Fujikawaguchiko-machi, Japan

Our last day !!! Number 24! Cat and I have breakfast, the food was ok. We decide to take a walk around the lake . What a beautiful lake, surrounded by lush mountains. There are wild flowers everywhere . I wish I knew the names! Perfect weather, big puffy clouds and a little cool. We check out and drive across the lake. We take the gondola to get a better view. We walk across the town a bit. Then we see a sign for ice cream, so we walk up and no one is serving anything! Except for vending machines! So Cat order French fries, Gilda gets the nuggets from the hot vending machine and I buy a cheesecake ice cream cone from the frozen one. The hot French fries were actually good and the cone was tasty! We definitely should have that in the states. We continue our trek to Mount Fuji past the 5th station. We spend about an hour at the village which looks like their version of a Swiss village. I talk to some Japanese skiers; they actually climb 6 hours to the top of Fuji and ski down the mountain , which takes about 30 minutes. There are no chairlifts on Fuji…That’s some crazy Japanese!!! We now head back to the airport. The Sunday traffic is brutal. After turning the car in; Gilda barely makes her flight and ours is one hour later so we have time for a goodby glass of wine !! I try not to sleep to minimize the jet lag . We shall see! 24 days seemed like so much and so long, but our itinerary was so jammed with wild adventures, great natural beauty, a great deal of culture, lots of varied food to satisfy all palates. The bond we created with each other made this amazing trip feel like a time warp. We walked at a frenetic pace, climbed high mountains, dangled from others, lived with all our senses, laughed a lot and sharpened our communication skills quite well without speaking the same language. Across China and Japan we were blessed to have encountered the nicest, kindest and warmest people. It simply made my life that much richer!