Mt Fuji and Hakone

This was a trip we'd arranged before travelling through Expedia. The coach picked us up in the morning and took us to, what I can best describe as a bus terminus meeting a travel agents. It seemed any organised tour left from here, so was very chaotic. Once we'd found the correct booth and been given stickers, we found our coach.

Onboard was our tourguide, Harry, who entertained us throughout the day with interesting facts about Japan, its history and his views on everything else. Rupert described Harry as a tour guide, comedian, historian, philosopher and genuine renaissance man. Some of the highlights of his comentary were….

Harry on bullying

If your child is bullied at school, some parents send the child to the grammar school, there is no point they will keep on being bullied, at work and mainly at home from the mother in law

Harry on politics

Most Japanese Prime Ministers don’t speak English, so when Clinton came over, the PM was told ask ‘How are you’ and answer ‘Me too’. The PM was nervous at speaking English and so asked ‘Who are you?’ Clinton answered ‘Hilary’s husband’, the PM replied with ‘Me too’.

Harry on marriage

It is very hard for Japanese when you get divorced, your standard of living gets very low, so there are many Japanese couples who live without love, a lot like my marriage.

Harry on love

Japanese don’t say I love you as its too big a phrase. I haven’t told my wife I love her in 25 years, if I did she’d ask me what I’d done wrong. Instead I always tell my mother in law, because I don’t like her!

Of course the main point of the trip was to see Mt Fuji and the views were breath taking. We stopped first to take pics and stop off at the toilets. I had read in guidebooks that Japanese toilets aren't like Western ones, but still wasn't quite prepared for the hole in the ground that awaited me! Tip from the guidebook for any future travellers, make sure anything you want to keep is in your coat pocket and you hang your coat up!

Further up the mountain we stopped off at some gift shops and after wandering around found a temple, where people were going to hang their wishes on paper and pray.

Afterwards it was back down the mountain for lunch at a hotel before going onwards to Hakone. From leaving the bus, we took a cruise across the lake and then up a much smaller mountain by cable car. This one might not have been as tall as Mt Fuji, but it's still extremely cold above the clouds!

Then it was back to the coach, which dropped us off at the train station for a ride on the bullet train home. From the outside the train itself looked very big and sleek, I'm not quite sure what I was expecying inside but was disappointed that it was still very train like and crowded :-( Fortunately it did stop at Shinigawa, so was only a few steps back to the hotel. :-)

Back at the hotel, we decided to investigate, so took the lift up to the top floor and sat in the
bar. The drinks were very pricey, but was worth it for the panaramic views of Tokyo by night, just a shame I forgot to take my camera...

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