One Day in Oshino Hakkai

My month long hiatus from everything I love finally ended with a trip to Mt. Fuji. I had been meaning to visit for the past several years, but Corona virus had me domiciled in my small city of Fujishiro for longer than I had bargained for. But I guess this has been the case for most people.

Summer is the only time people are allowed to climb the mountain, at least beyond the second or third level. It was this Saturday that Wen and took the train to Shinjuku to catch the bus that would take us to another station where we would take another bus up the mountain.

Wen decided against going on Monday though. It was a bit overcast and visibility was very low so we decided to put it off for the next day and headed to see the Oshino Hakkai Springs instead. Located in the village of Oshino, the springs are among Japan’s most famous spots. It is about 45 minutes by bus from our stop.

“The area around Oshino Village used to be a lake. Due to the influences of eruption activities and crustal deformation of Mt. Fuji, the lakes dried up and became basins and several spring water ponds that were filled with underground water from Mt. Fuji were left. Those spring water ponds are the current Oshino Hakkai Springs,” which was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2013.

It started raining by the time we got there. In fact it was while we were getting fruits and ice cream from a local stall that it started to rain. For a while we were worried that it would rain all day and therefore preclude us from snapping pictures of Mt. Fuji reflected in the ponds. There was even the possibility that we would not be able to capture it in the background as visibility was at zero even before the rains.

Mother nature was generous though, for after about 30 minutes or so she brought the sun out and so we had pictures of the village during and after the rain.

The main reflection we wanted to capture was that of Mt. Fuji in the Kagamiike Pond just as it is on the brochures. Unfortunately, this is the best I could do. Maybe I will be luckier next time and get a shot of a snow capped Mt. Fuji dancing on the surface of the water.

As all these ponds have specific names with their individual meanings I am thinking of having a separate post for each of them. They make for interesting reading.

For now, I will leave you these pictures and the images of Mt. Fuji I snapped when the rain stopped!