Decent of Fujisan and Onsen

The decent of the mountain was much easier than the ascent, but it was no means fun. Almost the entire trail down consisted of brutally steep switchbacks, and the trail itself was made of loose volcanic gravel.

I'd heard that going down a mountain was tougher on your body, but I never believed it until then. It was nasty on my knees and ankles, even with really good boots. I can't imagine what it was like for anyone who wasn't a 20-something with good joints.  I fully expected to eat it and roll down the trail like some sort of stupid gaijin, which might have been preferable. It seemed like it would be much faster to slide down the trail on a cardboard box, and more comfortable too.

Nothing notable happened on the way down. Our guide let us go our own way after a time, we just had to meet the group at the bus at 11. I think we got back to the 5th station by 9:30, and we were majorly hungry.

Cranberry and vanilla swirl

The first thing we did was get ice cream. It was supposed to be cranberry and vanilla, I don't think it tasted much like cranberry at all but it didn't really matter. After that we had Tempura udon,which might be my favorite kind of udon.

On the top there's cabbage, mysterious pickled crunchy vegetables, and my favorite tempura. It's a type of ground fish paste shaped like a celery stick then fried. Sounds disgusting, but it's actually delicious. I eat it a few times a week. After eating we bummed around the tourist trap gift shops until it was time to get on the bus. 

Bye Fujisan

From here we drove to an onsen in a town near the base of Fujisan. Onsen are traditional japanese baths that are usually geothermal. For obvious reasons I don't have any photos of the onsen, but I can describe the process. 

After you put all your belongings and clothing in a locker, you go to the first part of the bath, which is the actual washing part. In a big open area there are little stations with mirrors, plastic seats, and corded shower heads than can be switched to a tap function. As described in the picture, you're not supposed to wear clothes into the shower room and you're supposed to sit to shower. This is common even in homes. Japanese don't keep the water running and they don't stand while bathing. The onsen provide shampoo, soap, and conditioner so you don't need to worry about bringing your own. I think most westerners would be mortified by the nudity.

There were a couple different tubs at the place we went. When I say tubs, I mean massive Jacuzzis with special things in them. There were three indoor tubs; the first tub we soaked in had black Himalayan salt, the second had calcium from stones, and the last one I didn't go in was a massive copper cauldron filled with cold water.  There were two outdoor tubs: one was made from fujisan's rocks and the other was made from a traditional Japanese wood that can hold water. That last tub was room temperature and a good way to finish our trip. I don't think the baths here were actual geothermal springs, but the IES program is going on a trip to Nikko,where there are geothermal onsen. 

Once we got back to Tokyo Yurika and I took the metro home, and so concludes our expedition to Fujisan.