Japan Trip: Kachi Kachi Ropeway

One of the place that should be visited if you stay around Kawaguchiko lake is Kachi Kachi Ropeway. This Ropeway is like a cable car from Kawaguchiko lake to near the peak of Mount Tenjo. The round trip ticket is 700 yen. One trip can bring about 36 peoples.

kachi kachi ropeway ticket

peoples were queuing to get into the cable car

After taking the ropeway, we then arrived in mount Tenjo. From here we can have view of the lake. If the weather was clear, we could also see mount Fuji from here. At the day me and my traveling partner came her, we saw many old people and families came here. There also some people who brought their dogs to here.

view of Kawaguchiko lake after arrived at mount Tenjo

lovely old couple

binoculars to see mount Fuji from here

rocker dog

another dog with shirt

If you came here, you can see many rabbits and raccoon statues everywhere. This rabbits and raccoon are the character of story "Kachi Kachi Yama". That story was set in mount Tenjo and described about a story of a rabbit who gets revenge on a thieving tanuki (Japanese raccoon) by setting him on fire and drowning him in a river.

rabbit and raccoon

another rabbit statue

There was souvenirs shop above here, besides souvenirs, they sold rice cake with Mount Fuji stamp and hot ocha. The taste was so so, maybe because we're not fans of rice cakes.

the rice cake seller

after covered with sauce

Other interesting spots in here are bell of Tenjo, mount Fuji plush doll, and Lucky Kawarake. If the weather was clear we can see mount Fuji from the heart frame of the bell of Tenjo. Some people said that your wish will come true if you ring the bell while watching mount Fuji. About the Lucky Kawarake, if you can throw Kawarake (earthenware) through the ring then it'll bring some luck to you. Three piece of kawarake to be thrown was priced 100 yen.

bell of Tenjo

mount Fuji plush doll

lucky kawarake

they even have a worship place above here

One thing that touched my heart was when we took the ropeway down, the officer bow to the visitor. Feels like she really thanked us for our visitation. :)

queuing to get back to Kawaguchiko lake

my favorite scene

XOXO,
The Tourist

Japan Trip: Cycling around Kawaguchiko Lake

Kawaguchiko lake is vast, one way to enjoy it is by cycling around it. Me and my traveling partner rented bicycle in the bicycle rental near Kawaguchiko station. If I'm not mistaken, we paid 800 yen for 2 hours for 2 bikes.

the bicycle rental is in the building with red roof

We started to went downhill to reach the Kawaguchiko lake and then we arrived at the lake side with a sign board named Kawaguchiko lake. I guess Kawaguchiko is one of the tourism spots in Japan, because there were plenty parking area in there, especially for buses. From the parking lot, we could also see Kachi-Kachi Ropeway from down here.

in front of Kawaguchiko Lake sign board

Kawaguchiko lake parking area. The cable on the hill is for Kachi-Kachi Ropeway.

At that time the autumn leaves already bright orange, so the view were so beautiful. We didn't need to worry to cycling in the main street together with buses and cars, because there are special route that were dedicated to pedestrian and bicyclist.

autumn leaves are everywhere

Around the lake, we could see many hotels in the lake side. Most of them looks like old buildings.

lake side

At first we intended to cycling around the full Kawaguchiko lake, but since it would take more than two hours (because we stopped and took photos a lot), we decided to cycle around half of Kawaguchiko lake, and crossed the lake through the bridge.

crossing the bridge

a boat crossing Kawaguchiko lake

cycling back to the bicycle rental

We managed to get back to the bicycle rental before 2 hours, which means we had to climb the ascending road in a hurry. I rarely cycling, so I had to struggle cycling through ascending road and just a few minutes later I gave up and decided to get down from my bicycle and dragged my bicycle until the flat road. Finally we arrived at the rental 5 minutes before 2 hours, so we didn't need to pay for late penalty. Hooray!


XOXO,
The Tourist

Japan Trip: Travelling with Shinkansen + Kawaguchi Station at Twilight

One of my to-do list during my stay in japan was to try traveling with Shinkansen, and happily my itinerary required me to take Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. Osaka to Tokyo is about 500 km, almost similar length with Jakarta to Jogjakarta, which usually took 8 hours using Indonesian executive train, but using Shinkansen, it only took me 2 and a half hour. Really save lots of time.

I spent 11 days in Japan, for transportation I used 3 days Kansai Pass, 7 days Japan Rail Pass, and 1 day without any pass. Japan Rail Pass covers travel using Shinkansen, and because the price for taking a shinkansen and its reserved seat were not cheap, I managed my trip so 3 of my Shinkansen trip can be covered by Japan Rail Pass. Actually I bought this rail pass in Jakarta, then exchanged it in Kansai Airport.

If you used Japan Rail Pass, please note that you have to reserve your seat prior your travel time. And because this is different with other people who bought the Shinkansen ticket (without having Japan Rail Pass first), you had to enter to the gate that have locket/officer at it, and you need to show your seat reservation and Japan Rail Pass tickets to him so you can enter  the gate. Please DON'T insert your reservation ticket to the ticket machine (like the locals do to enter the gate), because it won't come out again (the locals ticket come out from the machine, so they can insert it again in the destination gate). My traveling friend inserted the ticket to the machine and then we panicked because the gate didn't want to open while the ticket didn't come out from the machine. The officer in there helped us to get the inserted ticket back but he couldn't find his ticket. So, in order to avoid the queue, he gave us a letter to be shown to the officer in the destination's gate. 

Japan Rail Pass and Shinkansen's Reserve Seat Ticket

the reserve seat letter to be shown to the officer at destination station

The shinkansen train model that I used for travel was N700. It’s the newest version that was being used in Japan. Lately I saw a review of N700 in discovery channel, I'm so happy to see that I ever travelled using this train. The interior is actually like a normal executive train, three seats on left side and three seats on the right side in every row. At least that what I saw in the ordinary class. I don’t know how it looks in the green car, only know that it has wider seats, two seats in each sides, and, of course, more pricey.

in front of Shinkansen N700 model

From inside the train, traveled with shinkansen was felt like travelling with regular train, I didn't feel we went fast at all. But remembering how many hours I saved, then I realized this train was not as slow as I thought. Of course, people from outside the train seen this train went so fast.

After arrived to Tokyo Station, we continue our destination to Kawaguchiko station. We had to continue our journey using JR Chuo Special Rapid Service, and continue with JR Chuo Line (the slower one) and finally took Fujikyu Railway Fujisan Ltd. Exp. Even though Fujikyu Railway was not covered by Japan Rail Pass, but it was the only train that can took us to our destination, Kawaguchiko Station. The traveled took us almost 3 hours. It was a long journey but felt so hommy like going to your grandma's house in the village. The temperature started to drop when we traveled by Chuo Line and Fujikyu Railway, but fortunately the train had heater under our seat, so we remained warm during our travel.

inside fujikyu railway train

We arrived at Kawaguchiko at afternoon. Lucky us because we can see the beautiful Mount Fuji from the station. I could not help my self not to take the pict of Mount Fuji. No words can explain how beautiful and glorious Mount Fuji is.

Kawaguchiko station is look classic, but because the theme was Mount Fuji, so you can see a train with cute mount fuji picture on its wall, and you can also see some cones shaped like Mount Fuji in various expression. Even thought this station look classic, but its a tourist-friendly station, because you can find tourist information here and the retro bus and local bus stops at this station.

in front fuji-themed train

cute fuji-themed cones

Thomas Land-themed train. This train is a child-friendly train where you can pretend to be a little machinist, complete with the little machinist cap and steering wheel.

ticketing machine

just a regular payphone

Tourists were queuing to enter retro bus 

directions

in front of Kawaguchiko station and mount Fuji at twilight 

Because of its uphill location, the temperature started to drop even more at twilight and night. So after eating hoto noodles near station, we ran to our lodging, since needed to hurry up and we could not walk because we could not stand the cold weather.  

XOXO,

The Tourist