floor icy.
And that was Fuji-san. Oh, I went over the handlebars of the bike once (I braked too hard after my dad's camera leap from the moving vehicle - at first I thought I'd run over a stick from the sound of it hitting the ground. Don't worry it's in perfect working order, although I did loose the two AA batteries) but I was fine, it was more the aching muscles from a day of cycling that I was concerned with.
I stayed around Kawaguchiko, one of the five lakes that scatter the flat basin in which Fuji resides. Although you couldn't see it from the hostel, a short walk around a clump of trees saw the monstrously sized mountain standing over the entire horizon. It seemed particularly intimidating and beautiful (I do realise I've used that word a lot on this blog) even though it is far from being the tallest in the world; maybe its down to it's symmetry of shape or the fact that it stands alone with no other mountains to contend its shear presence. Whatever the reason, you just can't help but look at it every time a tree line breaks, or it pokes just over a ridge, or a concrete jungle recedes and reveals the perfect cone.
Travelling up to the fifth station by bus (I would be severely under-equipped for such a hike before anyone asks) took an hour winding back and forth around the hillside of Fuji-san. Arriving at the station you are greeted by a gaudy faux-swiss cabin pandering to the tourists (the Japanese ones more than anything I think). After marveling at being so close and wandering around the gift shop there isn't much to do but head back down. I'm sure that at the height of summer when the upper half of the mountain is open it will be brimming with activity but for the moment I think the best way to enjoy Fuji is from afar where you can get pictures of it reflecting in the lakes - when it's not surrounded by cloud!
I found out while I was there that Fujikyu Highland, a theme park just a five minute train ride away and one you have to pass on your way to Kawaguchiko, has the worlds highest 4D rollercoaster that holds a world record for the most number of inversions. For those trying to work out the physics of a 4D rollercoaster, it is one where the seats rotate independently of the car that moves along the track and as a result this one, where the track only inverts three times, inverts the riders 14 times during the course of the experience.
Needless to say, since the weather was cooling off by this point and the wind was picking up a bit, I decided to spend the afternoon at the park - the coasters offered superb views of the mountain before you were plunged over the top.
They also had an awesome haunted house based on a derelict hospital just like those from a Japanese horror movie.The next day I got up early and rented a bike from the hostel and thankfully, unlike the one I rented back in Nagasaki, this one was a mountain bike with actual gears! (Shock! Horror!) I cycled around two of the five lakes and visited a Lava cave and an Ice cave - I missed the Bat cave because it wasn't sign posted as such near the site, despite the whole route around the second lake being littered with signs for the 'Bat Cave' - where I met an American that taught English and his Japanese friend who were visiting the Lava Cave because the forest in which it was located was has the highest suicide rate of all of Japan. It was mentioned in a novel I think a while back and ever since has had a following of youths who come here to kill themselves.
This girls shoes made it though the cave, even later on when it turn more into pot-holing and the floor icy.
And that was Fuji-san. Oh, I went over the handlebars of the bike once (I braked too hard after my dad's camera leap from the moving vehicle - at first I thought I'd run over a stick from the sound of it hitting the ground. Don't worry it's in perfect working order, although I did loose the two AA batteries) but I was fine, it was more the aching muscles from a day of cycling that I was concerned with.
