Emily seemed to be waking earlier than ever, getting me up at 5am. It was a lovely clear morning and there were superb views of Bandai-san from the others' room. The two peaks were clothed in lenticular clouds. I think we'd all have liked another day so we could make the ascent.
Today was the day of the big drive north-east to Miyako, about 250 miles in all. We were ready soon after breakfast and got away at 8.40. This was crucial to the plan to stop at mini-Mount Fuji on the way. I opted to drive first, taking the deserted Lakeline Road, which quickly started climbing through the tree-covered hills. It was here that we finally saw some wildlife, as a monkey and two young were sitting on the roadside, darting into the undergrowth as we approached.
As we reached the beginning of the Skyline Road we entered thick cloud; given the £8 pricetag this was a disappointment. However, it soon started to break as we zigzagged higher and we had some lovely vistas. Birds of prey were wheeling nearby on the thermals. Worryingly, the barrier was very crumpled in places, with a drop of hundreds of feet on the other side.
Before the hour was out we arrived at Azuma Ko-Fuji. In typical Japanese fashion the inn owner had overestimated the time and distance considerably. We were a bit confused at first as the mountain on the left seemed a more likely candidate to be little Fuji, but in fact it was the much lower slope on the right of the road that was our target. From the huge car park we could see little of the mist-shrouded volcano, the zigzag path disappearing into the gloom, but as soon as we began the climb the cloud started to shred and blow away.
Reaching the rim in less than 10 minutes, we soon decided that we simply must walk round the crater, despite knowing that we had a long way still to travel. It was an amazing volcano, a near-perfect cone. The rim was tilted, so the walk was half uphill, though not too steep.
Away towards the lowlands there was a sea of cloud, but the crater gradually came into complete view and it was quite a sight. Where the sun fell regularly, the inside wall was coated in scrub vegetation; the upper edge was lined with lava stacks and the ground was shades of orange and red.
In the bottom of the cone there was sand and small rocks. We got great views of Mount Isshaikyo opposite (an active volcano that releases noxious fumes). At the top, we noticed an attractive yellow and black butterfly alighting on the rocks and Graham and I rushed to snap it. It seemed to be luring him closer and closer to the edge - a high price to pay for the perfect shot.
Back at the restaurant and retail area, we stopped off to give Emily an early lunch: another horribly bland jar that she refused before the end. I am even more resolute to keep making the effort to cook for her. Carrying on with Nick in the driver's seat, we soon descended a series of switchbacks that brought us to the outskirts of Fukushima on the plain below. The two-lane expressway was quiet and we made good progress. There were several roadworks and at each there was a very lifelike two-dimensional dummy waving a flag that had us all laughing. At the end of the works was a notice with a cartoon picture of a man bowing.
With drizzle falling, it felt almost like a dual carriageway at home, except for the odd clump of bamboo. We stopped at a services for some food then Kate took over. Before long we turned off to start heading east towards the coast. We were in deep valleys, and it got dark long before the end, so Kate did well as she dislikes night driving. I was in the back with Emily, and she had had more than enough of a day confined to the car. Rather than sleep, she started to howl and after a while I was crying too. In the end, I took a risk and got her out of the seat so I could get her to nap on the breast.
We got a bit lost on the final approach to the hotel, but Nick called them and they directed us in. Once we were settled, and Emily asleep on the futon, we sat down in our yukata to a veritable feast of delicacies from the deep. Each place was set with a miniature bridge, complete with imitation bonsai and the contents of a rockpool, or so it seemed. There were lots of weird things in shells that most of us couldn't stomach, and a year's supply of raw seafood. I'm afraid that some of us cooked our sashimi in our individual hotpots, but it tasted lovely when lightly simmered.
We were quite amused to be politely turned out of the dining room at 8.30 (already half an hour beyond the deadline, apparently), so decamped to the spartan lounge in the lobby for a can of beer from the vending machine there. We hadn't been there long before we were informed that the lights would be turned out at nine, which had us tittering like a bunch of schoolkids caught doing something naughty. We wondered if we would be locked into our bedrooms like prisoners.
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