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Published: April 6th 2006
Mt Fuji
Our First Big Ticket Item Our First Big Ticket Item
Dom
finally arrived in Tokyo on 28th March. Hooray! After a day of rest and relaxation, I quickly whisked him around town for some sightseeing, and not intending to stretch things, on Day 2 we somehow managed to cover the Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba & the Fuji TV building, Asakasa Shrine, the Yasukuni Shrine and dinner in Shinjuku! By Day 3, we were then on the train to Hakone to try our luck at seeing Mt Fuji - as on most days its either covered by cloud or smog. And luck was on our side..........
The trip to Hakone is made a hell of a lot simpler with the purchase of a Hakone Freepass. Whilst it covers 2 days of travel in the region, for the 1 day trip we had planned it still is a good deal. Even without the savings, there are 6 forms of transport that are required to circuit the tourist trail, so removing the pain of lining up each time was good enough for us.
Transport Stage 1 is a 2 hour train from Shinjuku to Hakone Town. Stage 2 was a 40min zig zag railway with
loud foreign tourists, grandma's sightseeing for the day and young families. Stage 3 was a 20min cable car up a very steep hill. During which, signs continued to indicate our increasing level of height above sea level. We were getting close....!
Transport Stage 4 was then a small gondola ropeway...climbing up further... Our gondola had about 7 of us in total and the tenion was building as we approached the summit of our climb... Finally, we reached the top, there were gasps and snap, snap, snap, snap! Mt Fuji appeared to us like a slap in the face.
You could never say "I think I saw Mt Fuji" or get it confused with any other surrounding mountains. Its gravitas and scale in contract to anything around it takes your breath away at first sight. On some days, you can see Mt Fuji from Tokyo, and even in the distance it appears as a reminder from Mother Nature that no man-made megalopolis can even try and compete.
All in all, we had a fanatastic day, the scenery was truely spectacular and seeing the mountain is a real buzz. And only 30minutes after first seeing Mt Fuji, it had
Blessing Buddah
With Natural Hot Spring Water begun to become covered in cloud. How lucky were we!
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Bex
non-member comment
Yvie you sly old fox...
'Rest and relaxation'? Is that what the kids are calling it these days... *giggle-giggle* Tokyo just aint the same with out you dudes - photos of Park Hyatt coming soon...