The last time I stayed in a mixed dorm was sixteen years ago on my second bout of travelling around Australia. When travelling it's all about mixing it up. So far we have stayed at a hotel in the heart of the red light district, a ryokan, a youth hostel and tonight it's the Fujiya hotel, the oldest hotel in Japan. Charlie Chaplin has stayed here, along with European royalty and now Sarah and Rachel! It feels like a step back in time, with large rooms filled with beautiful 1920's furniture and the bath running with the natural hot spring water.
The Mount Fuji area is so scenic, you never tire of seeing the mountain, and everyone is snappy happy and there is a great opportunity to recreate the picture that is on the back of the 1000 yen note. We even went to the 4th level of the mountain by bus (the usual 5th level destination was impossible to get to due to an avalanche).
The generosity and friendliness of people is often overwhelming. At lunch time we went to a local restaurant, where you sat at the table, whilst soaking your feet in the hot spring bath under the table, amazing!! An older couple were at the end of the table and within a few minutes of chatting they insisted on buying lunch for us and the guy went off to order. Earlier on the bus a woman who we had got on the bus with made sure that we got off at the right stop. The prize today for the person who really made me laugh today was the woman who showed us to our posh room, and proudly showed off the tv, with a button that changed the speech from Japanese to English, and I asked if it worked on her and she started to speak Japanese then English.... Sorry it's one of those you have to be there moments.
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