Winter in Japan Part 2: Mount Fuji and Hakone

Part 2 of my very belated post on my trip to Japan earlier in the year. 


My siblings and I haven't been on a trip with my parents in a long time because my parents are generally more interested in slow and well planned out tour groups while my brothers and I prefer to stumble, wander and discover (believe me my parents were not thrilled when we walked for blocks and blocks trying to scout for restaurants to have dinner in... to the point when my daddy said *grumpily* if i don't eat soon I will die). 


So in order to treat them to something that they much prefer to do (and also we went on this tour on our last visit and enjoyed it heaps), we joined a guided tour to Mount Fuji and Hakone. We were picked up from out hotel and were on a bus the whole way... which made my parents rather happy I would say.

I don't exactly remember what these were.. but i think they were the rocks that Mount Fuji spitted out when it was erupting. I have zero knowledge on this so please don't believe what I say. Just google if you are curious....

We were so lucky to have been able to see Mount fuji from afar due to the nice weather. Mount Fuji is apparently very shy and it decides to hide all the time, especially during winter. But on both of my visits (both during winter), it came out to greet me. I should shamelessly say that Mount Fuji loves me~~~

Timberlands for the win!!! Five out of six shoes shown are timberlands~~ I kinda convinced my parents and brother that they should really get it because we would be going to Hokkaido and would no doubt be trotting around in snow, and Timberlands were the shoes for it (Timberlands should give me commission.... I reckon I am a pretty good salesperson).


Gucci or any designer shoes *ahem.. the white pair* were not made to be worn in snowy weather. It would only do 2 things to kill you.  First, it would get soaked and start to develop an odour to suffocate you. Or it would get so slippery that you would fall and slip to your death in the snow.

Eyebags alert!!! One of the few camwhore photos of me on this trip. Ok... I am a horrible blogger. The weather was nice, place was nice and I didn't camwhore. I actually hated my hair colour in the sunlight *excuses excuses*.. but yah.. I hate it when my hair looks orange, but it always turn orange after a while and I don't want to re-dye it all the time. 

So the weather was nice enough that we could drive up to Station 4. I wanted to touch the tip of Mount Fuji. It looked so fluffy フワフワみたい！！

Another view from station 4. So picture perfect.

Next up was the cruise on Lake Ashi. The lake was so freaking huge!!! And the water was so clear and blue. 

So pretty!!

It was freezing, I felt like the wind was stabbing my face. But I had to camwhote with my dad cause he looked so cute all wrapped up.

This reminded me a little of Spirited Away. 

The building with the green roof was some very famous hotel/ onsen resort in the area. Lots of famous people had been there but my horrible memory decided to remember none of them....

We then took a cable car ride to the observatory deck that overlooked the lake. The view was absolutely breathtaking. 

The photo is a little blurry because I took this in the cable car ride on our way down. I thought this looked so fake.. almost like the little model town they show you in museums. I wonder what are these little huts used for?

Next up. Dinner time. I realized I always have so many photos of food...... Anyways, this cucumber and cabbage are free appetisers. And they tasted so freaking good!!!!! Not a tiny bit of bitterness or the raw-and-grassy taste, it was just sweet and crunchy and fresh. It was served with the restaurant's signature miso, when the sweetness of the vegies were paired with the fragrant and savoury miso... it was a symphony in my mouth. *faints*

Did I mention that I love to drink? This drink is awesome!! my brother ordered it so i didn't know what it was. But it tastes like a sweet and milky sake. The orange sauce was like a fruit syrup. I was in love~~

Do you know that when chicken are reared properly they are safe to be eaten raw? That was what the menu said but I really couldn't bring myself to try it. I was talking to the waiter in my ridiculously broken japanese and he asked if I would like to try chicken sashimi. My first reaction:"Nama tori? (raw chicken) dame desune.....". We tried this instead, seared chicken. And it was really seared, you can literally see the pinkish raw-ish flesh in the middle. BUT, it was once again amazing (oh japan.. you never fail to please my tastebuds). It was so tender and juicy, with a hint of smokiness from the searing with just the right amount of saltiness. 


The very cute waiter also gave us this heart-shaped miso. So sweet!!! 

*drumroll* this was the champion dish of the trip. When we got home, we voted for one dish that we would want to eat again right that moment and this dish received 2 out of 4 votes. Amazingly tender fried chicken pieces (tori karaage) with the most creamy and awesome sauce on earth. I would fly back to Japan just for this... and maybe a little shopping at shibuya.

Tsuke-men. Dip noodles? Anyways, you get a bowl of extremely concentrated chicken soup and you simply dip the noodles in the soup. You would think that the flavour would not be too intense right? WRONG!!! I have never tasted anything that held that much chicken flavour. And look at the perfect onsen tamago (the perfectly cooked egg) and chasiu (roasted pork belly). 

Steamed tofu. I was not all that excited about this when my brother decided to order it. I like very strong and intense flavour in my food and I don't normally like tofu (the ones that I tried in Malaysia and Australia are typically just kinda rough and taste bland and even slightly sour at times). But now I know when tofu was invented the inventor meant for tofu to taste like this...... soft and silky, with the intense soy bean flavour, with  just a tad of seasalt to season.

Before we left the restaurant, I left our mark on the "where did you come from board". We were the first Malaysians in this restaurants. I felt like a pioneer. 


This is it for part 2. I made the photos a little bigger because I think that the previous size was a little too small perhaps? and also I realized I am really much better at writing food posts. 


p/s forgive any grammatical errors and incoherent thoughts in this post. I have not been feeling my best and I have not been able to sleep properly in a while so my cognitive abilities are severely hampered (and it's not like it was any good to begin with). Please bear with me for the time being.


Until next time. xoxo


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