A (Short) Roadtrip!

Clement is way too primed for 6 in the morning.

An alarm rings at 4 in the morning. I bury my head in pillows. Julian asks me if I'm ready to go. I sit up and feel my brain rattling inside my head.
 Today Julian and I met Clement and Takashi in front of the New Koyo's at 4:30 AM. We stuffed our backpacks into Takashi's car and headed out towards the countryside, our destination being a bathhouse near the mountain range.

 Approximately two hours west of Tokyo is a town in the area named Kofu, near the foot of the Minami Alps. Here, we went into a bathhouse at 6:30 in the morning, hoping to catch the sunrise as we relaxed in an outdoor bath. Onsen, as they're called here, are somewhat popular outside of the cities, and many of them offer panoramic views. Though the water may seem scalding hot at first, once you sit down and relax you can feel every muscle in your body easing up. Also, there weren't any old people, so I was spared the horror of turning into stone at the sight of an old guy's junk. I didn't take any pictures while sitting in the bath, because everyone's ass naked.
Not that you can see anyone's dongs when they're sitting in the water and with all the steam everywhere, but I thought I'd spare them the awkwardness. At any rate, we didn't see the sunset from behind the mountains and with all the clouds and stuff. Sometimes you can actually see Mt Fuji, the towering volcano, from here, but we had no such luck. Regardless, the bath felt amazing.

If this picture were anymore overexposed,
I'd be seizing.

The onsen was only a short drive away from one of the mountain paths, so we also decided on a small hike along one of the trails. This spot was a popular one because it was the site of a Buddhist Monk's pilgrimage some few centuries back. Though we didn't climb the whole trail, what little we did see was quite nice.
 A few stores were also open along the road, selling semi-precious gems and stone carvings of Buddhist symbols. Also, ice cream. We stopped for ice cream.
 After a little bit of sight-seeing, stopping at one of the temples and the site of a feudal era castle (where nothing but a wall still stood) we decided to call it a day and headed back to Tokyo.