Two Days of Fun

Hello again everyone!  Sorry for the absence of a post last night, but I had technical difficulties... as usual.  The hotel we were staying at had incredibly tempermental WiFi, and while I could connect to the network I couldn't actually get Internet access.  Such is life on the road I guess.

It's okay though, since yesterday was a bit of a wash, and today was considerably better.  This allows me to not only cover two days in one post, but to also end on a high note, which I greatly prefer.

Yesterday we checked out of our hotel in Yokohama and hit the road.  I thought that our being in Yokohama was a strategic decision to put us along a natural path towards Mt. Fuji: start in Narita; tour Tokyo; move southwest to Yokohama; move due west to Fuji.  However, we started our day by driving due east into Chiba... essentially where we'd left off the night before.  I don't mind a bit of zig-zagging in my travels, but unfortunately that drive set the tone for the rest of the day.  It was a long, slow slog through Tokyo's morning traffic which was particularly irksome since it was not only unnecessary for us to have gone that far out of town the night before, but also because I consider Tokyo's public transit system to be the best I've ever used.

The drive had me reflecting on my last trip here.  Graydyn, Jay, and I never spent any more than a few days in any one spot, constantly jumping from city to city.  This allowed us to cover a great deal of ground and see a lot of what Japan has to offer, but without really digging in to any one city.  Since then we've often discussed the pros and cons of this approach.  I have absolutely no regrets about the way we did things, but there is one significant downside: lots of lost light lugging luggage.  While this coach tour eliminates the implied heavy lifting, it still has that downside at it's core; we're wasting a lot of time checking in and out of hotels and moving between them every day.  I'm already yearning for a return to Tokyo with the intent of getting a hotel room somewhere central and using it as a home base for the duration of the trip.

Anyway, enough reflection.  We ended up in the rather awesome district of Akihabara.  Now, I'm sure some of you at home are asking "Colin, how can we really be sure that you're even in Japan?"

Ahem.

The real problem here was that we were in none of the cool stores contained within this photo.  We got dropped off at a duty-free store selling reams of touristy crap.  As you can tell, Euphy and I bailed out of there rather quickly, but only really had time to snap a few pictures before we had to be back at the bus.  I was within visual range of Yodobashi Camera (holy ground for gadget geeks) but didn't have the time to get in there and drool on everything.  That would set the tone for the day - having to pass up the opportunity to explore in favour of getting back to the pick-up point on time... and then waiting for the inevitably late bus.  It made for a deeply frustrating day, spent mostly waiting either for the bus, or on it.

There, got that off my chest.  Now I will tone down the belly-aching and try to focus on the juicy bits.

We had lunch at a mall called Decks, which is quick close to Diver City.  The malls near me need cooler names.  Anyway, it was a mediocre Chinese buffet (taking Chinese tourists to a Chinese buffet shows the kind of imagination normal attributed to a grapefruit) but it had a stunning view.

The mall name "Decks" seems to refer to the fact that every level of the mall has a deck out back.  Great place for photos.

After lunch was another pointless duty-free store that I ducked out of.  I managed to get a really nice wallet at a shop around the corner to replace my currently disintegrating one.  Then we headed over to what I believe is called the Senso-ji Temple... sometimes the primarily Japanese signs make it hard for me to tell where I am.

I enjoyed the beautiful architecture along with about 50,000 of my closest friends.

After we left the temple we began making our way out of Tokyo.  A combination of the bus being late and the rush hour traffic made for a long trip to our hotel at Lake Kawaguchiko.  The sun was just setting as the Kanto Plains ended rather dramatically in range of mountains.  Unfortunately it was fully dark by the time we got to our hotel, so I didn't get to admire the view, but I made up for that this morning.

The hotel features a Japanese bath, and we were encouraged to go experience the quintessentially Japanese activity.  I made my way down to the baths, and followed the appropriate procedure of disrobing, cleansing myself, and soaking in the tub.  The problem at hand is that I find sitting around, completely nude, in near scalding water, with a bunch of other dudes entirely unpleasant.  Maybe you have to be Japanese?  I don't know.  In any case I lasted about five minutes before I turned tailed and bolted for my hotel room.  Turns out that the girls didn't find it any more comfortable than I did, and they beat me back.

Okay, on to the events of today.  We woke up to a beautiful view of Lake Kawaguchiko.  I can see myself spending a great deal of time in this region of Japan in the future.  It's absolutely stunning.

My photography doesn't do it justice.

Our first stop was the Fujinoeki Earthquake Simulation Centre.  It was a small museum dedicated to the phenomenon of earthquakes, and featured a room that shook to simulate various magnitudes of quake.  I've never really experienced a true earthquake before and I was surprised at how vigorous even a level three quake is.

After the simulations we headed to Shoubuike Pond.  Despite the name it's actually a series of ponds with beautiful crystal-clear waters teaming with fish.  The real feature though is just how close it is to Fuji-san.

About that close.

The water really is beautiful though.

The sign at the very top of this image is probably illegible, but it dares you to immerse your hand in the icy water for 30 seconds, if you can.  In a truly Canadian gesture I politely refrained from scoffing for the duration of the challenge.

Did I mention the view?

This was really exciting for me.  On my last visit to Japan I actually climbed mighty Fuji-san, but since I approached in the night I didn't get to experience the view in the areas around the mountain.  It's particularly striking right now with all the snow still on its highest slopes.  You can even see a section, when viewed from this angle, where there's a clear path zig-zagging up the mountain.  I'm fairly certain that's the path that I took when I made the climb.

I should note for anyone considering a visit to this particular site that it was PACKED with people.  It's apparently a very popular tourist destination.  Despite the absolute crush of people Annie managed to find a really quiet little restaurant specializing in whole fish cooked over charcoal.  It was a really delicious snack.  Also, to Euphy's delight, they served Zaru Soba (cold buckwheat noodles served with a sauce for dipping) which is her new favourite dish.

After communing with the fish we headed for a small farm that normally grows all manner of flowers.

Not exactly the season for that sort of thing.

I, as is my custom, began wandering away from the main group and found a lovely path through the forest.  Unfortunately it quickly dead-ended at the parking lot where our bus was waiting.  There was a fence blocking the way, but it was just a few strings, and had slumped to only about two feet high, so I just stepped over it and started making my way along the fence toward the bus.  Then I noticed this sign:

My Japanese isn't so good, but my hieroglyphics translating abilities suggest that that "string" may have been electrified.  It was a bit scary realizing how close I'd come to rubbing my "boys" against it.  Would have made for an even more entertaining blog post though...

Our next voyage took us through the mountains towards Hakone.  The roads along here are narrow and twisty, and there's a stunning vista around nearly every corner.  It was beautiful just sitting back in the bus and enjoying the views.  I still couldn't help but feel like our chosen vehicle was considerably too long and had two too many wheels...

We made our way up a mountain that has a series of sulphur springs which, fill the air with a delicious aroma.

It actually reminded me a lot of the area outside Aomori that we visited, except WAY more crowded.

One of the famous features of this area is that the locals use the hot spring water to boil eggs, which turns them black.

Deeeeelicious

Actually, once you peel the shell off it looks disappointingly like any other boiled egg.  Legend has it that eating one will extend your life by five years.  Difficult to prove scientifically, but I figured I'd give it a shot.  They taste very much like a normal boiled egg, but with just a hint of that sulphurous taste so rarely sought after by gourmets.

Since the black eggs are the region's claim to fame, all things must be black, including the ice cream.

I've actually had black sesame ice cream, but this was actually a really nice, smooth chocolate.

With the expected effect.

After extending our lives with the power of magic eggs we made our way to our hotel for the night.  This evening we will be staying in Izu, a small coastal city.  The drive here featured more of the magnificent mountain roads that I could drive on for hours.

Our hotel, the Hatoya Hotel, features traditional Japanese rooms, with tatami floors.

Also a really nice view.

Mindy, who adores all things Japanese, was beside herself with glee.  We haven't actually spent any time in the rooms yet, but she has already enthusiastically declared this the best hotel in all of Japan.  The last time I slept on tatami I couldn't walk right for about a week as it's much harder than I'm used to, and I must sleep on my side.  However, our mattress at home is a Chinese-style one (which I'm pretty sure is just a soft cloth over plywood) so I've toughened up over the years.  I'm not too worried about waking up battered and broken tomorrow morning.  Still, wish me luck.