Sunday around Mt. Fuji

Ugh, ecto. Ugh blogspot.com! If I put in any vertical pictures the text gets all misaligned. In a PC world little things become major hassles. Wish computing was more user friendly (read: More Maclike... but don't tell that to Steve Jobs lest he become any more arrogant).

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Boy, we didn't luck out with the weather today...... very overcast, and Fuji could not be seen! Still, Mariko, Maki, Ryou-chan and I had a GREAT time driving around, stuffing our faces napping and seeing the sites. Sundays like this remind you why you hit mass on Saturday evenings.
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Maki and Ryo-chan picked us up at the Circle K at 10:20 with some fresh cold drinks (cold, unsweetened cha... green or brown, our pick).

Then we stopped for gas. It was like America, 1950:

Two men swarmed the car to guide us in, clean the glass, check the wipers, pump the gas, take payment. (I remember doing the same when I worked for HESS in the 80s... and being the last of the dying breed to do so). Sigh... nostalgia.









































On to the highway, but first, some snacks!




Maki brought these snacks for the trip... they were "imported" from Tokyo this morning... sugar bombs (I think the flavor was supposed to be caramel).




Then on to the highway....

A sign on this truck read: Please grafitti only the white areas.






Then we lost site of the truck.


We caught up to him again eventually.




















Next stop... Fujikawa rest stop (Fuji River). We looked at the ubiquitous plastic foods outside the rest stop window...



The Japanese are masters of making plastic food models. What you see is what you'll eat!



We went down the road further and then had lunch at another place. It was de-lish! (pictures forthcoming)





We couldn't see Mt. Fuji... and we were looking for a cave UNDER Mt. Fuji and couldn't find that, so we stopped to see some waterfalls. They were VERY nice. :D











It was actually cool enough by the waterfalls to want to be close to someone... it felt like in the 70s, while just 200 yards from the falls it was back to the humid 90s.





See the yellow spots in the water? Those are GIANT fish!! (koi?) Who knew they would live in such strong running water?














Near the falls there were a few ice cream places. They had grape... looked good but I was told to hold out until we got to the dairy farm.



Here's the "Milky House". Catchy name.





After a while we stopped by this dairy farm. We had some Italian Gelato. On a scale of 1 (being Texas) and 10 (being Rome) it was like... a 6.
It was a WONDERFUL day.