Shiraito Waterfalls

After hiking Fuji, we woke up feeling surprisingly good.  We had a great breakfast at the hotel and headed off to the train station.  Fuji was still not being very cooperative and this is the only picture I was able to get of the mountain.  The rest of the time it was completely hidden in the clouds.

Yep, that's the tip of Mt. Fuji peaking through the clouds.  It showed up for a very brief moment and then disappeared again for the rest of the day.

 We were able to stash our luggage at the tourist information center and then took a bus to the Shiraito Waterfalls.  This turned out to be really pretty.  There were two waterfalls, Shiraito and Otodome. 

Otodome falls

Otodome falls.

It was a shame that we were unable to hike to the bottom of Otodome falls but we at lunch at the very top of the falls which was great.  We had yakisoba for lunch which is a local specialty (pan fried noodles) and finished with some ice cream. 

Jeff at the top of Otodome at lunch.

Japanese like their soft serve ice cream and Jeff and I are not complaining.  The thing they do that is interesting is they put a scoop of corn flakes in the tip of the cone.  It's actually pretty good.  Jeff had chocolate with oreo and chocolate syrup and I had chocolate, walnut and caramel.

The Shirato falls was spectacular.  We were able to walk down to the bottom of the fall.  It was really cool.

The whole right wall was a series of little waterfalls, it was really cool.

Pink flowers blooming down the wall of the path to the falls.

A bee in the flowers.

The river flowing from the falls.

Pretty!

 The water from the falls comes from the snow melt on Fuji.  Its apparently best in late spring when the snow melt is greater. 

We had some good people watching as well.  These guys were my favorite.

Yep, that is an attempt to pose 4 striped sweater wearing poodles in front of the falls for a photo.  Really funny to watch.  We also saw several people with dachshunds trying to take photos but these guys were the best.

We took the bullet train home last night and today I'm just trying to get caught up on laundry and start planning the next adventure.  It was a great trip!