Mount Fuji hides

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As we sailed into Shimizu harbour all we could see was low lying cloud and fog. Despite this we went out in hope. First stop the inevitable shrine. - Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine to be exact. We entered through the Torii gate, purified ourselves with the sacred water, entered the shrine, did our two bows, two claps to waken the gods, offering of money , a wishful prayer and bow out. Got this down to a tee now. This one did have a lovely scared pool with lovely wisteria over it. Then it was back on the bus and a drive past lots of green tea plantations to the Matsubara Pine Grove. These ancient pines are protected and thought to be sacred and I must admit they are lovely trees all sweeping and bending over. The walk through the pines takes you to the beach which is volcanic black sand and from here there should have been a lovely view of Mount Fuji but today it was totally shrouded in low cloud. The view was also made into a woodprint by the famous Japanese artist Hiroshige and was later copied by Van Gogh. He obviously put the mountain in the picture! After that it was back to the ship for lunch and then to pack as this was our final stop before back to Tokyo and disembarkation. We won the final Trivia quiz and were able to exchange all our points for fabulous prizes!

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