Fuji-San - April 27

Hurry Up and Wait

You can skip this part if you don't want to know about how an hour and a half of my time got wasted. I just need to whine a little.)

Today we took the Grayline tour to Mt. Fuji and Hakone. I had heard repeatedly that this was a fantastic tour.

We were told to be in the lobby of our hotel by 8 am for our 8:10 pickup. The rep was there early but we found out there were 17 others from our hotel so we had to wait. When everybody was there and we were finally ready to go, two of the women who had been standing around waiting decided they had to go to the bathroom, so we had to wait some more. I just hate it when people can't be bothered to be considerate of the rest of the group.

When all 19 of us were ready, the rep walked us across the street to the Hyatt where a bus was waiting with some other passengers. My friend, Judy, from Knitters and Natters, was among them! Then we went to another hotel a few blocks away and had to wait a little longer while the rep collected more people.

Then we drove downtown to the Tokyo Station. You could say that all of Tokyo is downtown, and certainly where we are in Shinjuku seems very downtown, but the area around Tokyo Station seems even more downtown than most places. Anyway, the purpose of going to Tokyo Station was to drop off some of the people on our bus who were going on a different Grayline tour. This stop took ten minutes or sowhile the guides and reps ran around trying to figure something out (I have no idea what). Finally, at 9:15, we were ready to leave. We then headed back the way we came and did not pass our original starting point until about 9:30. As far as I could tell, the ONLY reason we had to go to Tokyp station was to drop a few people off for a different tour. This was unacceptable, in my opinion.

There were more delays at the other end of the tour. I'll get to those later.

We Hit the Road

Our guide, Eiko, introduced herself and went over the schedule for the day. She told us about Mount Fuji - its history as a volcano and its history as a holy site. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, about 12,300 ft. It is an active volcano and it last erupted in 1707-08.

We drove for quite a while through the outskirts of Tokyo. Suddenly the landscape changed to a series of conical hills covered in lush green forests. These foothills became mountains. We passed several villages and many cemeteries alongside the road. There were a few small farms, but not many.

Don't know what this is about, but you can see it from quite a distance.

We stopped at a rest stop shortly after 11. There were already 5 or 6 buses there. Long lines for the bathroom and all that. The usual vending machines. But, apparently this rest stop is famous for its attractive tasting millet dumplings. Oh, boy!

Japan has great vending machines, and they are all over the place. You can get hot and cold drinks. The prices aren't too bad - about $1.00 to $1.25 USD per item.

Red background = hot, blue background = cold

Yes, it's quite hot

As we began to climb into the mountains, the vegetation changed and it got colder. The higher we got, the later spring arrived. In Tokyo the cherry blossom season was over. We passed some areas where it was peaking, and later we passed areas where it was just starting.

 

36 Views of Mount Fuji

The weather was not great, and there was a real concern that we would not see anything. After we entered the park, we drove through patches of thick fog.Suddenly we rounded a curve and we could see Mount Fuji right above us.

Our bus stopped at the "Fifth Station" and we got off. This is the jumping off point for mountain climbers and the turnaround point for the rest of us.

There were several souvenir shops and a shrine. It was decidedly chilly now. The weather had cleared up and we had some nice photo ops with Fuji-San, but by the time we left the clouds had moved in again. It was not the best day to view Fuji, but we were lucky to get a chance to see what we did see. It is what it is. Could have been worse.

One final photo at the 5th Station

Lunch, the Ropeway, and a Pirate Ship

You could have a buffet lunch as an add-on to the tour - or not. We chose to find our own lunch. 

We arrived at our lunch venue just before two. The ten of us who opted out ate in a cafeteria type of place. I had a "Japanese-style Hamburger." It was quite good. There was a white mystery substance on top of the burger. It had zero taste. I think it may have been grated radish. I'm not sure why you would eat something that has no taste.

Ken had hot green tea. It came in a small teapot accompanied by a mystery item in a bag on the saucer. His mystery item was  quite cold. It may have been some kind of red bean paste. Or not.

I did not hear how the others liked their buffet.

After lunch we got back on the bus for a short drive to the beginning of the Ropeway. It turned out to be an ordinary cable car. It was an 8-minute ride down a hill to the place where we had lunch. Yeah.

It was not very exciting, and we waited in line for more than 8 minutes.

Next came a boat ride on Lake Ashi - on a pirate ship. I'm not sure how authentic the pirate ships were. I would guess not authentic at all. It was okay. I think it would have been spectacular if it were sunny and you could see the mountain. Lake Ashi is a caldera. It is mostly undeveloped, and it is a pleasant enough place. The boat ride was about 30 minutes.

At the end of the boat ride there was a very small park with a few nice cherry blossom trees. It really pained me to see people climbing on the trees, picking blossoms, and pulling the branches down towards their faces for photos. I might have said something to a  (20-something?) young man climbing one of the trees to have his photo taken by an accomplice, possibly his mother. He pretended he didn't understand English.

White Lightning

We had the option of riding back to Tokyo on our bus or paying a bit more and going back on the Shinkansen - the Bullet Train. We chose the Bullet Train. How can you not?

During the 40-minute ride to Odawara Station, Eiko told us we would arrive at 5:15 and catch the 5:42 train. (In the morning she had said we would be getting to the station about 4:45 and taking the 5:11 train.) Feeling annoyed. Then she told us that because a holiday weekend was coming the guides were not able to buy our tickets in advance, so we would have to wait while she bought them for us. Huh?

We got off the bus and instead of just walking across the drop-off lane to the station, we had to follow this ridiculous circular route around all the other buses to the street in front of the station, down the block, turn left and go past a block of buildings, and then along the front of the station to the door, which was just a few steps from where we started. I don't know if this was one of those Lost in Translation moments or what.

While we were waiting for Eiko to buy our tickets, two other bus loads arrived. One of them was one of the other Grayline buses. The other two bus loads had pre-purchased tickets and their guides just passed them out and they waltzed past us and through the turnstiles.  Huh?

While we were waiting on the platform (yes, more waiting), I was talking to Judy. Suddenly this white streak appears on the middle track and blasts through the station before anyone can react. Everyone's jaw dropped. OMG, that train was going fast! It was hard to believe. We were all speechless.

The Bullet Train goes 200 mph, and when it is not stopping at your station it is really a sight to see. Or a blur to see.

Our train arrived exactly on time and we boarded. It was clean and comfortable. The ride was extremely smooth and a lot of fun. We got back to Tokyo Station in 36 minutes and I was disappointed that it was over so quickly. From there we got on the subway and returned to our hotel by 7 pm.

Long Story Short

A lot of time was wasted, and the Ropeway and pirate boat were sort of a waste of time, too. On the other hand, we got to see some lovely scenery outside of Tokyo, we got to see a little bit of Fuji-San, and we got to ride the Bullet Train.