Today was dedicated to a tour of Mount Fuji, or Fujiyama or Fuji-sam if you wish, and Hakone along with Owakudani Bari. This was a package tour served from the hotel where we were picked up by the tour bus directly. It started with a bus ride to Mt. Fuji which took about 2 hours. While getting there we actually passed a US Marines base that I had no idea was there. From there we drove up the mountain to the 5th station. The highest station you can reach before the top is station 9. The 5th station is the last station open at this time of year, climbing to the top can only be done during July and August as it is too snowy and dangerous at any other time of the year. The mountain is about 12,385 feet high at the precipice and we only went up about 6000 feet or so if I understood the tour guide correctly. The drive up had some really scary hairpin turns and frightening overlook drops which I am generally not comfortable with and I figured the drive down would be even scarier but it actually was less scary for some reason. I am fine with heights as long as my feet are firmly planted on solid ground, in a car and such, well, not so much. We’ll get to more of that later. In any event I did take a piece of the volcanic rock from the mountain while we were up there.
The trip down brought us to Hakone for lunch. The drive was not so bad and it was about an hour from the 5th station of Fuji. There we had dinner. Most of the crowd bought the set course western lunch but George had a tempura course and I had some buckwheat noodles that were very good. The waitress saw my ghetto chopstick holder I made out of the wrapper and made me one that looks like a swan. I kept it.
From the restaurant we traveled down to the lake Ashi (I think) where we took a ride on a motorized bought that was built to look like a pirate ship. It was a very similar tour for me as the ride I took on Windermere in England. The run lasted about a half an hour and there were commentaries on the loudspeaker but we sat on the right side of the boat and it seemed that most of the stuff that it explained was on the left. Also by the time she was done with the Japanese explanation there was a good chance the item was out of site when she gave it in English. All in all it was very pretty and it was peaceful so I was happy with it. I was surprised at how fast they turned around launching the boat after we exited though. Hakone in general is a summer resort area for the wealth of Tokyo and it seemed a lot like the lakes region of England in general. A lot of it felt very much the same as the lakes region and there is apparently even a lot of hiking involved. There was a lot of golden topped grass on some of the mountain sides but as we didn’t stop the bus I wasn’t confident I could get a good picture of it and did not try. I apologize for that because it was very beautiful.
From there we drove a bit and got to a gondola ride that would take us up to Owakudani Bari which is a sulfuric hot steam vent coming up from the volcanoes in the area. Did I point out that Fuji is still considered an active volcano? I stood on an active volcano and it didn’t erupt. I was quite surprised by that fact… In any event if we remember the bit about me not liking heights when the ground is say more than 5 feet below me feet then it should be no surprise that the seven minute ride on a double cable gondola was a pleasantly unpleasant experience for me. There were points where we were over 150 feet above the ground and especially so after we crested the first climb and had to hang over the sulfuric vents area for the remainder of the ride. I managed it without screaming, crying or blubbering but I certainly was happy to place my feet on solid ground again when we got out. Fortunately for me the bus met us at the top and I didn’t have to go through it all again in reverse. The views were spectacular on it and I managed to take a couple of pictures but it was not something that was easy because I was nervous plus it was cold up there and my hands were shaking a bit. They are probably all blurry.
At the top we saw the volcanic stuff and it started to get dark. I spent most of my time up there in the gift shops because it was rather windy and cold and it was more pleasant to be inside. I didn’t bring a jacket to Japan let alone to Owakudani Bari. The sulfur in the air was also something to contend with. It was all encompassing and it definitely stifled breathing a bit. The thin air on Fuji was easier on me by far. I seem to have either an allergy attack or a cold right now so my nose just started flooding as soon as I got there and didn’t really stop until we were very far away. It was interesting to see it all, though none of us tried the sulfuric water cooked eggs which were totally black from all the stuff going on. Supposedly they add seven years to your life but I think it was an easy skip anyway.
From there the bus drove us to Odawara station where we were able to catch a shinkansen back to Tokyo. This turned out to be an unexpected bonus from our rail passes because it we weren’t expected to be able to use it today and it cut our return trip home from 2 hours to just an hour including the cab ride back to the hotel and since it only cost us the cab ride it was very much worth it. On the tour there was a group of three who were in Japan for one week from Chicago. We tried to give them some pointers on what to do and trade a couple notes. They are doing Himeji after Tokyo but will be staying in Kyoto for a couple days as well. I advised them to try Kaji, the kobe beef place we went to and also we explained to them a little bit about the shinkansen and JR lines as well. They were nice and also staying at the Shiba Park. We managed to get out of the train and to the taxi line before they did by a fair clip so we only saw them way behind us at the taxi stand when we arrived back in Tokyo.
From there we decided to regroup before getting dinner. But since for the record I have a cold and George was negatively affected by the sulfur we were all pretty much shot to the point where our best choice was to make it a simple smoke-free dinner and then call it a night. We went to Mosburger because we knew it was a non-smoking place and there aren’t many of them around here and ate quickly. From there we returned to the hotel, I did laundry by doing the wash part then switching them then putting them in the dryer and setting my alarm for the time it was going to take and then went to bed until the alarm went off and fetched my laundry. From there it was bedtime where we intentionally set up a late start of 8:30 for recovery purposes.
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