Day 120 - Fuji

Went to Fuji with Tamarra today. Started with a lot of very strong frustration. Got to the station on time, but she was late. Wanted Krispy Kreme, but it wasn't open til 8. Went the wrong way for our bus and ended up getting to the correct station 4 minutes late. But after that it was mostly fine. Managed to talk the guys at the counter to stick us on the next bus. Didn't end up sitting side-by-side, but way better than waiting another two hours. Watched Sherlock on the way there. Season 2 Episode 1. Fantastic. My arm fell asleep holding up the screen. Oh well.

We actually ended up in Kawaguchicho, two stops down from the Fuji station. All the better. We were actually there to see some caves left from collapsed lava tubes from forever ago. Two of the ones we went to were called the Water cave and the Ice cave. Very original. But fantastic. It was lovely and cool. Recently been in the lower 20ºC, but here it was 0º~3ºC. Bracingly chill. And beautiful the ice in these caves was really just so beautiful.

Went to the bat caves afterwords. I hadn't been sure what to really expect. Got more cold. A little bit of a stink. It was another lava tube, but this one was much narrower at points. Couldn't go through some of it. But fun nonetheless.

Headed back to the station and since we still had time, took the quick two stops to Fuji station. Unfortunately, it was getting to be rather overcast at that point and I'd only gotten a measly half-shaded photo of fuji from a moving bus. Hopefully it'll turn out okay. On the way to the Fuji station is this place called Fuji Q. It's an amusement park. Didn't have time to go. Or the will power. By that point I was fairly well exhausted. But next time I'm in Japan… I'll go there, for sure. Looks like lots of fun.

Didn't end up leaving the station at Fuji station. Was too cloudy and didn't want to have to spend more to get back. So just took the train back. Was getting kinda silly with exhaustion at that point. Went to get some sustenance at the local 7&i, and sat waiting for our bus. Which was 10min late. Without a single apology. SOOOOOO FRUSTRATING.

Anyway, got back to Shinjuku in about an hour and a half. Those busses are pretty good time-wise, usually. It was kinda nice. Thought about getting Krispy Kreme on the way back, since we'd finally found the store, but decided against it. Felt a little car sick and sick in general after such a long day.

First thing I did when I got home was take a shower. Had so much cave on me. :( It was lovely and relaxing. The bath was also full, but I wasn't sure, so I left off. Kinda wishing I'd gotten in now. Oh well. Had an awkward conversation with my host mom about trying to cancel Japanese insurance. The headache I've had all day hit its bursting point. So now I'm upstairs. I might go on my own tomorrow to deal with insurance. Don't know for sure yet. Depends on how I'm feeling tomorrow. Anyway, that's it for today. Fuck, I'm exhausted. So glad I didn't actually even try to climb that thing. I can't imagine…