Hisago & Onsen
Heading to Fuji by coach today so leaving Sakura Hotel. The bus depot we have to wait at (for what seemed like forever) was an incredibly depressing place. Our coach was nice enough though & we had allocated seats right at the back. I sat by the window with Chris, Christine & Matt sat together, & Kayla sat next to a random girl. It took just over two hours was a pleasant enough journey with some nice scenery. However, when we got to Kawaguchiko station & off the coach, no one had thought about how we wold get from there to the hotel. There weren't any large taxi's to have all five of us & our luggage, & the only large taxi there was wouldn't take us because there were other (smaller) taxi's in front of him; but we wouldn't have been able to fit in them. No logic.
I went to the tourist information centre & asked in there how to get to the hotel & the woman in there said there would be a free shuttle bus. After what felt like hours at the station (was only about 45 minutes), the shuttle bus arrived & took us to our hotel.
Fuji View Hotel i lovely & the staff are amazing. They got the suitcase out of the bus & brought them into the hotel for us, took them to our rooms. The room are traditional Japanese rooms, with sliding doors, tables & chairs with no legs so you technically sit on the floor, slippers to wear as no shoes allowed, even special toilet slippers for the bathroom! There was a round box on the table with a traditional tea set, & the maids come into the room between 6pm & 8pm to make the bed up as it's a futon bed on the floor that shares the space of the table. There are yukata to wear to the onsen too.
After we'd had a look around the place & decided not to spend ¥6000+ per person for dinner in the hotel, so walked 500 yards to a small restaurant called Hisago (ひさご食堂). It doesn't look like a restaurant from the outside - or the inside, to be honest - & appears to be run by a man & woman. It was pretty busy but there was a table for six so we grabbed that. The woman gave us a small menu with English names in brackets (very helpful) & we ended up choosing a huge range of dishes to share & had some type of plum wine to go with it. The food was amazing! So full of flavour & such good-sized portions that we all struggled to finish. The bill came to ¥6350 - the same price for just one person back at the hotel & we wouldn't have had the same experience.
We stopped in a corner shop on the way back, called 'Bread & Food', & bought some snacks, then once back at the hotel, we had some tea in Christine's room then went to try out the onsen. Matt, Chris, Kayla, & I went as Christine was too tired. The onsen is cool but there are so many rules! We went late so as to make sure it wasn't going to be too busy as it's against the rules to have tattoos & people can get turned away, but because it was 10:30pm, I managed to get away with it. You go down to the onsen in a yukata (which is like a very casual kimono) & slippers. You have to take the slippers off before you enter the changing area, & they provide you with little stickers to write your name or room number on & stick to your slippers (because they're all the same). Once in the changing room, you get a small wicker bucket to put your towel & yukata in, & then you're completely naked. You have a small hand/face towel that you can take in with you though. once in, you have to completely wash yourself from head to toe, washing hair as well, then you get into one of the baths. There were three baths in this hotel - a small one that bubbled like a hot tub, a larger one indoors that was still, & one outdoors. There was also a cold bath next to the sauna, & Kayla & I tried all of them! After you've relaxed in the baths for a bit & are ready to leave, you're meant to wash yourself completely again, but by watching others, that seems to be something optional.
