Thursday - Saitama Day Trip!

Mini day trip to Saitama today to visit another NZ JET friend! Woke up at 7:00am, had udon for breakfast, and then set off a bit early just before 8:00am. Got my tire pressure checked at a petrol stand before setting off! I love driving in Gunma prefecture cause there’s hardly any cars on the road once you’re out of the cities, it’s great.

Arrived at my friend’s grandparent’s home just before 10:30am, and then we set off to Totoro forest! It’s a forest that inspired some settings in Totoro, and there’s a foundation that works to maintain the forest. There’s also a Totoro house that you can visit, but it’s only open on certain days and unfortunately wasn’t open today, so we could kinda only see the outside of it. The forest was lovely though, and certainly very Ghibli-esque! Also went to Sayama Lake and the view was gorgeous, especially with the great weather. We had lunch at a really nice Italian café, and I had onion gratin soup, mozzarella and mascarpone cheese pasta, and chocolate mousse cake for dessert! After lunch we went back into the forest to hunt for the Totoro tree, and finally found it! It was so random, being in someone’s front yard, but also super cute. They should have placed the eyes a bit more apart though, to look more like Totoro! After that we went to another lake nearby called Tama Lake and enjoyed the views. A kind grandpa walking past us stopped to ask us if we’d taken a photo of Mt Fuji (probably because he saw my camera) and we were like “What!? You can see Mt Fuji from here!?” so we rushed back in the direction he told us and indeed, there Mt Fuji was! Super thankful for the great weather today. He also told us we could see Skytree and the Metropolitan building in Shinjuku. I know Saitama and Tokyo are near each other, but that near that you can see each other’s buildings!? Pretty cool.

We stayed to watch the sun set over Mt Fuji and the lake which was really beautiful. Afterwards, since it was still a bit early for dinner, we went back to my friend’s grandparent’s home to chill a bit. When it was time for dinner, we headed out to a nearby 回転寿司 place and enjoyed super fresh tuna nigiri! After finishing dinner I dropped my friend back off home, and then drove home myself. The drive back was way faster because of no traffic (only 2 hours, compared to the 2.5 hours on the way to Saitama) so that was great!