ABK's School Trip to Shizuoka

Friday woke up slightly before 7am and was greeted by the cloudy weather. It's raining. Bad start for the day. Cycling to school with a luggage under the rain proven to be difficult, but anyhow I managed to made it to school in time.

Bus departs at 830am, heading towards the west. The bus cruises by a few major highways, and I'm very impressed by the quality of the transportation network the Japanese built. The highways are simply amazing!

After an hour+'s travel we stopped by a rest station. You know you're quite far away from Tokyo when you can see mountains



Interesting vending machine which sells fried stuffs like takoyaki, fries, fried onigiri and fried rice. Each cost 350 yen.


The weather wasn't good. I thought it only rains in Tokyo, but didn't expected it'll be raining all the way near the place we're heading to. Was supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji but it was marred by the foggy and misty weather.

Reached the 5th milestone on Mt. Fuji. It was cold, as the temperature suddenly drops to 12'C, which reminds me of early Spring when I first get here. We weren't well-prepared for this cold temperature so struggled abit.




The bento lunch was great! But too bad no vege....


Riding above the clouds~


One of the lakes around Mt Fuji. Can't get a clear view due to the poor weather.


First glimpse of Mt Fuji!




Since it's summer so Mt Fuji "took off" the snow crown which it's famous of.


Stopped by a tourist spot. Spotted this nice traditional style house.


The spring water from Mt Fuji.


Feels so cold to put the hand into the water!


Pond surrounded by shoplets.


Watermills.
This one isn't working for some time already.


An active one.


Another better view of Mt Fuji~


D7 Classmates!


On the way to another destination. Clouds started to build up around the top of Mt Fuji.




Settled down in the youth hostel. Was given briefing regarding rules and regulations, then put our stuffs in the room.

Our guy's room. It's much better than I expected.


My bed. Kinda reminds me of NS time, except this one is many times better heh.


The others had the traditional Japanese tatami room which sleeps on futon.


Dinner!


Green tea flavour ice-cream puff. Cost 120 yen, yumm!


Candle light service before the class performance begins.


Class performance begins!








Our class' performance video.


We've won the 2nd place! Kinda unexpected as the other teams are performing well too!




Woke up at 5:30am next morning. Was being awaken by friend's phone alarm. It's irony that usually I'm the one who awakes while the dude himself still can sleep soundly eventhough the phone is ringing just besides him!

Since the weather isn't that good so the morning exercise was cancelled. Prepared ourselves and clean up the room. Went to the canteen to had our breakfast.
It was foggy and misty....


Heading towards the next destination, Shiraito Waterfalls.

On the way, we passed by a nice and peaceful forest. Suddenly felt peace in me while listening to Kitaro's "Dance of Sarasvati" while looking at the forest.
Tried a few shots...







The bus was moving kinda fast so the pics are kinda blurred. The last pic is much darker due to the sudden change of lighting which the lens didn't manage to calibrate it in time, so there's the unexpected result lol.

Finally reached the last destination: Shiraito Waterfalls (白糸の滝).


First is the smaller scale Oto Dome no Taki (音止の滝).




The real deal, Shiraito Waterfalls!






Wallpaper-quality photos. The pics are taken in both 4:3 & 16:9 (widescreen) ratio.


















Comparison of the waterfall with the 2 dudes.


Last view of the Shiraito Waterfalls before heading back.


Found this exotic flower. Dunno it's name though.




Bento lunch on the bus. Yesterday's bento lunch was better than this one.


Love the mountainous view.


While traveling on the highway passed by this amusement park. Crazy roller coaster tracks!



Last view of Mt Fuji. Still enclosed within it's blanket of clouds eh.


A last glimpse of some farms before heading back into the industrial and commercial Tokyo.


Watching this rather interesting movie in the bus. Kinda interesting to learn different slangs of Japanese, the Kansai-ben (関西弁).


Reached school about 2pm+, earlier than the 3pm as planned. Luckily for us that we travel against the flow of traffic so we didn't stuck in the middle of traffic jam. There was 2 jamming points in the opposite direction though, luckily we've avoided it.

Overall, this trip isn't that bad, though it can be much better. We don't really have enough time to go through the places, especially the Mt Fuji national park. Kinda rush to finish the lunch and walk-around within 1 hour. Definitely missed lots of stuffs.

Secondly, the unfavourable weather blocks many of the beautiful views around Mt. Fuji. Can't really take good pics from the trip due to the fog and mist, as observed in many of the pics above.

As for the food department, no complains. Given that I don't need to pay any single yen for the meals, I'm satisfied with it.

For the class performance, it's a real steal considering we only practised for less than 10 hours entirely lol.... Anyway it's a relief that it's done finally..... Practising for performance is not an easy task even if it's an easy one, if you wanted to show the best to the audience~

I do enjoy the moment spent with classmates for some fun. A good way to relax and joke around instead of everyday studying in the classroom.

Right, end of the trip then.... This week will be having the final exam before summer holiday begins. Busy busy busy.....