This was our weekend off from school and FMF responsibilities.  I spent the night at Shibahara's house on Thursday after cleaning out my apartment.  On Friday morning Shiba took me to Mt. Norikoru - 3,026 m up.  Nice and cool up that high.  I wanted to go up Fuji while I was in Japan, but Mt. Norikoru proved to be very beautiful and not close to as crowded as Fuji.  Check out the lake water in the picture above.

After Mt. Norikoru I navigated the Japanese Railroad from Matsumoto to Nagano to Shinjuku to Tokyo to Odawara to meet Pamela and go to Hakone.  I was fairly nervous about my making all of those connections but I managed ok.  We traveled around the Hakone area.  It was pretty touristy, but only Japanese tourists seemed to know about it.  I didn't see very many non-Japanese at all during these 3 days.

We went to see the Amita Buddha - a 14 m statue of the Buddha near Hakone.  Then we checked out the sulfur fumes and mines in a national park near Fuji.  We went to a rhinoceros beetle display in a botanical garden near Gora, and traveled to many shrines, temples, and restaurants.  Just having fun soaking up Japanese culture for one final weekend!