An Escapade in Japan - Part 11

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Mount Fuji (?)

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My notes for 28 Feb 2009 (Optional Fuji Five Lakes Tour)
Visit “Fuji five lakes area” i.e. Kawaguchiko and Saiko from Tokyo by taking a bus ride. Ride the ropeway to Mount Tenjo for views of Fuji.

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Mount Fuji is one of the three Sacred Mountains of Japan and is reverentially referred to as “Fuji-san” by the Japanese. This perfectly-shaped, snow-covered, volcanic cone has influenced Japanese literature, paintings, ceramics, Kimonos for centuries, so much so that it has become now a symbol of Japan.

No wonder that I was hankering for a glimpse of it.

Ever since we had come to Tokyo from Kyoto, the days had been cloudy and rainy and there was not a chance that we would see Mount Fuji even if we go to Hakone or Fuji Five Lakes.

I still pined for Mount Fuji-Darshan.

After the awful weather of the previous day, I had little hope that 28 Feb. would be any different. However, even though the sky was overcast, there was no rain and the predictions for the Fuji Five Lakes were optimistic.

I had given due consideration to both the alternatives - Hakone Round Course was attractive because we would be using five different modes of transport in a single day - train, ropeway, cable-car, boat and bus, but that meant we would be in the open air at least five times during the day while transferring from one mode of transport to another mode of transport. The prospect was not appealing if the day turned cold or windy or rainy, as it threatened to turn.

Going to Fuji Five Lakes area would not expose us to so many transfers because the bus goes directly from Tokyo station to Kawaguchiko.

On a clear day, the distant view of Mount Fuji can be obtained even from Tokyo but from Hakone or the Five Lakes area, it would be much closer.

So, I preferred to go to the Five Lakes area rather than to Hakone. Ropeway or cable car did not hold much attraction for us because we had experienced those before.

That day, as we set out for Tokyo station, we estimated our chances of viewing Mount Fuji at 50:50.
We still wanted to take that 50% chance. We were encouraged by the Bangalore man’s experience. The day was cloudy when they had set out for Hakone and later it had cleared and they had wonderful views of Mount Fuji.

That day in the morning, I had checked on the Internet that Kawaguchiko was ‘clear’ and Gotemba was ‘clear and sunny’.

At the Tokyo bus station, they informed us that the buses to Kawaguchiko were full.

I still did not like the idea of doing Hakone Round Course in this weather and remembered that Gotemba was ‘clear and sunny’.

Why not go to Gotemba? The chances of seeing Mount Fuji were brighter there.

Gotemba tickets were easily available and cost less.

All this while, when names like Gotemba, Kawaguchiko, Yamanakako, Togendai, Moto-Hakone were being mentioned between the clerk and me, Avi was looking at me with great respect. He cannot remember Indian names, let alone the Japanese names, so his admiration was for my skill in planning, coming up with alternatives as well as remembering the names.

I was fully at ease because I could see the map of Fuji area in my mind.

We bought the tickets and as there was some time before the bus left, we found a café and had a most soul-satisfying hot chocolate drink.

We are big milk-consumers and to our chagrin, had not had any chance of satisfying our craving for milk after coming to Tokyo. The tea/coffee at Toyoko Inn was either ‘green’, salty tea or with milk-substitute.

So, the chocolate milk was eagerly consumed and we were on our way to Gotemba by Tomei Expressway.

The Tomei Expressway is an elevated highway hemmed in by the sound-barriers, so much so that we got the feeling that we were travelling through a tunnel which was open to the skies. We got glimpses of scenery only where there was a break in the sound barriers.

The sound barriers are erected to protect the populace from the sound of unceasing traffic on the Expressway.

We reached Gotemba and eagerly looked all around us for Mount Fuji. The day WAS clear and sunny at Gotemba.

No Mount Fuji!

The bus left and we were the only tourists at the bus-stand with a couple of Japanese.

Totally confused and demoralized, we were studying the map of the Fuji area when a Japanese man came forward to help us. According to the map, we could go nearer to Mount Fuji by taking another bus.

We were willing but in his broken English he strongly advised us not to go there because we were not dressed properly for the intense cold there. “You need snow-boots, not sneakers” he pantomimed.

So, now where to go to see Mount Fuji? According to my reading, it SHOULD have been visible from anywhere in Gotemba.

We were still discussing our options when a Caucasian man drove to the bus-stop in his car and parking it, he too waited at the bus-stop.

“Do you speak English?” Avi asked him with high hopes.

“Sure I do.” he said.

I have never been so glad to hear someone speak English before.

We explained to him that we wanted to see Mount Fuji and could he tell us where we should go to see it?

“You could have seen it right here.” He said pointing in a north-westerly direction. “It is visible from here, but today it is obscured by the fog. May be it the fog will clear in an hour or so.”

He told us that he was waiting for two lady-friends and they had plans to visit a world-famous Lalique museum at Gotemba.

Just then his lady friends came in a car and asked him the same question.

“Where is Mount Fuji?”

“You can’t see it because of the mist.” he said.

“Oh, what a bummer!” his lady friend exclaimed.

She could not have put it better. It was a ‘bummer’ indeed.

By this time I had formulated a plan in my mind that instead of waiting at Gotemba for fog to clear, we will go to Togendai by bus and take the boat-cruise at least.

The area around Fuji is highly developed as a tourist spot, hence the Lalique museum as well as hundreds of other tourist attractions are situated there. After all, even if you are lucky enough to see Mount Fuji, you won’t keep looking at it for 4-5 hours and do nothing else. Once the ‘darshan’ is over. You WOULD want have fun.

So, it was not at all difficult to take the mountain bus to Togendai, cruise the lake, come back to Gotemba and then on to Tokyo.

The road-trip from Gotemba to Togendai was the highlight of our day. It is a beautiful, winding road along the hills. Each hotel and ‘ryokan’ (Japanese inn) lining it, had tried to outdo each-other in decorating their property. So there were trees that shimmered with Italian glass, (advertisement for the Venetial glass museum) or bushes that were cut into round shapes or just tall, golden grass in pocket-handkerchief-sized fields.

The boat that plies on Lake Ashinoko, imitated a pirate ship right down to the black skull-and-crossed-bones flag, basically a tourist prop. They were even taking photos of children with ‘Captain Hook’, with a plastic scimitar in hands and a plastic knife held in the teeth. The children certainly enjoyed it but there was a pained expression on Captain Hook’s face.

We enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery, we enjoyed the boat-cruise and we enjoyed the ice-cream there.

However, we did NOT get even a teeny-weeny glimpse of Mount Fuji.

They call it the ‘Mystic’ mountain, but I would call it the ‘Mysterious’ or ‘Misty’ mountain. Whether it exists or not is a dark mystery to me.

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