I came to Japan with a bit of a plan, but left lots of time open just to get out and explore. I have always found the most exciting things when I am just out exploring, taking the roads most would not, and letting my curiosity take over. We left Nagoya with a known destination of Mt. Fuji, but we gave ourselves two days to get there, and that was the best decision. We chose to stay off the freeway, and take a long windy route instead. Along these countryside routes, you go through town after town with beautiful traditional homes, many dating back much more than 100 years. Some parts of these town are full of Akiya, which translates to empty home. These homes are not technically "abandoned" but they are unfortunately just left to be taken over by the elements. Japan has a bit of an issue with population decline currently, which is leaving behind a growing number of these empty homes. As the elderly population is passing away, these homes are handed down to the children, but there is not enough of a population to be able to sell the house. The workload is also quite demanding in Japan, which doesn't allow the time necessary to maintain a home. The final problem is that the population has been moving more and more into the cities, and young people have no desire to be in the countryside. It is difficult to understand the history of each location I visit, especially with language barrier and duration of stay, but this whole trip was an absolute delight. We got to eat some absolutely delicious seafood, see some city and some country, as well we got to do some walking all through a mostly abandoned town. There was clearly some industry in that town at some point, but there is not enough left behind to even have an educated guess as to what it was. Finally, we finish our trip at the beautiful Mt. Fuji. I have seen the mountain a few times before from a plane, but this was my first chance seeing it in person. Our first day in town unfortunately Fuji was in the clouds, but day two was a blue bird day and wow was that beautiful. The wind was blowing hard that morning and you could see large clouds of snow blowing off the peak.
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