Update 5

Asia » Japan » Mt Fuji
May 5th 2010

Published: May 5th 2010

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Tranna

Octopus Fast Food

In one of the railway stations

Mt Fuji and Fujiyoshida

After our last blog we headed by limited express train to Asasuka. It is one of the oldest areas in Tokyo. We just made it through the doors to look at the temple, 5 minutes before it closed. There are thousands of expensive souvenir shops there but it was interesting to walk through it all. I was even tempted to buy a ninja star and see if I could get it through customs, but decided against it.

We had been trying to find the time to stop at a cool bar in Shibuya a friend had recommended called Legato, so we decided we would drop through on our way to meet our friends later. It ended up being quite difficult to find (note to self….be more organised next time). However, we persevered and made it in the end. Only, it was as a little more than a bar and we weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion (especially Troy in Shorts and T-Shirt) and only had 15 mins before we were supposed to be at our next destination. Bar Legato, was a generous 15 floors up with awesome views. Great service……to boot and we were even

Toyota Robot

Able to play the trumpet in small bounds.

tempted for a steak but at $100 for a 300g steak, we thought we would wait for the pub instead.

After quickly downing our drinks and running out the door, our next stop was drinks with Nathan, Brian and Jeza, old work mates of Anna’s. After that particular watering hole decided to close, we headed to an English bar called the Hub for another quickie before scooting for our train back to Megumi’s. We must have arrived after 1am and quickly packed as our hosts were ready to take us to Fuijiyoshida for the weekend which is right next to Mt Fuji. The decision was made to drive in the night as it is Golden Week in Japan right now and there are often horrendous traffic jams no matter where you go.( The news reported 51km’s of traffic on the Saturday) This is one of the longest holiday periods in Japan and many people spend time with families in their hometowns. However, we were lucky in the end and got through ok. I think we arrived after 3:30am with our futons already laid out. We promptly jumped in and caught some Z’s.

As per expected we took our

Japanese Beef

Troy got in trouble for taking this foto. Me no speak Japenese...

time getting up the next morning. The view to Mt Fuji was amazing, and the weather was perfect, in the whole time Anna had lived in Japan it was never clear enough to see. Hiroshi’s mother, Mieko cooked us a huge but yummy breakfast which was a great start to the day. Megumi then took us to a shrine where people who intend to climb Mt Fuji go to first to pray for a safe passage. Can’t remember the name right now but will look it up.

After the Shrine, We took a drive up Mt Fuji to the 5th station. Another popular place to start the climb as it’s about half way up. There is still snow on Mt Fuji was a bit chilly but otherwise great. Couldn’t believe how big it is .If you were to walk around the crater it would take 1 hour. We then met our hosts for lunch and took a walk around a beautiful Japanese garden at the back of a hotel. It even had its own hot foot bath which was nice. Troy had spotted a radar station museum earlier so we dropped in there for a look around. It had

We arnt in Amsterdam yet?

been installed on top of Mt Fuji, but was decommissioned in 1999; it had been the highest weather radar in the world and was in service for 35 years. We also got to experience what the wind is like at the summit, 13m/s minimum, with a wind chill of -5. To finish off the day we drove around one of the lakes near Mt Fuji, Lake Yamanaka.

That night we had a traditional dinner of Sukiyaki that Mieko made. It was really yum. Troy tried the dipping of meat and vegetables in raw egg. He said it was actually good!! Lol!! A good night was had by all.

The plan the next day was to head to Fuji-Q Highlands to ride some of the big rollercoasters etc. We suspected the crowds would be bad so made sure we were there by 9am. There were crazy crowds there when we arrived with a minimum of 2 hour wait time on most of the rides already. They had a silly system where you could pay an extra AU$12 per ride for priority (in addition to the AU$60 entry), without lining up for the rides, but the line for the priority

Alcohole free = Action Free

tickets was ginormous, and were all sold out till 5pm anyway. We luckily had Megumi with us, who was willing to start lining up at the next ride for us (Thank God!!!!!). We managed to ride Fujiyama which used to be one of the highest roller coasters in the world and goes for over 3 mins. It’s awesome to be climbing up and seeing a huge Mt Fuji smack bang in front of you. Next was Eejanaika, which rotates you 14 times during the short ride of just over a minute and a half. Troy of course sneakily videoed our journey on both rides and will be putting them on YouTube.

After waiting over 5 hours for 2 rides, we were then hoping to go to the famous haunted hospital. But after discovering a wait time of 3 hours and then it takes an hour to walk through we were over it and it was time to head off anyway so we could make our train back to Tokyo! We rushed back to Hisoshi’s parents, scoffed some awesome strawberries, packed once again, bid our hosts goodbye and were then heading to the train station. We also gave Hiroshi and

Shinjuku Labi

Small establishment of 9 levels of electronic stuff. This is where we bought our new camera.

Megumi the together nickname of Megoshi. Hiroshi’s parents are very nice people and they welcomed us with open arms into their beautiful house. We could not have asked for better hosts.

Shinegawa

We arrive at our next destination which was busier than expected. Shinagawa is a busy hub and a major train station for the bullet trains, airport, subway and regular trains. Our hotel had quite a few different towers with just a tad over 3600 rooms, obviously differing in price…….lol…of course our tower was at the back and was the older noisier one….but hey beggars can’t be choosers huh?

We decide to take a quick trip back to Akiharbara (Electric Town) and then go up to the bar at the top of our hotel for a bite to eat and a quick drink. This bar said Foreign food but was actually an expensive French restaurant. This is probably one of the most expensive bars I’ve seen as well. They charged us 1400 yen for a scotch and coke which is about $16 so quickly had our drink and left. The restaurant was pretty swank tho, 39th floor with 360 degree views and water pools everywhere.

Festival Float

Asakusa

Of course Troy wearing shorts didn’t really fit in, but they still let him in. In the whole time we were in japan we could only find 1 single male wearing shorts. We ended up visiting a little Ramen(noodle) shop instead.

On Monday, our last day, we had organized to meet Jeza and head to Odaiba to do some more touristy stuff. We saw the cool Fuji TV building, visited Mega web Toyota Showroom. WE then headed to the Science and Innovate Technology centre. They had a fear experiment which made our eyes light up (but wasn’t actually even scary) as well as other cool stuff. We waited around to see Asimo the Robot do his thing which was kind of cool. We missed going into the Panasonic Living Showroom by only minutes the other day so this was back on the agenda for the afternoon. We checked out the new 3D TV’s and the automatic toilet seats that open when you walk into the room, and a whole bunch of stuff that isn’t even heard of in Australia. Anna checked out the massage chairs while Jeza and Troy checked out 3 floors of showroom, although 1 whole floor

One huge lanten

Asakusa

was just for light fittings, we had no idea Panasonic made so much stuff including the kitchen sink; literally. We bid Jeza goodbye after this. It had been really cool hanging out with one of my closest mates after so long. Am looking forward to him finally coming home. The weather was beautiful this day so we took advantage and headed back to Tokyo Tower.

It was so packed compared to the other night. People and lines everywhere, and another 2 hour line. So we started to line up in the Special Michael Jackson Collection Exhibition first but then found out you could walk up the stairs to the first observation deck without waiting. Nearly 600 stairs and 150m later we had made it only to discover for us to then continue up to the next observation deck(which was the whole point in going) we then had to wait for another 90 minutes. WE buy the tickets and then decide to go back down and do the Michael Jackson part while we wait……..Arrrrrgghghh….only to find that we need to then join another long queue to go back down in the lifts. So we decide to walk back down the

Senso-Ji Shrine

Asakusa

600 stairs, join another queue for 30mins before going into the Michael Jackson Exhibition. This was actually really cool. The Exhibition had a lot of his trophies and awards as well as his costumes from various concerts and events. And…….it wasn’t even really crowded inside which was great.

This finished, we head back into yet another (groan) line to go back up the lift to the observatory and then another line to go up in the lift of the next observatory. The view was awesome when we eventually got there. To cut a long story short, we still had another 2 queues or so before getting back outside and down to the train station. All in all……………………….saw some really cool stuff today……………….but so so so over the bloody lines……repeat never come here again in Golden Week.
Goodbye land of long lines and automatic basin taps. We will miss you. (Not the lines).

We had to be out of the Hotel by 7am and heading to the airport. The 11:50 flight to London was the longest we have out of our 12 flights. Troy was watching the Movie ‘Up in the Air’ but his video set kept crapping out.

Inside Senso-Ji Shrine

We only made it in by 2 minutes.

The British Airways staff were very friendly (except the attitude on the Italian nail biting Paulo, but that’s another story) and after it crapped out 5 times managed to change to one that did work, it was frustration being left in the air without being able to watch up in the air. We landed and caught the Heathrow express to the city and checked in to our hotel. It actually seamed colder here then at Mt Fuji, and even Troy wanted to put his jeans on (shocked). We went for a brief walk to get a bite at KFC (chips are always over cooked at KFC’s in England). It has been a really long day (32 hour day with the time zone change) and after traveling for the best part of 20 hours we were ready for a sleep, mind you it is only 7pm local time, the birds are still singing outside.

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