In Search of Mt. Fuji

It was raining when we got up on our last morning in Tokyo.  We had our traditional hot dog, potato salad, broccoli, and coleslaw breakfast that we have somehow gotten used to here in the city.  Then we stopped by our local 7-11 to purchase two umbrellas.  These convenience stores are everywhere, and we had 3 within two blocks each way of our hotel.

It was a 25-minute walk in the rain to the Tokyo train station, but not without photo opportunities.  We saw two fire engines with sirens blazing, deploying ladders that seemed sadly inadequate next to the skyscraper.

We stopped to watch the wedding pictures being taken on the picturesque Nihombashi Bridge.  A troupe of photographers were fixing hair and trying to keep that beautiful white gown clean on a pedestrian bridge in the rain.  This is our last day in Tokyo, and the heavy rain has shortened our sight-seeing here.

So we headed to the train station.  As we were waiting on the train platform, it was fun to watch the cleaning crew.  With amazing Japanese efficiency, they run onto the train as soon as the last passenger is off.  The team turns every chair 180 degrees, as the train will leave in the opposite direction.  They take off each seat's white head cover, and replaces it with a clean one, dust, wipe and vacuum, and then rush off the train in less than ten minutes.  After a bow, they run to the next incoming train.

This is the last day of our 7-day Japan Rail Pass, and we used it to take a shinkansen toward  Hakone, one of the best places to view Mt. Fuji.  These bullet trains are so fast, that when we meet another train it is just a white blur that is gone in a second.  We are a little sad that this is is our last shinkansen, but we have enjoyed 11 in the past 7 days.  Add to that around 20 other local train rides, and we have made good use of our JR Pass.

We arrive in the city of Odawara in the rain, and it looks like we will be seeing clouds instead of Mt. Fuji.  We still decided to buy the two-day Hakone Pass that will allow us to travel on any mode of transportation in the Hakone area for 4000 yen each. We will come to respect how many different types of transportation that will include before we leave there.  Now we use that pass to ride two different small local trains . . .

and a cable car . . .
and then walk up hill in the rain to get to our next lodging.  It's actually an apartment, with more square footage than all our places in Japan combined!  New and spacious, it was a great place to be on a rainy afternoon.  We had our own living room with its Japanese-style sofa that has the cushions on the floor.  Check out Mark's provided slippers, as outdoor shoes are not allowed inside in Japan.

We even have our own kitchen and dining area.  Everything is in Japanese, so Mark spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what buttons to push so we could toast some bread for breakfast.

This is a picture of our bedroom.  Now an empty room with tatami floors, at bedtime we will use the mats, futons, and sheets in the closet to make our beds on the floor.

We decided to do some exploring in the afternoon, and we had to figure out the bus system to do that.  We consider ourselves seasoned travelers, but reading bus schedules in Japanese brings navigating bus rides to a whole new level.  Once successfully on the bus, we decided the driver viewed this curvy mountain road like a raceway.  He was trying to keep on schedule in spite of the rain and requested stops by passengers.  There was a curious English announcement on the recorded system that said, "As we are on a meandering road, please take care of yourself and luggage."   Good advice!  After our journey to the lake, the clouds and rain thwarted our tries at seeing Mr. Fuji today.  But we have high hopes for tomorrow . . .

On the second day of our stay in Hakone, the weather forecast gives us a few hours before the rain starts for the day.  So we are up at 6 a.m., eating our breakfast of bakery bread (successfully toasted), jam, cheese, apples, oranges, milk and green tea.  It's not hot dogs, but we are still feeling very Asian.  We got to the cable car about the time it opened for the day.  Denisa was taking a picture of Mark on the platform, and managed to picture herself in the mirror as well.

The cable car isn't very full this morning, and Mark is the only non-Asian on board.

Denisa is standing at the front, taking pictures of the beautiful trees out the big window.

When we get to the top of the mountain, we find that it is not raining yet, but it is socked in with fog.

Our Hakone pass includes unlimited rides on the ropeway, so we hop aboard the first ride of the morning.

We're guessing that the ride above the fall foliage would be breath-taking, but we only see shadows of color through rain-splattered windows.  It's a lesson to us that in every vacation, a little rain must fall.

Riding above the trees is also a good time to catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji, but this was the only mountain we would get to see.

There's a circular path that visitors can take using the Hakone pass. It starts with the cable car, the bus, the ropeway, and then a sight-seeing ship ride across the lake from the northern shore.   We were sorely disappointed to see that the boat ride had been suspended for the morning because of the weather.  So we reversed the circular path down the mountain on the bus, down the cable car, a two-stop train ride, then onto a bus to the southern shores of Lake Ashti instead. Not quite as fun or scenic as the boat ride!  We were glad to have the pass that covered all our transportation.  We navigated through all these complicated rides with few signs in English and few English-speakers to guide us.  When we finally got to the southern shores of Lake Ashti, the boats docked there looked like ghost ships in the fog of the lake.

So we did some hiking along the lake instead, still marveling in the colors of the leaves that have fallen from many of the trees.

The fog lifted enough that we decided to race back to the ship pier to get a picture of the boats we had planned to ride today.

Our ride was already paid for with our pass, so it was really disappointing not to sail across the lake for that perfect shot of Mt. Fuji.

There was some shopping in the little stores of Hakone-Machi-Ko.  The wooden boxes and plates decorated with thin layers of intricate wood patterns immediately caught Denisa's eye.  Our son, Blake brought a plate home to us when he visited Japan several years ago.  So it was fascinating to watch the process of putting the wooden pieces together in intricate shapes and patterns.  These blocks of solid wood patterns are then shaved off in thin sheets and applied to wooden boxes and plates.

Denisa stopped to watch the older gentleman making them.  He noticed her interest and shaved off this thin piece of solid wood pattern and gave it to her as a tiny souvenir.

We walked back through the "Ancient Cedar Avenue" made up of trees planted 400 years ago to provide protection from the weather to travelers on the Old Tokaido Road.

They provided the same protection for us today.

We also walked along the peninsula that separates the two tiny towns of Hakone-Machi-Ko and Moto-Hakone-Ko.  The lake is still a sea of fog, and the small rental boats are chained together in the harbor for the day.

The autumn trees are still beautiful in the fog.

It was 200 rock steps through a forest and another hike to get to one of the best view points for Mt. Fuji.  We know this hike is useless, but it can never be said that we weren't trying every option to get a glimpse of this famous mountain.

We couldn't even see the lake right in front of us, much less a mountain 25 miles away.   It looks like we have made a long and expensive trip to see Mt. Fuji, but it obviously wasn't going to happen this time.

According to this poster, this was the view we were supposed to be enjoying today.

So we had to console ourselves with a lunch of bratwurst, fried potatoes, and corned beef, all smothered in melted cheese.  Mark deemed it his favorite meal in Japan, so we had to take a picture of his idea of a really good Japanese restaurant.  It looks like the trip to Hakone was worth it after all. 

A stop for ice cream for dessert at 7-11, and we were ready for our long march to our last hotel.  That would include rides on a bus, train, cable car, then a walk to our apartment to pick up the bags they've stored all day for us.  

While picking up luggage, we gestured and wrote and spoke enough that our non-English-speaking hosts finally understood that Denisa was wanting to buy one of the kimonos that are in the rooms for guests to wear.  Score!  She finally got an authentic Japanese kimono--the perfect souvenir from this Mt. Fuji adventure.

Our hosts also insisted on driving us to the train station.  So we continued our journey by car, then the Hakone Tozan train, then transfer to another Odakya train.  The train had stopped in the valley, and the windows were raised to cool the passengers.  Mark was holding his phone out that open window taking pictures of the train approaching us.

He found that there is barely a phone width between the two trains when they meet.

After all our different modes of transportation today, we must now figure out how to buy train tickets and get ourselves to our last destination--the international airport on the other side of Tokyo.  Spoiled by the ease of the Japan Rail Pass, we have to learn to use the ticket kiosks and map our way through rush hour in Tokyo.  We made a wrong turn on the subway and found ourselves in a deserted train station staring at a subway map without a clue of where we were.  

But one of the only three people at the remote station turned out to be our guardian angel and helped us get back on the right track (literally).  Our journey through cars, trains, cable cars, ropeways and subway rides took us almost six hours, and we were tired when we arrived at our last hotel close to the airport.  We weren't successful in our search for Mt. Fuji, but we were glad to find our last Japanese hotel.