We went to the 9th floor for buffet breakfast and saw a magnificent view of Mount Fuji outside the hotel. It came as a surprise because we didn't know Mount Fuji can be seen from the onsen hotel while we were having our buffet dinner.
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| The view of Mount Fuji from the onsen hotel. It's not very clear but you can still see the peak of the mountain. |
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| Scrambled egg, bacon, sausages, teriyaki chicken, mackerel, mixed vegetables and porridge. |
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| Apple juice and miso soup. |
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| Entrance of the Healing House |
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| View of the houses and the roofs resemble the samurai warrior helmets. |
The place is very quiet and it is a great place to enjoy the sights of the healing house. There are different exhibits in each house, providing information about the healing house, how the typhoon affected people in that village and the history behind reviving the scenery before the typhoon struck.
Apart from visiting the exhibits and viewing the artifacts, there are also restaurants, snack stalls and souvenir shops for you to visit as well. If you don't want to spend money other than the admission fee which is 350 yen for adult and 150 yen for child (primary and secondary schools), you can try their peanuts for free. I'm not sure if there were other foods available for tasting but I'm 100% sure peanuts are free to taste. However, don't take too much even if it's free.
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| The gift that we've gotten after giving the coupon. |
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| The height when we ascended Mount Fuji 5th Station: 3,776m. |
After we received a small gift, we went to a souvenir shop for shopping. After that, we went to the temple further up and got to see a close-up look of Mount Fuji.
As we moved up to the temple, raindrops started to pour and it was all thanks to our wonderful tour leader, he predicted the weather correctly that...I didn't get goosebumps at all!
The next stop was to have another free & easy shopping time at Gotemba Premium Outlet. As we moved on to the 3rd day in Central Japan, you will notice that there's a lot of shopping involved. If you missed out on buying something that you liked previously, there's always another chance for you to purchase at another place. However, unlike other travel packages, those shopping stops mentioned previously and more after that were free & easy. There's no listening to the sales person in a room, asking you to try this and try that and buy something. In this Central Japan trip, NO! There's no forced shopping stops!
Gotemba Premium Outlet is a place where all the famous brands that you know are all in one place. From sports accessories to fashion apparels to cookwares, you name it, they have it.
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| Ferris wheel behind the Premium Outlet |
There are a lot of well-known stores in there, internationally or locally so we had more time shopping and eating inside the Premium Outlet.
Before we started our shopping, we went to have our lunch at a food junction. There are a lot of foods for you to choose from, ramen, curry rice, pancakes and even...Singapore chicken rice?! No picture was available but when I heard from our tour guide, I was a bit surprised but then again, I didn't get goosebumps.
I ate Tonkatsu curry rice with a cup of ice tea to accompany with. Finally, I got a chance to eat Tonkatsu in Japan!
After eating our lunch, we went to shop for clothes and shoes. Yeah, mainly those 2 items.
Most items in Japan, consumables or not, have all prices marked with 8% tax (E.g. If you buy a 100 yen product, you are paying 108 yen along with tax). Apart from Premium Outlet, many stores will display prices which have tax added to it in brackets like 100 yen (108 yen) while some don't hence it will be very troublesome like us having lots of coins due to the 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 yen coins after realizing that we forgot to add tax to it.
Not only limited to Premium Outlets, stores located around tourists attraction sites and shopping malls allow foreigners to enjoy tax-free shopping.
[Tax-free shopping: Spend at least 10,001 yen and above to enjoy all items priced without 8% tax in it (Amount may vary in some shops other than Premium Outlets). Once you reach the minimum spending amount, simply present your passport and they will staple the receipt inside it. When you leave Japan, remember to return the receipt inside the passport at the airport's tax refund counter. Other information regarding tax-free shopping can also be found on the internet.]
Tax-free shopping first happened at Adidas where we bought a pair of shoes and clothes. After calculating, we thought we have reached more than 10,001 yen. However, the total turned out to be 9,350 yen because the clothes that my father bought had a discount. Hence, my mother threw in socks into the basket. I almost fainted at the counter as we were 1 yen short from tax-free without hearing my mother said 650 yen for the socks. My math failed! Again, my mother threw in another pack of socks to reach the spending amount. I presented my passport for verification to enjoy tax-free shopping.
Is tax-free shopping really good? It's good yet so troublesome. Good is when you can enjoy tax-free while troublesome is when too many goods are in your hands and you have to make space to your luggage.
After shopping at the Gotemba Premium Outlet, we went to experience a short bullet ride to Nagoya.
To be continued in Part 2 of Central Japan Day 3.
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