Finally!

Japan 2007. Fujigoko.

Ticket counter at the lava caves.  A little bird. Friends with the ticket collector.

What was it, I wondered.  So cute and colourful

And have continued to wonder all these years.  Until just recently, when I came across Stu's blog and this post from Hakadote.

Varied Tit - Cyanestes varius.  I also realised that it must be fairly common there - he has 51 tags for the bird!

This was where we were. Past Lake Saiko.

The caves had a walkway through them, these "bloody" icicles from the walls, and snake-like solidified rivers of larva.

And these fossilised eggs!

Outside was the Aokigahara.  The dense dark forests, famed for suicides, and quite creepy in the day.  Imagine how it would be in the night!