Road trip to Oshino Hakkai & Arakurayama Sengen Park for Sakura & Mt. Fuji

Early in the morning, we grouped up at Nissan rental car at Musashi Kosugi for our sakura road trip.

We arrived at Oshino Hakkai (忍野八海), which is this beautiful little village like area with beautiful sakura.

Website: http://www.vill.oshino.yamanashi.jp/8lake.html

Even when we arrived early, the parking area was almost full.

I like that this place has a traditional feel to it.

This area apparently has 8 lakes, but we did not visit all of them as our main purpose was for sakura and Mt. Fuji.

While the sky was blue, there were some clouds in the sky, so we were not able to get a clear view of Mt. Fuji.

This here is the is the 中池 which is the most popular lake there as it is the deepest lake and it is almost transparent. Hence, you can see the fishes in it.

See how clear it is!

After strolling around a bit, we had lunch at 丸天 (Maruten).

They are famous for grilled trout, which was yummy.

The carp sashimi is also one of their popular items but I must say I did not enjoy this at all. I do not like sashimi with soft bones in them. The bones are painful to chew on and the meat is tough.

We were seated by the window and had a view of the garden.

Another famous dish there is the houtou.

A view of the garden from where we were seated.

After lunch, we drove to  Arakurayama Sengen Park( 新倉山浅間公園) .

This place is highly popular and the parking area was full when we were there. Luckily, a car left and we took their spot.

You also need to queue in a long line to get up here. This is so that they can avoid crowd on the top deck. Every group is given several minutes to enjoy the view and snap some picture.

As you can see from our pictures, the sky was cloudy and the top of Mt. Fuji was blocked by clouds when we were there. This is pretty common in the day. To get a nice view of Mt. Fuji, one needs to visit early in the morning or near the evening.

Just when we thought that this was it and was ready to head home, the sky cleared up!

So we went back up for a second round.

This time, we were able to see the top of Mt. Fuji as the cloud slowly disperses.

I guess we were really lucky that day.

We waited the whole day to see the top of Mt. Fuji and it finally appeared!

Look at these beautiful pictures!

For dinner, we stopped by Sushi Hana (寿司華) on our way back. 

Website: https://tabelog.com/yamanashi/A1903/A190301/19007307/?cid=google_yoyaku

This place is fancy.

We had to wait for a few minutes to be seated but we got a nice semi-private room for the 4 of us.

J and I shared this huge platter of sushi! The sushi was fresh and good.

The meal ended with some strawberry sherbet.

 

Road trip to Kawanehon, Shizuoka

Early morning in Shizuoka station, where we grabbed breakfast!

Ochazuke to warm the tummy!

We actually started our journey at Yokohama station where we used the JR seishun 18 kippu to get to Shizukoka station.

Then from Shizuoka, we took the rental for this trip to Kawanehon in Shizuoka. The trip there was definitely not easy as the mountainous roads were narrow and curvy. Not recommended for those who get car sick easily.

Here we are at Okuizumi station to get on the Ogawa Railway to see the beautiful blue lake.

This is the Ogawa Railway, which is a steam locomotive train. 

This is the Oi River.

Look at the beautiful colour.

Trains here have a Showa style interior.

I can't get enough of this beautiful view.

Such a small and cute station.

The timetable LOL

At the Okuōikojō Station (奥大井湖上駅), where we got down to enjoy the view.

The train passes by this Okuōi Rainbow Bridge (奥大井レインボーブリッジ)

There are toilets and a small cafe for those who want to grab some coffee or light snacks.

Enjoying the view, but the lake could be a lot bluer if the sun was out. When we were there, it was really cloudy, so the lake appeared green.

While we did not get a nice blue colour of the lake, 

After this, we took the train back to where we parked and drove to another parking area to hike up to this spot here, where we can see Okuōikojō Station (奥大井湖上駅) from afar.

The view was amazing.

We waited for the train to pass to get this shot here before leaving.

Here we are, queuing to cross the Yume no Tsuribashi suspension bridge (夢のつり橋). This is a 90m long bridge that extends over the Oma Dam Lake.

Website: https://yumenotsuribashi-sumatakyo.com/

Finally crossing the bridge

The olour looks pretty similar to their banner.

After crossing the bridge, we had to hike up some stairs, up the hill and take a long detour to where we came from. Hence, we were able to capture this pic here.

After returning our rental car, we took a quick dinner at Shizuoka Station, before taking the JR train back to Yokohama.

For dinner, we had sashimi don at 沼津魚がし鮨 プレミアム静岡本店.

We were very hungry by the time we got dinner and luckily, the food was good too.

Ended the meal with a sakura youkan.

By the time we got back to Yokohama station, it was late and we were tired. However, it was a nice day trip to see such a nice scenery. Though I will not go on this same trip again due to the dangerous roads that we had to take to get there.