Last Supper = Tempura Udon

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The night bus from Kyoto to Tokyo Station was pretty smooth. Finding my hostel was a little more challenging, partly because I was exhausted, and partly because the directions written in broken English on the website were not that clear. I tried to book back at first place I stayed at, since at least I knew where that was and it wasn’t far from the train to Narita International Airport, but their dorm rooms were all booked out and the smaller rooms were a little out of my budget. The hostel I’m staying at this time is called Ace Inn and is a capsule hotel in Shinjuku. Someone in Kyoto recommended it to me, and its special because it’s co-ed - most capsule hotels are traditionally male only.

I checked in bright and early, but didn’t take a nap (I’m still not sure why). I sat in the lounge for a little while, using the free wireless, and then I took the subway to Shinjuku station and caught a bus to Kawaguchi-ko. I had decided to make a day trip to Mount Fuji, and Kawaguchi-ko is the closest tourist centre to the base of the mountain. Fuji isn’t quite ready for hiking yet, and to scale the summit takes at least 2 days, not to mention that the mountain is tall enough that one can easily succumb to altitude sickness. Being that I didn’t really have that much time and that I didn’t really pack appropriate cold weather hiking clothes, and considering that I was on my own, I decided that trying to hike the mountain was probably a bad idea. But I couldn’t very well come all the way Japan without visiting its tallest and most sacred mountain.

Kawaguchi-ko is the town closest to four of the five major lakes in the area. I walked from the information centre to one of the larger lakes (whose name I have already forgotten) and had a look around. From there I took the cable car up to the viewpoint and got a gorgeous sight of the mountain in its entirety. I was lucky that the sky was unusually clear that day and that the sun was bright, so the view was spectacular. I sat on a bench of over an hour just staring at the mountain. When I started to get too tired I went back to the information centre and had lunch, took the two-hour bus back to Shinjuku Station, and went back to the hostel and promptly went to bed. It sounds like a dull day, but it was great.

The next day was my final day in Tokyo. When I finally got myself together after sleeping in, I went out to Yoyogi park. The weather was a lot nicer this time around then the first time I went there - the grass was green and some of the trees were blooming and people were playing games on the lawns and picnicking. From there I went into Harajuku and walked around the shops. Everything is so fantastic looking! I wanted to buy all kinds of things, but the honest truth was that none of it would ever fit into my regular life, even on my craziest of days. But in the end I walked away with a spring jacket, a purse, and patterned stockings, none of them being all that crazy. I continued on to Shibuya and watched the commuters flood the intersection from the Starbucks again - it’s the kind of sight you just can’t explain - and then went on back to the hostel when my feet started to get tired.

I had a little money left in my wallet, but not really enough to make it worth it to exchange it for another currency. So I took myself out for dinner at a nice noodle bar near the hostel and had tempura udon as my last Japanese meal, and it was fantastic (tempura udon is my favorite). I packed up all my stuff, leaving behind some books and the sleeping bag Bert had given me in Sydney. I woke up at 6am the next morning to get dressed and call home quickly before leaving for the flight that I thought left at 11am. But after checking my ticket one last time I discovered that my flight actually left at 4:30pm and now I had a lot of extra time to waste. It took almost two and a half hours to get out to the airport. I almost didn’t even make it on the plane because I had been left on standby. It all worked out in the end anyway and soon enough I was boarding a flight to Los Angeles, continuing to New York City. I was on my way back to North America.

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