Last evening in Tokyo- Skytree tower and Shinjuku

The previous post in this series is here..

After spending the morning and early afternoon at Mt. Fuji, we made it back in 2+ hours back to Tokyo and were dropped off at the Sky Tree tower. It was indoors and we were happy to go up the tower, come down and also walk around the little “mela” that was going on at the base of the tower. Got to eat some ice cream, folks had coffee and tea and before we knew it, it was almost dinner time. So we went from Skytree tower to Shinjuku station.

My buddy was very particular that we go see this iconic station.. also he had visited it a long time back. It had two huge shopping blocks on either side.

Jr. had already planned a dinner at a vegan chain called “Plantmore”. It took us sometime to find it because there were two buildings with the same name on either side of the station and we were in the wrong building. After a good 30 minutes of wandering around we finally found the place and were treated to a delicious dinner. We walked out and saw a bunch of kids performing on the street. Then it was time to go back to the hotel. BTS had finished the concert at the Tokyo dome by the time we came back and that was a good thing!

Here are the photos from the last evening in Japan..

The skytree tower is amazing. They even had a mascot for the building! The shops were cute, the crowd vibrant and the high speed elevator ride was memorable!

Here is a video highlight..

We had a lot of packing to do, even with the extra suitcase that was purchased in Japan and get ready for the return the next afternoon..

Oshino Village, Nigori-ike pond and the Shinnasho-gawa river

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back from the shrine, we got back to the van and drove to teh Oshino Village.

It is a village that is preserved in its original state. This place reminded us of Ballarat in Australia for many reasons.

The ponds, the huts, the little details all transported us to a different place and time. Then we walked behind the village along bamboo fences to the river banks lined with Cherry trees. The blossoms were just amazing!

The river was flowing gently and the flower petals were everywhere on the gently flowing water. It was an amazing experience.. We also got to eat large Fuji apples.. the original! They were delicious! The rest of the group had a peach tea also which they loved.

Here are the photos from this leg of the trip..

and a video highlights reel..

Our driver said there was one more stop before lunch and we had to rush a bit if we wanted to get back to Tokyo before getting stuck in traffic. So off we went to the next stop.

Cherry blossom dream come true at Mt. Fuji shrine

The previous post in this series is here..

Our second stop in the Mt. Fuji area was to climb up a bill to the Arakurayama shrine and see views of the valley and Mt. Fuji from this hill top shrine.

We were told that it was a pretty hard hike. My friends son was not feeling well that morning and he braved it to this point but needed rest. So four of us went up. We promised to do our best to go as fast as we could and come back. There was a short drive from Lake Kawaguchiko to a parking lot for this shrine. We crossed a road and were faced with a bunch of steps that keep coming.

The beauty was that there were cherry blossoms everywhere at this high altitude. We thought Kyoto was our last interaction. This was mind boggling. We enjoyed the hike to the top, got to soak in some amazing views and came back down.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlight reel..

Every stop on this day was one upping the previous stop.. that in the next post..