We knew this day would be again spent mostly on the trains. Thus we had a good breakfast before leaving Shin Osaka. We left before 8am and the temperature was only 3C. It was a short walk to the station from the hotel but in this cold weather, any extra minute spent outdoor was a torture to the face. We could cover every part of our body except the face.
From Shin Osaka, we took Hikari train to Shin Yokohama. From there, hop on the Yokohama line to Hachioji station. We took Limited Express Kaiji train to Otsuki station. This Otsuki station was real pathetic; it was small and humble despite it was sort of the gateway to Kawaguchiko. The private Fujikyu line runs between Otsuki and Kawaguchiko stations
By the time we reached Kawaguchiko station, it was 2pm. We did not see any people came to pick us up though prior arrangement has been made. Thus I called K House using a public phone with a 10 JPY coin. The staff arrived with a mini van at the station within 10 minutes. This hotel was quite a distance from the station despite the brochure said a 15 min walk.
Our room in K House was slightly bigger than that in Shin Osaka. It was a Japanese style room and we loved to sleep on the futon. There was free internet access which was a great help to travellers.
K House was located in a "residential' area where there were many other smaller ryokans and hostels. We were very surprised to find another Singaporean family living under the same roof that night when we were about to have our dinner at the dining area. The family was busy cooking noodles with vegetables and meat. We had instant noodles and bento again. There was a big supermarket within walking distance. We bought some food back.
Close to this supermarket, there was a MOS burger shop with a ramen shop under the same roof. We ate noodles there and we could see Mt Fuji when we ate!
Mt Fuji is really, really magnificient. At times, its peak was covered by clouds. We took plenty of photos on Mt Fuji at different times of the day. Its view never failed to impress us. At this time of travelling, the news reported 3 Japanese went to climb mt Fuji. Only 1 survived and the other 2 were dead. Mt Fuji took some lives each year. The sole survivor looked really sad and sorry.
We planned to buy Kawaguchiko View Coupon which covers both the lake cruise and cable car ride the next day.
The hotel staff "warned" us that the night temperature would drop to -6C and yes, it was already -2C outside.
From the news, heavy snow reported in northern Japan and the coast facing Sea of Japan. Heavy snow fell in Snow Monkey Park and from the webcam, I saw the whole park was white. In a way, we were glad that we were not there because we were simply not prepared for a heavy snow. Our shoes were not be able to handle such harsh conditions. And the long walk from Kokuya to Snow Monkey Park in this harsh condition would be impossible for us.
J decided to do an experiment. He placed a small cup of water at the balcony of our room overnight. We would find out what happened the next day.
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