Because we moved up the schedule by one day, and because it was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning Chuo Highway was congested. In addition, due to a few traffic accidents, our bus that left Tokyo at 9:20 a.m. was delayed by nearly an hour from arriving at Lake Yamanaka before 12 o'clock.
On Saturday, a friend who had invited us to her mountain villa on Lake Yamanaka contacted us on Line saying, "According to the weather forecast, it will only be sunny tomorrow during this rainy season, so cancel Monday and come tomorrow on Sunday!"
In the traffic jam, we received Line from her again saying, "We are heading to Lake Kawaguchi to pick you up , so get off at Lake Kawaguchi.”
Together with nearly half of the passengers my friend and I got off at Lake Kawaguchi and there we met Yoko, my firiend, and her husband.
In front of us, a large summer mountain fills the field standing across Lake Kawaguchi and the lavender fields in full bloom.
“It’s not easy to see Fuji with no clouds on her and with lavender in full bloom. We’ve been here for 6 years and this is the best day today to see such a clear view during the rainy season!” Yoko shouted to us.
It was July 2nd , the day after the opening of Mt.Fuji.
The image of Fuji in summer for me has been a rough rocky mountain full of climbers near the summit, but from a distance, it was a calm and gentle mountain and I could even see the green of the trees on mountain side.
At a quiet 'hoto' restaurant where we didn't have to wait in a line, we tried unique cold 'hoto' noodle with cold white miso soup. It was nice to try in hot weather.
(Hoto is a famous local dish of Yamanashi Prefecture and is usually served with hot miso soup with lots of ingredients.)
After enjoying ourselves enough, my friend took us to a communal bath called "Benifuji no Yu”. In ordinary public baths, we see Mt. Fuji painted on tiles, but we were looking at the real Fuji in midsummer right in front of us from the large window of the bathhouse.
While heading to Lake Yamanaka, in order to show us Fuji at dusk, my friend’s husband took us to an observatory called “Kirara” where we could see the beautiful sunset, Fuji, and the upside-down Fuji reflected in Lake Yamanaka.
"You're lucky to be able to see this upside-down Fuji as there's no wind and the lake surface is quiet," he said. They told us that they are going to give up the mountain villa next year they owned for six years as it will be difficult to drive here. Today was the best day in six years that they could see Fuji so beautifully during the rainy season.
It really seemed to be a miraculously lucky visit.
