Blogs from Shizuoka, Japan, Asia - page 4

Tuesday 22nd September 2015 Although the national holiday had scuppered our efforts to find overnight accommodation at the lakes of Mt Fuji, we took advantage of the great transport links from Tokyo and took the 2.5hr bus to Lake Kawaguchiko for the day. It was a day of lessons. Lesson #1: Always retrace your footsteps in a new place. The day got off to a cracking start as we got monumentally lost in Shinjuku station. Located the bus station half an hour before we had to leave. WIN. Nipped into Shinjuku station to get some food. FINE. Got cocky and decided to exit from a different part of the station, as we were sure we had this travelling thing down to a fine art. FAIL. 5 mins before the bus is due to leave we are ... read more

I managed to get the boys up and moving early this morning. We wanted to spend some time at the sumo wresting tournament before we had to head over to Mt Fuji. With all of our clothes drying in the closed laundry area, the earliest we could get moving was 8am after the area opened back up (lucky for the guys or I'd have had us out of there sooner). I was impressed that we were up and checked out of the hostel by 8:30am and on our way to the train station. Things were going a little too well, though, so something had to happen. As we got to the platform to board the train Fred realized he had forgotten his black bag. Tyler and I waited for him at the station as he ran ... read more

Today we decided to explore Hakone below our cable-car stop. The distance between the cable-car stops is only about 250m but the slope is very steep and justifies the cable-car. Many of the streets are paved with concrete with deep grooves, both for traction on the slope and to shed water. Although there are few footpaths and roads are very narrow many people still walk on them. When a bus or truck comes you scramble to the side as best as you can. In what passes as the main street of Gora we noticed a multi story facade of cladding, with construction sounds coming from behind it. Intrigued we turned into the side street and discovered it was hiding a demolition site. In this area it seems to be important that everything looks pleasing. We spent ... read more

Today was my last day in Japan and I'd booked a tour to visit the iconic mountain Fuji. I'd booked a pick up point when I organised the tour but I hadn't had time to go find it.when us spoken to the guy on reception he said it wasn't too far away and I could just grab a taxi in the morning, so that is what I did. I was up and organised extra early, I'd got the voucher printed out and I'd got the hotel address translated into Japanese for the taxi driver and I'd bought supplies for the trip as I wasn't going to have time for breakfast. So true enough I flagged down a taxi, he understood the address details and took me there. The pick up time was 7.55am and I had ... read more

He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs twice is a fool. Never have truer words been spoken. I summited Mount Fuji (Japan's iconic and highest mountain) last Tuesday morning ~5:30 completing the eastern peak Asian Trilogy of Fuji-san, Mount Kinabalu, and Yushan, the latter 2 being the highest mountains in Malaysia and Taiwan which I summited in May 2006 and June 2014, respectively. I'm not exactly sure why climbing Fuji twice would be considered foolish although I certainly have no intention of ever climbing again. In good weather, rare during the official July-August climbing season although fleetingly amazing when I went, the ascent is not difficult and can be completed by the physically fit in 4 hours without stopping. However, the descent is annoyingly tedious, quite painful, and unnecessarily long ... read more