Tokyo Travels: Day 4

One of the things we knew we wanted to do in Tokyo was go on a guided tour up Mount Fuji!

As usual, Saliheen and I did our research and even though there are a few options available online, the one that interested us the most was the Mount Fuji, Lake Ashi and Bullet Train Day Trip by Viator - you can watch this video clip with a brief description of the package below:

We paid S$402.78 for the both of us (S$201.39 per pax), which is reasonable la, considering we got to take a coach up to Mount Fuji, take a cruise boat out on Lake Ashi, ride the Mount Komagatake Ropeway for a view of Hakone National Park and most importantly, we got to return to Tokyo area via shinkansen!!! Which is a Japanese bullet train, super fast and super sleek one. 

We especially liked the return by bullet train part because kita memang nak rasa naik shinkansen but the actual price to ride one costs, like, S$300 plus??? And from Tokyo, it usually goes out to other areas like Kyoto, Osaka, etc. It didn't make sense for us to pay that much when we weren't travelling out to stay in those areas ah. Setakat nak tau apa rasa ride dalam bullet train je. (It feels macam naik train biasa ah actually hahaha. But the train does feel super stable and super quiet for something that is moving so rapidly)

Anyway. We started the day out by walking to the meet-up point, which is the Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo. You can choose from a few meet-up points but we chose Keio because our hotel is only 7 minutes walk away! Once you've walked for 30 minutes in Tokyo before, walking for 7 minutes becomes chicken mcnugget la kan #eksyen

Row of vending machines we saw on our way to Keio. Cantik!

Once we arrived at the meeting area in Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, we were issued tour stickers (to indicate which group we were in) and ushered up an air-conditioned coach. I think there were about 15 to 20 pax in our group? Anyway, travel time to Mount Fuji took about 2 hours. Do all your toilet business in the hotel first!

OHAYOU GOZAIMASU, MOUNT FUJI! ❅❅❅❅❅

The top view was pretty! But the weather and temperature was seriously no joke seh. It was sooooo cold and we were freezing!!!!! I couldn't even feel my face wtf. Lagi tak kelakar was when Saliheen was taking pictures and suddenly felt his fingers freeze up and cannot gerak. Tu jam baru terkial kial ah nak pasang heatpack!

After 30 minutes or so on Mount Fuji, our tour coach brought us to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Lunch is optional ah - up to you whether you want to include lunch in the tour package when you're booking it online. Personally, I'd suggest the lunch option because it'll be troublesome for you to look for lunch yourself. Can choose vegetarian meal because the regular one includes chicken. If you are was-was even of the vegetarian meal then sure, don't take it up but at least bring along your own bread/chips/whatever. Kat sana tak banyak food options.

After lunch, off we went to take our cruise boat out on Lake Ashi!

Ya, I know our gambar tak justify how peaceful and lawa the lake is, so I have to top up with gambar of our busuk faces la hahahaha. The cruise boat ride was for 15 minutes only, after that our tour guide brought us to the place to ride the Mount Komagatake Ropeway pulak. No pictures from inside the cabin because we were packed in with other guests but it's really just a cable car besar yang boleh fit ramai orang, and it looks like this.

View from the top! It was really nice and peaceful. And tiba tiba ada satu temple tercampak kat atas, haha. Busy seh orang kat sini nak sembahyang kena daki bukit.

Aaaaand that was it, that was the end of the whole tour! Our tour guide brought the people who took the package with shinkansen option to a train station about 30 to 45 minutes away (by coach) and then passed us tickets to naik the shinkansen. Don't worry about not knowing how and where to naik the shinkansen, where to drop off, etc, because the tour guide's instructions will be quite clear. I only remember the part where you need to take the shinkansen from platforms 1 or 2 ah. Bukan platform 9¾ eh, tu nanti terpergi tempat lain eh.

Us inside the shinkansen! Amaciam, nampak steady tak kita naik bullet train hahahaha. Oh, and sorry, no pictures of the shinkansen itself because we were too busy taking videos of it hahaha #asiantourist

Dropped off at Shinjuku Station and walked around Lumine (Lumine 1 and 2 are at the front whereas Lumine Est is at the back) in search for dinner. Didn't see anything that suited our mata and tekak but did see this kedai called Zakuzaku Croquant Chou that sells cream puff from Hokkaido! A little unconventional because it is in stick form coated with almonds. Costs ¥220 (S$2.60) per stick. 

I knew about this from a friend's Instagram post! (Of course) Also has lots of good reviews online (like the one here) so we decided we'd give it a try if we saw the shop (which we did). Quite nice! But I wouldn't travel or specifically look for it la. Japanese people seem to really like it though, the queue was looong (but fast moving).

Walked out of Lumine after that and settled down for dinner at a little sushi bar near our hotel. Food was good! Stuffed ourselves with so much sushi and green tea sampai tak larat to jalan jalan anywhere after that haha. So we headed back to our hotel and crashed for the night because besoknya nak tengok museum and orang sumo!