9:30 am — TSH, day 7

The day was long yet pretty much uneventful. The trail went southwards and the landscape changed a lot over the course of the trail. Mountains at the beginning of the day first shrank to hills and then disappeared altogether, and closing to Tanuki lake grasslands gradually started to turn into marshlands.

Mt. Fuji rising above green forest and grassland
Wide open grassland under cloudy sky
Wooden boardwalk path winding through marshland

11:30 am — Fuji-san

In the morning I was able to catch several views of mt.Fuji yet later it got covered with clouds and disappeared till the evening, when I was able to see its silhouette over the sunset sky.

Unfortunately it was already too dark to take a picture.

Mt. Fuji summit peeking through clouds above forest

12:00 pm — Bridges

During the day the trail ran over several bridges. Some of them were nice small pedestrian suspension bridges.

Narrow wooden suspension bridge leading into forest
Long suspension footbridge with orange deck stretching toward a misty forested mountainside

3:00 pm — Camping

I’ve reached my planned destination around midday. It was a camping that looked like a large piece of grassland with a fence around it and no roofs other than a WC. In the air one could smell a light smell of a nearby animal farm. And since the sky was cloudy and looked like it was going to rain, I decided to skip this point and move straight to Tanuki lake camping.

A small drizzle started almost right after I passed the camping and several kilometers later my knee started to hurt as hell. The pain was strong enough to create doubts if I’ll be able to continue hiking at all. Yet as soon as the rain stopped the pain also stopped, thus I’m keeping hiking the trail.

Dry riverbed with misty mountains in distance
Paved path through trees with cloudy mountains
View across Tanuki lake to cloud-wrapped mountains, with a wooded islet and lawn in the foreground

6:00 pm — Tanuki-ko

Yet again I’ve reached a camping after reception time. This time I was not the only one, a Hungarian family met exactly the same difficulties. With the help of locals we tried to call the number stated at the reception but with no luck. After a short discussion we decided to just set our tents and pay in the morning. Peter turned out to be an interesting man and we spent an evening chatting with him and his family.

Wooden dock extending into calm lake on overcast day
Lake with trees and mountains reflected in still water
Lone tree on grassy hill by lake at dusk

6:30 pm — More of Tanuki-ko

The sunset was beautiful

Pink sunset clouds reflected in lake water
Mountain silhouette with pink sunset over lake
Panoramic sunset view of lake with mountain reflections