Day 89 Mt Fuji & Me in a Good Mood

Feb 16 • Blog, Honshu • 2849 Views • 4 Comments

I was finally cycling to see Mt Fuji. Sure, I’d seen it many times during my airplane and shinkansen rides. But this was different. I was going to see it much, much closer. It is not an exaggeration to say that even a 30 second glimpse of her from the train is something everybody loves in this country. The symmetrical beauty with snow on top is the world-famous image of Japan that appears in many historical art as well. The gradual curve expanding to its surrounding is considered the symbol of an open-ended growth and prosperity. Well, that gorgeous, “prosperous” curve was to kill my knees and back after I left off Fuji City to cycle around to the other side of the mountain.

You may have noticed from my photos by now that many of the stunning sights in Japan are created by the abundance of water. Shiraito no taki, which translates to waterfall of white strings, was one of such breathtaking places. Since I saw the sign of the waterfall, I changed my route to cycle up into the woods to have a viewing on the way. On the uphill with heat, I stopped under the tree shade to have a bite of the orange that the owner of the small hotel in Fuji City gave me. As I took it out of my bag, I noticed a small something on the orange that made me smile. The lady had put a small cross-shaped incision on the orange skin so I could easily peel it with my hands. You know how messy it can be. What a kind and thoughtful gesture. A happy life is made up of a series of good, kind acts, even as small as this one, I thought.

An uphill always feels much longer in distance than it really is. I think the end must be so close, and there’s yet another slope. After some number of times of this experience in my tour, I decided not to speak out loud of my “ugh” feeling. Putting that negative energy into keeping my head down, pushing the pedal would get me to the goal that much faster (so I wanted to believe, anyway!).

Beautiful waterfall? Great. Sweaty cyclist? Hungry. Well, where there is water, there is fish (…most of the time). One of these yamame trouts was just what I needed after sweating up the hill. This salty, fluffy fish hot off the grill begged for a super cold, bubbly beer, but I held myself. I still had some good distance to cycle the rest of the day. (not to mention DUI)

Instead of a beer, I got a bottle of bubbly ramune. Ramune is an old school Japanese soda in a distinctly shaped glass bottle with a marble lid, which you push open with an accompanying small plastic piece. It was tricky to drink it when I was little, because the marble can block the mouth of the bottle if you don’t use the dented shape of the bottle well. The sound of the marble rolling around in the glass bottle adds to the fun experience of having this fizzy drink.

At the beginning of the day, Mt Fuji was completely in the clouds. I kept looking to my right, thinking that I may actually not be able to see her. She can be moody at times, not appearing at all for some travelers. But look, maybe she heard my wish. She decided to show up. I felt so lucky.

Oh, how pretty you are.

Cowberry ice cream, matching Sakura (my bike) in Asagiri-kougen (morning fog highlands – nice name) tasted even better with this spectacular view!

Around Mt Fuji, there are five lakes that create some magnificent views of the mountain. This was the first lake I came by – Lake Motosu.

The uphill I was on that day was not too steep, but gradual and went on and on till the end of the day. Sometimes it looked nearly flat, which messed with my head. I could not pick up my speed as much as I wanted to despite my effort.

Mt Fuji is shared by two prefectures, Shizuoka and Yamanashi, right on their border. Leaving Shizuoka side, I had Yamanashi’s Houtou nabe noodles at the end of the day. Now during my bike tour, you’ve seen Okinawa soba, Kagawa’s udon, Nagoya’s kishimen, and then this Houtou, in the order of the width of these flower based noodles. (This excludes buckwheat soba noodles and ramen egg noodles that are much thinner than any of these). I guess it’s like different sizes of Italian pasta.

The classic houtou is served with vegetables, particularly with kabocha pumpkins that add some sweetness (you see an orange piece in the pot?). The brown stuff on top is gobou, burdock root. The soup was miso based. When I was waiting for my noodles, I read that it was originally brought in by Chinese monks centuries ago. As I was reading that little story on the menu, I actually sat with female Chinese monks who were visiting Japan at the same table! This was a total coincidence. I’m not sure if the noodles tasted exactly like this back then, but it was warm, tasty and definitely filling. This is more of a winter dish, but it was a perfect way to end the day in the cool air of nearly 1000 meter altitude.

This post is also available in: Japanese

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