Three days of non stop walking and looking and listening and translating and more walking – today is a rest day.

We’re still at Kawaguchiko Lake and so far we’ve been a bit disappointed with Mt Fuji’s performance…..

Then we woke up to this:

Apparently the reflection can only be seen 100 days in the year, so we were very lucky.  I’m still trying to work out how to photoshop some cherry blossoms onto that tree there then it would have been perfect!

There was a distinct chill in the air, but we popped on our lounging attire and ventured out onto the verandah to sip our green matcha tea and stare at Mt Fuji.  There were plenty of people walking around the lake to take photos and most of them looked up to us and waved – calling out “Hello, Konichiwa”.  I can’t imagine Liz and Phil wearing lounge suits, but I assume this is how they feel on their balcony.

We wandered around the lake taking a photo from every angle possible whilst the clouds were at bay.

Every so often just stopping to contemplate

and marvel at audacity of the people at the end of the jetty who clearly couldn’t read English!  Or Japanese!  We’ve been getting very good at reading the Japanese characters – we know that the second one from the left means entrance or enter – so even without knowing the rest of the symbols, you’d guess the sign had something to do with entering – maybe it meant, enter from around the sides please….. except that underneath in capitals it says KEEP OUT.

Here are some sights from our walk along the lake…

Somebody’s house/garden?

The steps up to a shrine.  We know this because as we got there a chap was coming down the stairs and he showed us what he’d taken a photo of whilst he was up there.

A sign on the path telling us that there was a bridge up ahead.

See – our reading of Japanese is astounding!

A couple of people clearly enjoying what Mt Fuji has to offer…

We watched this chap climb over the railing and thought he looked a bit dodgy with the tag still on his hat – thinking, he’s obviously just pinched that – shows how cynical we are…. it turns out that the tag on his hat was a fishing licence of some sort, as we saw a lot of people with the same thing.  Either that or there was a big run on stolen beanies.  We felt a little guilty thinking the worst of someone we didn’t know, especially because when we went past he said “Ciao” obviously thinking that we were Italian and probably suave an stylish, etc….  Probably didn’t help to keep up the illusion when we said ‘Konichiwa” in our best Australian trying to speak Japanese accent!

Even though the cherry blossoms aren’t completely out yet, there are a few trees that just couldn’t wait for the others.

This is a special (and discrete) way of training a tree, like a bonsai.

Now this chap – we don’t know who he is or why here’s there, there wasn’t even a sign in Japanese for us to decipher, but since he’s in the car park and next to the “resort parking” sign, I’m guessing he’s a kind of inspector?

I wonder how much you pay for parking your tractor in the resort parking?

This is where you store all your outboard motors and batteries

And this is where you might think about storing your canoe for safe keeping.

Now…. for the squeamish amongst you – bypass this next photo, but for those who are completely intrigued, as clearly I was this lady is ‘catching’ her dog’s ‘doings’ in her hand….. let me say that again – she is catching the ‘doings’ in her hand (note: the hand was gloved with a bag)  When I asked Jenny why on Earth you would do that, Jenny replied “She’s just cutting out the middle man” – the middle man being the ground.  Ok – moving on, I’m feeling a little bilious just typing about it.  I’m sorry.

A couple of little blossoms we found in a rose garden along our walk…

These next two houses really made the most of the lake view with their windowless walls

At least this one has a roof terrace

Some more vending machine treats.  Pocari Sweat anyone?

Or perhaps some sake or wasabi flavoured kitkats?

In amongst the reeds and the abandoned boats there was a VW peddle car with a koala on the front – talk about random!

Here’s another storage place for your canoe when it’s not in use.

Now, who remembers where we parked the canoe?