The night before my sister, father and I said we were going to wake up early to catch the sunrise. We were serious about it, so rise and shine at 6.15am for us to watch the sunrise that is to occur at 6.46am! We got dressed - ok more like piled on several layers of clothes to fight off the 0 degrees coldness - and then off we went just by the lake outside our hotel to watch the sunrise!
As you can see it was quite cloudy that morning, so we didn't get a clear nice view of the rising sun... :( But the clouds look so cool, - one long line of them!
Then the sun really started rising higher and you can see the orange glow in the sky! :D
The photo above (and below) omg~ That orange glow is so... beautiful! It speaks of something mysterious, magical and like something amazing is about to emerge!
We didn't spend a very long time there, maybe slightly less than half an hour? Yup then after that we went for breakfast! It's a buffet breakfast hehehe.
The buns and croissants are super nice! Warm and cripsy and ahh~
So today we set off to explore the places and attractions around the lake. There is a bus that takes people around the lake with stopovers so we decided to take that bus.
The bus is so cute right! It looks like the Magic School Bus!
So our first stop was at this Rotorway Cable Car place. As the name suggests, we took a cable car up to the top of a hill to get a bird's eye view of the lake. (:
The sky is so pretty! And whenever I take such cable cars with a view of the lake, I get reminded of the one I sat in Queenstown, New Zealand four years ago! (Oh wow it's been 4 years...)
The view is so pretty!
This is the Love Bell that symbolises love and good health when you ring it. (:
And this is some 'dumpling' that the little food stall up there keeps promoting... So we just bought some to try. To be honest, it wasn't nice because it just tasted like starch! But oh wells Japanese dumplings I suppose?
They have the imprint 'Fujisan' and the mountian on it, haha.
No snow? No fret. Play with autumn leaves! Hahaha.
And we spotted ice on the ground! They look very peculiar, because they're not in block sizes, but straight tenticles like shape. Up till now I'm still figuring out what's beneath the ice. Grass?
Next we went to a shop that sells herbs. Well we weren't exactly interested in herbs but there wasn't any other place that we were interested in, and also some places charge entrance fees. Haha.
Yup we saw a lot flowers and Christmas hampers and bouquets. Then I got bored so I went out to the lake and saw the wild ducks!
Then it was lunch time!
Next we walked along the streets of souvenir shops, then decided there was nothing much to see already. Haha. There were museums and stuff but as I said earlier, those required us to pay entrance fees, and we weren't that keen on going there too. So... we took the bus back to the hotel and decided to go cycling! :D Hahaha my sister actually suggested cycling at Mount Fuji (around the lake) before we flew here. Luckily for us, the hotel had free rental of bicycles! It was rather windy that day and I was feeling a little cold, but I'm always up for an adventure, right? :D Hahaha so I put on my scarf and excitedly hopped on the bike.
Yay I love the photos! The one below of me, my sister and my cousin captured us looking so happy and natural haha!
Ahh the shots are so nice! The one above and below was taken by my sister while riding haha.
We didn't cycle that long/far, because we didn't really wanna get ourselves lost haha. But we explored some residential areas further down the path and it was kinda cool to see the houses so close and upfront. They looked very simple and I'm sure the people live a very peaceful life. (:
So after cycling we went for onsen again! Haha I love onsen man. It was a Friday so we noticed more people started checking into the hotel at 4 plus. Must be them having a weekend getaway *sighs in envy* Haha so we quickly went to the pool before more people came in. xD Sure enough, when we got out of it about 20 minutes later, a group of six ladies came in. Hahaha imagine if we came at the same time as them. It's gonna be kinda awkward plus very squeezy! Cos the pool isn't that big haha.
Lazed around for a while in the hotel room then it's time for a sumptuous dinner again! :D Hahaha my whole family was looking forward to the dinner. I shall let the pictures do the talking!
Another plate of sashimi! :D
First time eating sea urchins heh.
The soba was nice!
Desserts yummm~ Haha. This dinner was as tasty and exquisite as the previous night! Somehow it seemed like this one had a 'prawn' theme; there were 3 dishes with prawns! Haha but it was so gooood I feel so fortunate to be able to eat such a meal! As I'm typing this I'm craving for the food again HAHA.
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