The start of our 5 day road trip!

Ben had arrived and so now we were a crew of 4. We rented a car and drove on. It was my first time driving in Tokyo, although I'd driven in the country before, so I was pretty nervous at first. We made a few wrong turns, but once we got outside of Tokyo it was a breeze.

First, we knew we wanted to check out Aokigahara aka The Suicide Forest.

Honestly, a bit boring. Weather wasn't great, and we definitely weren't dressed to hike up in the rain so we headed to our guest house first to change out of our wet clothes.

Our guest house was in Lake Kawaguchi which has a surplus of Onsens in the area. Luckily we found one that was tattoo friendly and spent a couple hours there before resting up at home.

Josh looking like Josh after our night at the guest house.

Our guest house was run by a lovely older couple and their son. The mother made the most delicious breakfast for us, which we opted to have the night before. Honestly one of the best home cooked breakfasts' I've ever had.

Skipping rocks by the lake; it was a cloudy day so we couldn't see Mount Fuji. Josh was certain that he could see the "the top of Mount Fuji" but everyone agreed that he was wrong. He probably saw a glimpse of a small portion of Fuji. Either way, it was a beautiful day to hang out by the lake.

Loumeir looking up the view of Mount Fuji at lake Kawaguchi on a clear day.

We told him he didn't see the top!

On the other side of the lake is Oishi park (5 min drive away). Spring flowers are just starting to bloom! It's supposed to look very nice during the summer time filled with Lavender plants. This is a nice little rest stop with some nice cafes and ice cream shops.

Japanese people definitely brings their "A game" when it comes to gardening.

We walked around some more, saw these marbleized balls with one that resembles an eyeball. Loumeir and Josh took this picture while Ben stood there for a while quietly thinking to himself. After a while he made a joke "

We took some more pictures by the lake before heading to the famous Japan instagram spot Pagoda Chureito.

Unfortunately the sky was still not clear enough for us to see Mount Fuji beside the Pagoda.

Wish the clouds weren't covering it up.

There is a small hike at the Pagoda, Here's the view while we walked up.

We got pretty hungry after walking so much so we found a place that is famous for Tempura. It was the best Tempura I've ever had.

This is called "The Mount Fuji" it was so yummy! It is their special at Fuji Tempura Idaten.

We went for sake tasting afterwards at Ide Sake Brewery. It is unique because it's the only brewery that uses spring water from Mount Fuji to produce sake. The tour was cheap (only 500 yen) and totally worth it. The Brewery has been in business for 21 generations; the sake from this brewery definitely didn't disappoint! Fun fact: Did you know that people use to drink sake made of human saliva? Back in the day, they found out that enzymes in saliva can ferment rice grains into producing Sake. So weird! Anyways, we learned so much from the tour.

We each bought some sake as souvenirs as well! After we had some sake, the owner brought us out to his garden where people drink sake and admire the beauty of the brewery's garden.

This was our tour guide, also owner of the Brewery.