a walk around kawaguchiko with a purpose : November 23 2024

3 hours ago · 5 min read · Fujikawaguchiko

and what a day it was which ended up at the foot of the majestic mount fuji. allow me to recall the story from the beginning.

@ohlnwwlknat saw this ad for an event online, a walkathon around one of the lakes near mount fuji. since our group are into hiking, this activity is totally in our alley. and this was a fundraiser for the conservation of the natural environment around mount fuji, it was for a good cause. it was in autumn, the autumn colors will be vibrant by then.

^{this is my entry to around the world challenge by @bucipuci, a picture of a park by the lake kawaguchi in autumn with the gorgeous mt fuji as backdrop}

so how did we get there?

we met at shinjuku bus terminal before 8:15 to get to the venue. we rode on this naruto decorated bus, i just managed to take a picture of kakashi sensei near the butt of the bus. it was pretty early to begin with, but there was no bus breaks: different from what i normally know of having 1 or 2 restroom breaks before reaching the end location.

eventhough, it took us 3 hours to reach the destination. it seems that everyone was also coming to the event; the roads were heavily congested from start to end. we had to call our lunch reservation for a resched; just glad that they still accepted instead of totally cancelling the reservation.

after lunch, minutes before 2pm we headed to the venue. these welcome arches were very welcoming indeed, thumbs up for doing its intended purpose well. but of course we are not here for the marathon, that happens tomorrow, the main event of all of these festivities. we are here to the opening walkathon, a fun 4km walk around this portion of lake kawaguchi.

this 8 person group started to "volt in" before the walk. those pink bands were proof that we were part of the walk. the course was not long, and it was not even difficult, very flat in fact, this is definitely comparatively easy to our standards. i guess the main purpose of this walk was for participants to see the beauty of kawaguchiko, and it was autumn after all where leaves change into dramatic colors.

and did i say that it was autumn? and we were walking around a wide lake? it was definitely windy which makes the temperature cooler than usual. glad i packed some wind breaker to control some of that. the walkathon course was marked by these arrows so we don't get lost around the lake. and it specifically passed by great photo spots for us to enjoy. these spots are what this organization is trying to protect.

^{here is my entry for proof of brain photo contest by @friendlymoose. the theme for the week happened to be animals and water, it is a pretty zoomed in image of water birds enjoying the lake.}

and we even passed by a portion of the lake with lots of water birds. i don't know if these are all ducks but they stood too upright to be ducks. i don't know, probably ducks stood like that when on rocks. these were a bit far from the banks, i had to use much of the zoom resulting in this pretty grainy image. these ducks were scattered, and we confirmed that they sound just like how rubber duckies squeak. amazingly on point!

@wittyzell was taking a picture of this colorful hole cover, it was her thing. i just mimicked what she did, who knows i might start my own collection.

we were definitely taking our time walking around this course; we were probably one of the last groups to complete. i was not expecting any reward of course, this was a fundraiser after all; bragging rights is all we will ever have. and this certificate! those pink bands were exchanged for this certificate as proof of us participating and finishing the course. and we were given imabari face towels as tokens. imabari towels are world renowned for their softness and quality apparently, the uneducated me would never have known.

and this bread? i bought that for 150 yen, not a prize at all. i just got curious of the taste.

there were more handouts in the program, they even had a quiz which we answered wrong by the 3rd question. a raffle draw for shirts and memorabilia were also held, our luck was zero. of the 8 participating members, none was drawn. at least we saw sonic on stage.

the walkathon successfully conquered! as i have said earlier, the marathon main event will be held the next day and i'm sure that will also be awesome and more competitive. for more information about the marathon and related activities, you can visit their website from here.

i started this "walk" activity from our lunch restaurant, but the walkathon was a complete loop of this portion of the lake. after so much picture taking, and tiktok videos, that took us 3 hours to complete.

it was a fun, memorable, and purposeful activity i am happy to take part of.

as always, AMPING KANUNAY!