Mt. Fuji and Garra Rufa (Doctor Fish) - Hakone Yumoto, Japan

October 17, 2008 by Jeff · Leave a Comment

Our first day in Hakone Yumoto we did quite a bit of exploring. Instead of doing the whole circle with the buses, boats, etc. we ventured straight for a view of Mt. Fuji. Today we only had to go Bus -> Cable Car -> Ropeway (what we call cable car).

When we got to the top of the Ropeway Mt. Fuji was in full glory, super neat! The funniest part of the whole thing was we took a ropeway (cable car) up to the top. Right when you get to the top Mt. Fuji LITERALLY pops out of nowhere. You seriously can't see the mountain then BOOM Mt. Fuji. Anyway, when we went up this morning we were looking backwards and then suddenly we hear about 15 excited japanese ladies all saying Fujisan, Fujisan, Fujisan.... Which, obviously, means Mt. Fuji and is the respectable way of speaking about the mountain. Anyway, I wish we would have made a video of it because it was so awesome.

The highlight of the day though was the fish eating thing I think they're called Garra Rufa fish or Doctor Fish. Basically, you sit down and put your feet in the water then tons of fish come swimming to your feet and start knawing, eating, devouring your feet, specifically, at the dead skin cells. For those of you who have seen my feet will know that I was definitely a popular man at this pool. Let's just say I could probably feed an entire lake of these Garra Rufa. Anyway, it was definitely an experience not to be missed! I'll make another post about it when I have the picture scanned.

We then headed back down the mountain and off to Kyoto. Be warned that if you're trying to leave Hakone Yumoto around 3pm by bus (on a Sunday) that traffic can be quite heavy. We sat in the bus for about an hour when the bus ride is normally about 15-20 minutes. The solution would be to transfer to the Gora - Hakone Yumoto train ASAP. It was a good time for a much needed nap, however, it did mean we ended up in Kyoto around 8:30pm.