day 20 - chilling

23/06/07 17:59
back from a very relaxing day. there really didn`t happen too much. we left the house at 10 am to drive around the area and go to one of atami`s famous hot springs. the way there was really beautiful, going along the coast which really reminds me a lot of the mediterranean sea, italy or southern france (if it weren`t for all the kanji). the streets are very narrow and follow the cours of the mountains in serpentines and sometimes it amazed me that we weren`t involved in any crash. especially inside of the cities 2 cars cannot possibly pass each other and there`s no way to see who`s coming behind the next corner. those japanese manage somehow. first we drove to a spot with a nice sight of the sea. there were cliffs and you could climb up to the edge. the weather was very nice, too, which was a little unexpected after yersterday`s constant rain. we had soba for lunch and went to the hot spring. it was pretty much like the public bath i wrote about earlier, but with an outside terrace that was pretty much directly above the sea. the water was damn hot though. i went into a sauna for the first time in my life and wow, what the hell. i could barely breath in there and i cannot imagine why anybody would visit such a place. honestly, i thought i was going to get sick or collapse, it was exactly like i imagine breathing through a military gas mask to be like. we got back here and visited a few more spots with a nice view of the sea and the mountains on the way. tomorrow we`ll go climb the mt. fuji, japan`s highest mountain with about 3700m. the usual starting point is at 2000m, but we can`t go all the way to the top yet, because apparently the conditions are still pretty much arctic there and we lack the proper equipment. well, a reason to come back here once again.