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Published: December 2nd 2012
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Day 12
The morning began with an even earlier wake up call than the day before, as the guide had got nervous about the queue for breakfast the day before - 6am was a little extreme.
Our first visit of the day was to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, whose gates featured in the film "Memoirs of a Geisha". The torii gates that we had seen earlier in the trip, were impressive for their size, whilst here it was the sheer number. At one point there are two tunnels of gates, all of which have been donated by companies hoping for luck in their business. The gates continue for about 4km and there are more than 10,000 of them, which are wooden and replaced every 10 years. It was certainly one of the best sights we had seen, and as the weather had once again held out for us, the sunlight coming through the gates made for some wonderful shots.
We made our way up the mountain, Kathryn, Darrell and Elizabetta giving up before the summit at a cafe point which was not yet open. The others started to go down, but Russ continued to the summit to see
the view. The top was over 30 minutes away accordingly to the signpost, but we didnt have that long, so Russ had to run to the top and back again, desperately trying to catch young Matt, but as he was only in his 20's - no chance! Actually the view was pretty poor from the top, the trees obscuring most of the view, and the best vantage point was a little up from where the others had stopped. It was a brisk walk back down to the bottom, with more and more visitors arriving, meaning that those pictures of just gates with no people in them became more difficult to obtain. As a scenic view, this was certianly one of the better places we had seen, and in fact the guide books hardly gave it a mention, when in fact no-where else can you see gates like this in this number.
The next stop on the itinery was the Ninja Museum, which all the male party members were looking forward to in great anticipation. Unfortunately, it was not one of the better places we went to. Despite our itinery promising a display of Ninja arts, they were away on
tour, and there were no shows all month. This was very disappointing, as the rest of the tour was a little tame, and you were left wondering what could have been. Even the shop had nothing of any real note in it, and i think they could have made a "killing" if they had got it together.
We then drove to the Toyota museum/showroom, which had the latest models on show, many of which we don't have in the UK. As we entered, they had a robot playing the trumpet - Christmas carols. On the way there, there was a marked increase in the number of Toyota cars on the road, as the town is also called Toyota, and over 90% of the population work for them, and so get a reduced rate when buying one. Also on show was a "car for the future", which you could sit in and had either an upright position, or converted to a more car like mode. All the controls were by rolling "mouse like" controls, and that included starting and stopping. There was also a large display on the Motorsport side of the business, together with the heritage side of things,
but even more prominant, was their take on energy efficient cars, including all electric and hydrogen cell vehicles. There was also a large safety display where you could look at "glow in the dark" clothing compared to normal t-shirts under dark conditions. The biggest pull was the showroom, as it included the high end Lexus models as well as the Toyota sports car the LFA at £310,500, which they had spinning round on a display. The only disappointment was that we didnt get to see the assembly line. We did see innovations suggested by the shop floor workforce, but not the actual production line.
We then had a couple of hour drive to our hotel for the evening, the high point of which for everyone was a glimpse of Mt Fuji. The Japanese believe she is a female mountain, her lakes round her forming a necklace of pearls, and also believe she is shy, only being visible 75 days of the year. We were all hoping this was not an "official" showing day, as we wanted to see her in all her glory the following day.
To get to our hotel, we needed to take the Bullet Train
for a 40 minute journey which was going to take the coach driver 3 hours. We had been asked to pack an overnight bag for the following day, which Darrell didnt have, so we lent him one of ours. Once at the station, the little courtesy bus from the hotel came to pick us up. Upon arrival, orientation was a little difficult, with reception being on the 17th floor, dinner on the 12th floor, rooms on the 7th floor, breakfast on the 2nd floor and the Onsen on 1st floor! Once again we were on traditional style sleeping arrangements, and dinner was a Japanese banquet. There was a little less to eat this time it seemed, or we were just more fussy, and the chestnut that scooted across the floor when it was grabbed with the chopsticks didnt help either. The lobster looked good, but was a lot of messing, and had an unusual topping on it! I think we were all glad it was our last meal sitting on the floor, and whilst it had been a good experience, there was a lot to be said for chairs and tables!
After dinner, it was the Onsen again, and
this time it was a lot busier than the previous 2 occasions, and the water seemed to be hotter. It was a sea water onsen this time, so no getting it in your eyes. The only downside was that the outdoor onsen was not connected, and you had to get dressed again to go down the corridor to go to the outdoors - too much hassle. Once back in the room, it was a case of getting accustomed to the sounds, as the Onsen was perched on a cliff edge, and the sea was rolling in against the rocks below.
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