woke up at 655, showered quick and grabbed breakfast from out hotel lobby—which consisted of 5 pastries and a can of coffee before hopping on the asukusa line towards daimon to get to hamamatschu bus terminal—the meeting place for our mt fuji trip.
got on the subway no problem. even got off at daimon stop no problem. had to circle the station a couple times before finding hamamatschu terminal. found it after about 20 minutes, and got onto our bus with fifteen minutes to spare.
mariku was our english speaking tourguide. it was a large coach bus (no bathroom). it took about 2 hours to get to the mt fuji base visitor center. along the way mariku informed us of many japanese traditions, normalities and informed us about mt fuji. it last eruped 300 years ago but is still considered active. with last years huge earthquake professionals are skeptic it may erupt again sooner-than later. there are 10 stations to the top of mt fuji-- the fifth station is as high as you can go via motorcoach. you can climb mt fuji-- but only in the months of july and august. these are summer months and there is no snow atop mt fuji at this time either. At the visitor center we could not see mt fuji due to the clouds-- oh-- did i mention i chose rainy/monsoon season to visit asia. score.
we then took the 40 minutes up winding roads to the station 5. sure enough—we got above the clouds and could see mt fuji for a few pictures before more clouds would come in and cover it up. it was about 15 degrees cooler at the fifth station and we were about 2.1 km above sea level. the summit is about 3 km above sea level. we spent about 40 minutes at this station before winding our way back down and into a town for a traditional japanese lunch. complete with sushami. which is raw fish. mother did not appreciate this. there was also tempora shrimp and chicken. very small portions. and of course a bowl of white rice. andrea was still hungry afterwards. oh well. we then went to the sulfur valley and rode a cable car. we hiked up to a shack where they boil eggs in the sulfur springs turning the shells black. of couse we had to get these. 5 eggs/500 yen. this was a great—healthy midafternoon snack. then we went to hakone for our boat cruise across lake asha. we were hurried into a pirate like ship for the forty minute journey across the lake. at times we could BARELY make out mt fuji in the distance. as it is rainy season mariku was not very hopeful we would see it at all.
after exiting the boat, we took 20 minute drive through town to drop off a couple that was staying at hakone. hakone is known for its hot springs and public baths. everyone uses the same bath water so you 'shower' before entering the bath. “no swimming costumes allowed” so of course they are seperated by gender. did NOT do the public back in a hotspring. instead we continued our journey to the bullet train. this was the end of our tour and it was nearly six oclock. it was about a half hour on the bullet train to get back into tokyo city limits. we ended up getting off one stop early in shinagawa as it was easier to find our way back to magome from here. oh-- when our tour guide found out we were staying in magome she grew quickly concerned for our. apparently it is the 'ghetto' of tokyo. wow-- i'm really good at finding hotels in these parts of town to stay in. we had no issue. also, apparently 15 years ago there was a subway gas terriorist attack which killed a bunch of people. 4/5 of the perpetratiors were caught within a couple months. the fifth perpetraitor was caught on saturday afternoon in the area of magome. :-) awesome.
back to the subway station of shinagawa—i found a way to get us back to magome which required only one transfer. check check. made it back to magome about 730 pm. asked the front desk for food within walking distance. we went to a ramon noodle place just down a back alley. no english menu or english speakers. ordered 2 ramon noodles for 900 yen total. watched as mom still could not use chopsticks—its getting better though. pretty sure the ramon back home is not nearly as good as this ramon was. after paying our bill we headed back to our hotel-- packed our bags and set the alarm for 600am. off to hong kong in the am. after a 2 hour commute to narita international airport. luckily our hotel was perfectly off the subway line that brings us right to narita without any transfers or anything-- and itill only be 1300 yen a person to get there.
woke up at 655, showered quick and grabbed breakfast from out hotel lobby—which consisted of 5 pastries and a can of coffee before hopping on the asukusa line towards daimon to get to hamamatschu bus terminal—the meeting place for our mt fuji trip.
got on the subway no problem. even got off at daimon stop no problem. had to circle the station a couple times before finding hamamatschu terminal. found it after about 20 minutes, and got onto our bus with fifteen minutes to spare.
mariku was our english speaking tourguide. it was a large coach bus (no bathroom). it took about 2 hours to get to the mt fuji base visitor center. along the way mariku informed us of many japanese traditions, normalities and informed us about mt fuji. it last eruped 300 years ago but is still considered active. with last years huge earthquake professionals are skeptic it may erupt again sooner-than later. there are 10 stations to the top of mt fuji-- the fifth station is as high as you can go via motorcoach. you can climb mt fuji-- but only in the months of july and august. these are summer months and there is no snow atop mt fuji at this time either. At the visitor center we could not see mt fuji due to the clouds-- oh-- did i mention i chose rainy/monsoon season to visit asia. score.
we then took the 40 minutes up winding roads to the station 5. sure enough—we got above the clouds and could see mt fuji for a few pictures before more clouds would come in and cover it up. it was about 15 degrees cooler at the fifth station and we were about 2.1 km above sea level. the summit is about 3 km above sea level. we spent about 40 minutes at this station before winding our way back down and into a town for a traditional japanese lunch. complete with sushami. which is raw fish. mother did not appreciate this. there was also tempora shrimp and chicken. very small portions. and of course a bowl of white rice. andrea was still hungry afterwards. oh well. we then went to the sulfur valley and rode a cable car. we hiked up to a shack where they boil eggs in the sulfur springs turning the shells black. of couse we had to get these. 5 eggs/500 yen. this was a great—healthy midafternoon snack. then we went to hakone for our boat cruise across lake asha. we were hurried into a pirate like ship for the forty minute journey across the lake. at times we could BARELY make out mt fuji in the distance. as it is rainy season mariku was not very hopeful we would see it at all.
after exiting the boat, we took 20 minute drive through town to drop off a couple that was staying at hakone. hakone is known for its hot springs and public baths. everyone uses the same bath water so you 'shower' before entering the bath. “no swimming costumes allowed” so of course they are seperated by gender. did NOT do the public back in a hotspring. instead we continued our journey to the bullet train. this was the end of our tour and it was nearly six oclock. it was about a half hour on the bullet train to get back into tokyo city limits. we ended up getting off one stop early in shinagawa as it was easier to find our way back to magome from here. oh-- when our tour guide found out we were staying in magome she grew quickly concerned for our. apparently it is the 'ghetto' of tokyo. wow-- i'm really good at finding hotels in these parts of town to stay in. we had no issue. also, apparently 15 years ago there was a subway gas terriorist attack which killed a bunch of people. 4/5 of the perpetratiors were caught within a couple months. the fifth perpetraitor was caught on saturday afternoon in the area of magome. :-) awesome.
back to the subway station of shinagawa—i found a way to get us back to magome which required only one transfer. check check. made it back to magome about 730 pm. asked the front desk for food within walking distance. we went to a ramon noodle place just down a back alley. no english menu or english speakers. ordered 2 ramon noodles for 900 yen total. watched as mom still could not use chopsticks—its getting better though. pretty sure the ramon back home is not nearly as good as this ramon was. after paying our bill we headed back to our hotel-- packed our bags and set the alarm for 600am. off to hong kong in the am. after a 2 hour commute to narita international airport. luckily our hotel was perfectly off the subway line that brings us right to narita without any transfers or anything-- and itill only be 1300 yen a person to get there.
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