Mythical Mount Fuji

In July 2019 we were together for roughly a month and I was ready to spend my next Christmas and New Year’s Eve somewhere else than at home with my family. I was doing this for 26 years. It was time for a change. Rob and I decided to leave Germany for this time of the year and go on our first adventure. We booked tickets for Japan and bought tickets for the Japan Railway. While we were touring through the country we had the idea to visit the region of Mount Fuji.

In Kyoto we looked for a room to stay for two nights and found the Samurai Guest House/Samurai Inn in Fujioshida. It is a traditional Japanese house with futons as beds and thin walls. From our window we had a great view on Mount Fuji. As we arrived in Fujioshida and found the guest house we were welcomed by two young men. One was welcoming us, but seemed distracted. The second one was in the kitchen and seemed stressed and worried as well. After the first guy told us everything we needed to know about the house the second guy came to us and told us, that our room was double booked for our second night. He gave us the opportunity to stay the second night and he would take in the guests to his family house or we would spend the second evening and night in his family house. He even offered us to participate in one of his traditional Japanese cooking lessons at the next day for free. Rob and I shared a glance. I knew it was up to me, because Rob would say yes. But he knew, I had a hard time staying with strangers in their home. In school I participated in a student exchange program for just two weeks. These two weeks were two of the worst in my whole life. In this case I put my whole trust in Rob. And said yes. Still, we declined the offer for the cooking lesson, because we would be away the whole time.

The night in the guesthouse turned out to be very cold, because in the region of Fuji we actually had winter. The rest of Japan was surprisingly warm with 8 to 12 °C. I like the traditional Japanese architecture, but that wasn’t enough insulation for me. Maybe it was making more sense in the hot, humid summers. In the room we had two futons to sleep on, but we took one together and were watching the things around us. There were two sets of traditional clothing and one small samurai puppet. And there was one more resident in the house: the kitten Takana.

In the morning, we were about to leave, little Takana tried to prevent us from leaving, by sitting on my arm and purring. We still left and headed to a nearby train station. Nearby meant, it was a fifteen-minutes-walk through the village. We came across a shrine, attached to a school, next to the cemetery. Everything with a great view on the Mount Fuji. We weren’t alone at the train station. There was a Japanese family with two children, a boy and a girl. It was around 2°C, but these two kids were begging for ice cream. While we were fooling around to keep us warm we made a short eye contact with the mother and smiling about her children. She than asked us were we are from and we had a little chat. She told us about the vacation she had with her husband before they had the kids and that he loved the wine of the Moselle region. Also, she told us, that the time around new year is family time in japan and people are spending it with their relatives or are going on little vacations like she and her family did.

Together we took the train to Kawaguchiko at the lake Kawaguchiko. The town reminded me on typical alpine towns of Europe. The woman told us about the people on vacation and we saw it the day before as we were heading to Fujioshida, but still we were surprised but the amount of people at Kawaguchiko station. Most of them were Japanese and most of them were taking busses to famous hot springs and baths in the area. We took a bus to some caves and the Aokigohara forest, also known as the suicide forest. At the ice caves we bought a ticket for the ice caves and the wind caves, which were a short walk away. At the entrance of the ice caves there was an old Japanese man who tried to talk to me in Japanese and confusing signs. I understood, he wanted to see the tickets, but there was something else with my hands. Thankfully another guy who could speak English helped me. He translated, that the older man wanted to give me some seeds to feed the little birds on the branches. I saved some for Rob and enjoyed with him how the birds were flying on our hands and taking one seed. Rob had two seeds left and the remaining bird was chirping until another bird came and each of them was taking one seed. We thanked the old man afterwards and went into the caves. (1200 Yen for two persons and two caves.)

Back in the days these caves were really important. In the ice caves they got their ice for cooling and even used it as a storage. Throughout the whole year the cave has just 0 to 2 °C. The wind caves, were we were going in the second part, were used as storage as well. The Japanese government used to storage seeds and to improve their silk production, until agriculture and the silk production were industrialized.

After the caves we went on a walk through the forest. This I would call a jungle or primeval forest. I think this was what Tolkien pictured as he described the Mirkwood of Middle Earth, maybe a little bit darker though. One or two times we lost our path and way more often we were questioning our direction. Every now and then someone came across our way, but still this forest was very special. There are several other caves in the area like the lava caves and the bat caves. The lava caves are mostly next to the path, but it is not very clever to leave the path, because it can be tough to find back to it. The bat caves were closed during the winter, because of the hibernation of the bats and the preservation of the colony.

For the way back we took the bus, but around one kilometre before reaching the Kawaguchiko station we had to leave the bus. The driver wasn’t very gentle and I became sick. Instead of being lazy we left the bus and walked the rest and were enjoying the view on lake Kawaguchiko, Mount Fuji and of course the fresh air.

Back in Fujioshida, in the Samurai Inn we were already expected by Jun, the guy who we would go with. Takana was chasing ghosts. Jun thanked us, that we already had left our room and had our luggage left packed. He welcomed the man and showed him the rooms than we left with his car to go to his family. The were living as well in Fujioshida and had a traditional Japanese house. It was a little bit different than the Samurai Inn. It had shoji-walls and a porch around all the rooms. We had dinner with Jun and his parents. While eating traditional Japanese food we talked about our travels and Rob showed his notebook. After that our conversations were settled around Japanese history and the Shinto shrines, which contained a lot of that history. Apart from that conversations I admired the most the table. It was very low and had a blanket at the edges. Juns father showed us to put our feet underneath the table and there it was warm and cosy.

Jun told us on that evening, that he was a hairdresser and travelled a lot and gave a lot of haircuts for free on his tours. He visited nearly every prefecture of Japan and visited a lot of shrines to figure out more about Japanese history. He told us, that the government based Japanese history on two compendia from around 700 AD and ignore the history that is provided by the shrines and the texts and books in them telling the people which emperor build them and which countries they belonged to.

The next morning Jun showed us around Fujioshida and drove us to several shrines. One shrine in Fujioshida was dedicated to the Mount Fuji and was moved together with the whole village after the Mount Fuji erupted. The oldest shrines were just stones, where people left some offerings. Later on, they would carve little shrines out of stones. Wooden shrines are relatively new. That morning showed Rob and me how important the shrines are and it opened our eyes for the number of shrines in the landscapes.

The visit at the family house was very refreshing for me. I wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome. For our farewell Rob and I thanked Jun’s parents and bowed down, but they both were eager to shake our hands for the farewell. We had a great stay at Fujioshida and I am glad that I took the opportunity to stay with Jun’s family.

-Toni

A Cultural Friendship

You know that one point in your trip when you really really dive into the culture of the place you are visiting? Well for Toni and I it was when we went to Fujioshida. I booked a traditional guesthouse called “The Samurai Inn”. The trainride from Kyoto to Fujioshida was really beautiful and simply, cause we were using the J-Rail Pass. The J-Rail Pass is a ticket that lets you ride with almost all japanese trains including the highspeed Shinkansen Trains. For two people and for one week we paid 550 € which is rather cheap when I think about how far we have gotten in Japan with that Ticket.When we left the train station in Kyoto the weather was for winter kinda warm, no snow but you had to wear a thick jacket, but when we came closer to mount Fuji we started to see some snow here and there. Traditionally when you ride a Shinkansen you buy a special Bento Box. A Bento Box is a box filled with different traditional japanese food. With our Bento Box (filled with sushi, fried vegetables, rice, meat and fish) and the amazing view the trainride was really enjoyable. When we arrived at the Fujioshida train station snow was everywhere and we were glad we brought our winter gear.It was a short walk from the grain station to the Guesthouse. At the Samurai Inn we were welcomed by two friendly young men and a little kitten called “Takana”. One of the men introduced himself as “Jun”. Jun is the owner of the Samurai Inn and a really polite and friendly guy. He told us that there was some sort of mix up with the bookings and our room was double booked for the second night we wanted to stay there. That could have been a problem but Jun told us that if we wanted we could either stay with him and his family in their home or he can book us another Hotel in Fujioshida. I took one look at Toni and I knew what she was thinking “Usually I wouldn’t do this…but…”. She looked at Jun and said we gonna stay with him and his family. We didn’t know it at the time but that was one of our best decisions on our Japan trip.We got our self some food from the nearest supermarket (The food from the supermarkets in Japan is amazing. They have fresh food in Bento boxes and even heat it up if you want to) and got back into our room at the Samurai Inn. We ate, made some plans to visit the Aokigahara Forrest the next day, looked arround our room that was filled with ancient Samurai memorabilia, like coins, Katana swords, Fans, Yukatas (traditional japanese clothing), paintings and so on. As we laid on the Futons having the blasting heater next to us Toni pulled a german and hold a speech about house isolation, which was kinda cute considering the circumstances 😀

The next morning we packed our stuff left it in the main room of the guesthouse, played a little with Takanah the House kitten (who didn’t really wanted us to go),  and left for the Aokigahara Forrest. We took a train to the nearest train station where we got ourselves a round bus ticket around Lake Kawaguchiko. Because the Aokigahara Forrest is a giant forrest we decided that we first would go to two caves and then walk across the forrest to a bus station. The first cave we visited was the Narusawa Hyoketsu, also known as the Ice Cave. The cave has all year through a temperature beneath 0° Celsius. Toni went to buy the tickets for the Cave while I…well nature called 😀 When I got back I saw Toni and an old japanese Man talking when she saw me she waved my excitingly to her and the old man. They told me to hold my hand straight out and the old man poured some seeds into my hand, right away a view little birds came and ate the seeds right out of my hand. Yes you could say I am a Disney Princess ;PThe Ice Caves were pretty cool (Badum Tss) and interesting. There were some little shrines in the cave, some old storage containers and blocks of ice to show how the caves were used back in the day. When we got out of the caves again we went on a little hike through the Aokigahara Forrest to the next caves. On our hike we saw how beautifully and special the forrest is. The Aokigahara Forrest grew on Volcanic soil that came from the many eruptions of Mount Fuji. The forrest grows different then any other forrest I know of. It seemed so deep, narrow and extremely old.
The next cave we went to was the Fugaku Fuketsu, the Wind Cave. This cave was way longer then the Ice Cave and the ceiling wasn’t as high. The layout of the cave reminded me of the Kumari Caves I discovered on my first expedition in 2016. In the Ice Cave and the Wind Caves you were getting helmets right before you entered because of the low ceiling and the slippery ground. After we saw all of the cave that was quite similar to the Ice Cave we went on to hike through the Aokigahara Forrest.
The hike was amazing. We went deep into that ancient old forrest on narrow paths that sometimes seemed to disappear, just to reappear just a view meters in the same direction it went to in the first place. It is hard to describe. The forrest is incredibly still and quite. Even when you pass other hikers, what does not happen often they are rather quite. At one point of our hike I noticed a piece of fabric tied to a tree. I knew what it meant but Toni didn’t. The Aokigahra is not only known as a beautiful hiking destination but also, or probably more as the suicide forrest. That Aokigahara was known for that Toni knew but she didn’t knew about the fabrics. The fabrics tied to branches, trees and so on, are left there by people who went into the forrest to commit suicide. They leave a trail not only to be found eventually but also to find a way out if they decided not to go through with it. We talked a bit about that sad part of the story of the forrest. As someone with a history with depression I knew how hopeless you can feel, even though my depression story never had a part which included suicidal thoughts because I got a heart condition once and ended up in a hospital for a year that taught me how precious life is and that you should and can do whatever you want.
As we finally got out of the forrest we took a really shaky bus ride back to the train station and went back to Fujioshida and the Samurai Inn. Jun waited there for us to bring us to his family home. Before we went to his house we went grocery shopping because his mother wanted to cook a traditional japanese dinner for us. At Jun’s house we were really warmly welcomed by his parents. His mother was cooking dinner in the kitchen and his father was sitting at a Kotatsu (a traditonal japanese table with a ground inlay and a heater) and watching the Japanese History Channel. The dinner was delicious and different then I expected, with potatoes and stews. We were all sitting at the Kotatsu and were talking. Toni and I told Jun and his family that we are archaeologists and that I wanted to come to Japan to learn more about the lost land of Yamatai and its shaman queen Himiko. Jun was really surprised that someone let alone a foreigner knew about Himiko. Jun told us that he is somewhat of an historian in his free time and that he often goes on the search for lost shrines. We told him about the three lost shrines we were looking for in Japan. Of course Jun was really interested about those. We talked all evening about Yamatai and that Yamatai wasn’t the first kingdom in Japan and that there were a lot of rulers before Himiko. We talked about the shrines he found and about the history of the region he was living in. He told us that when Mount Fuji erupted the magma covered up an entire city. So there must be somewhere under the Aokigahara Forrest something like the japanese Pompeii. As the evening processed we talked more about history and lost civilizations. I showed Jun and his mother my travel journal. They both were pretty amazed by it and I showed them my copy of “Japan in five Chinese Chronicles: Wo, Land of Yamatai and Queen Himiko”. Jun could even read some of the ancient texts shown in the book. The history bonded us and Jun invited us to a small tour the next morning to some of the oldest shrines in Fujioshida. We gladly agreed and we went to bed. Toni hold the second part of her house isolation speech as we slowly fell asleep.

The next morning we went with Jun to a little temple in the middle of Fujioshida. In this temple the were some little stone shrines. Jun told us those shrines are over 2000 years old. He told us that most people in Japan don’t even know that their history is that old.After the temple Jun took us to another place a bit outside of Fujioshida in a forrest. There were some more shrines that weren’t that old but apparently connected with the city that was lost under the lava when Mount Fuji erupted. At this moment Toni and I decided that we will come back to Japan to look for more lost shrines with that much history connected to them. Also we may gonna look for that lost city. We invited Jun to join us of course.And that was how we met someone in Japan that taught us a lot about local history even things you would never heard of in a museum or within years of research. So if you are traveling and want to know more about the culture of the place you are visiting just ask the locals, they will tell you incredible things.
– Rob