On top of Mt. Fuji...(all covered in snow...)

Susan this is dedicated to you. Supposed to be sung to: "On top of spaghetti..."

Got up earrrrly yesterday morning, like 0600 early. Showered, breakfasted with Sam and Becca and got off the ship. So on 4 hours of sleep the day was way long, but I refuse to sleep. We're barely in Japan, so I want to be awake as much as possible.

We left early via bus called the Strawberry Poodle and the other was called the Banana Poodle. I kid you not. As Eddie joked, they're the Fung Wah's cousin. But alas, they appear safe and clean. There's also the Ocean Poodle and Lavender Poodle. I hope you can all appreciate the humor in this.

The bus took us 2 hours to Mt. Fuji. We took a random bus stop break at a place with Starbucks. I didn't get any. I tried the bottled hot coffee out of the vending machine. Literally all drinks come out of these vending machines and they're everywhere! The coffee comes out hot. It was chilly today and overcast. So I wanted something to warm me up.

It was breath taking when we got our first glimpse of Mt. Fuji on the bus. It's crazy to see this volcano in person. I don't think any picture or any description could do it justice. I posted a picture on my facebook. I can't figure out how to post pictures on here from my phone. If I knew I'd do it.

We went to the Visitor's Center and took tons of pictures of the volcano and ourselves with it then went inside. There were beautiful pictures of it from all times of year in all conditions and all lights. There were interactive maps and a video with English subtitles. Unfortunately every part of the exhibit was written in Japanese. I'd be happy to see Spanish at this point. I can understand/read enough to get by. Japanese is too hard. I don't think I can get this point across to you. Obviously we all stopped at the gift store and got our Mt. Fuji paraphenalia. I'm going to try and collect little flags in each of the countries.

On our way to Mt. Fuji we drove through wooded roads and there was snow on the ground. I was not prepared for snow. The girl in front of me was from Florida and had never seen snow before. I was so excited for her.

We got back on our tour bus and "climbed" up the mountain. We stopped at 3 different points to get out and take pictures as got higher and higher up. Mt. Fuji is 12,365 feet high. Good thing climbing meant driving because my feet were sore from walking about 10 miles in cowboy boots the day before. We got up to the 4th station, which is the last station you can drive to. It's at 2020 meters. We took some pictures in the freezing winds. It was
overcast and cloudy up there so the view wasn't spectacular. But we lucked out from the base. There was minimal clouds at the summit when we were still at the base. (do you call the top of a volcano a summit? I don't know) Apparently it's rare to get a clear day in January-February as it's clear only 10% of the time. The clarity only lasted about 15 minutes, so the view at the top was rough. There was a good amount of snow at the top too. Which is visible in some of my pictures from the base.

After a bunch of pictures we headed to Hakone National Park. Took us about an hour to get there. By this point it was overcast and misty/foggy. The views of this lake were beautiful as we drove through the mountains. It reminded me of the 4th Harry Potter with the water and mountains or where the lockness monster would live.

We took a boatride around it for about 10 minutes from one pier to another. It was really chilly at this point and we were all pretty cold, luckily the boat had an inside that was heated.

When we got off we headed up to the "Ropeway." When I think ropeway I think suspended walking foot bridge. A ropeway is a trolley/tram/gondola thing. You get the picture. Well, it goes up the mountains to overlook the National Park and apparently you can see Mt. Fuji on a clear day. Well that day was not today. It fits 101 people in it. We squished like sardines. All SAS people and tour guides. It was so tight. And hot. It took 7 minutes to ascend the mountain. After 3 you couldn't see anything but white cloud/mist. The top was SO windy. It hit us hard as we stepped out onto the platform. You couldn't see more than 20 feet, it was just white. Ridiculous. So we walked through the little lodge building out back where there would be spectular views at other times of year. I enjoyed the creepy, quiet mist. The wind across the grass reminded me of the Happening or some other scary movie.

There was a rocky pathway that led into the abyss of whiteness. We all followed it to a Shinto shrine. We walked through the tall red square structure and up to the shrine. Inside was religious figure of some sort. (I apologize, I don't know enough about Shintoism to identify what he was) You couldn't take pictures inside, but it was colorful and lively with a twist of zen. The floor where he sat and talked to us was raised up. He was selling good luck charms to all the eager Americans. It was slightly contradictory how they didn't let you take pictures (major tourists activity) but tried to sell you these religious items (very touristy). I've been analyzing tourism in different places a lot more closely for my Anthropology class and it's fascinating.

After a few warm minutes inside we trekked back along the path to the lodge place. The mist drenched us all and we looked like we'd just showered. We warmed up and waited for the next trolley down. Becca and I discovered an American car racing game. Clearly we had to play. Sadly I lost.

Half our group had already taken an earlier trolley, so this one wasn't nearly as full, making it much nicer. We emerged from the mist back down to the scenic lake view.

We took a quick run through the gift shop where Becca bought fake plastic Japanese weapons for her older brother. Then we took the Strawberry Poodle back to the ship for our last time on this line. A little sad. Haha.

It took about an hour and a half to get back and we were at the terminal by 1700, much earlier than anticipated. So just out of curiosity I suggested Sam, Becca, and I go to the information booth and find out about where the overnight bus to Osaka left from. Through much Japanese, broken English, phone calls, and 30 minutes we learned that you needed a reservation for this bus because the next day (Thursday) was a holiday. Siiiiiick. We tried all sorts of ideas on the 2 men at the information booth, who seemed more than happy to help us. Nothing. Now by this point I'm absolutely furious. Sam had been the one planning this and I had asked about 5 different times while at sea if we needed reservations. She wasn't even planning on asking information. We were just planning on showing up. Well, this wouldn't have infuriated me as much if my other option wasn't to stay on the ship and travel for a day and a half to to Kobe. Therefore wasting 2 nights and a full day at sea.

Furious.

We get back on the ship and have to figure out if staying on the ship from Yokohama to Kobe is even plausible because we'd filled out papers to not be sailing with SAS. Luckily it was possible.

We have to hand in our passports and locate the rest of our friends. No ones pleased. Sam and Shannon go off to explore Yokohama for another hour before on ship time at 2100. We all go to dinner.

Parents, do not read on.

Shannon and Sam come rushing/panting into the dining hall. They want to book a hotel in Yokohama for the night then take the Bullet Train out to Osaka first thing in the morning. We decide this is a valid plan. They'd already talked to the info desk and it's possible. Luckily, we'd all packed the night before. Unfortunately we needed to be off the ship by 1900 if we weren't sailing to Kobe. Nic is still in the abyss of the Japanese metro system with minimal contact via Tania's phone and bbming from it to me. She has nothing with her and we have to be off the ship in 20 minutes. We convince the desk to give us our passports back and scurry off with 10 minutes to spare. We run into Nic. Furious. She runs in and gets her stuff and we all meet at the terminal.

There is no plan. The plan they gave, barely exists. I mean BARELY. We book this hotel, no idea where it is, 2 rooms for 7 people. 2 small beds in each. We have gathered that the Bullet Train leaves either every 15 or 50 minutes. But Thursday trains are on a Sunday schedule since it's a holiday. No one can seem to explain what this means. We say ok. We'll do it anyways. We've got a map with a star where the hotel should be. The map is just geometric figures of the city, no street names, no real landmarks.

I don't offer up my card to hold the reservation. I know better. Everyone's pretty unhappy at this point as the groups somewhat split in two. Glorious. Attempting to mediate was like eating poi. I got nothing out of it except that it sucked.

We agree we need food. Even though Becca, Tania, and I had scarfed down a bunch of pasta on the ship. Shannon leads us to this underground place with several stores and little restaurants. One restaurant has about 30 Japanese business men in it. We attempt to go in, but they say they're closed. Closed? Or men only? Either way, we weren't getting in. We decide to eat at this empty restaurant run by an older couple. They speak almost no English. Shannon is able to communicate with basic Japanese. Most restaurants seem to have plastic replicas of all their dishes. So all we had to do was point. We struggle, but get through. The food comes out quickly. I got noodles in a seaweed soup with cabbage (I am referring to anything non-meat that I don't know as cabbage) and a Japanese beer. Shannon goes back to the terminal to meet up with JD---our male chaperone. They come back and we finish up our plates and drinks and head out with our geometric city map. It's mist-raining again and freezing. We are not prepared for such weather so we hop and sing for warmth. Yes, I know, ignorant rude Americans. But now we have JD so we're good.

We decide we don't want to spend the money so we walk. Yokohama's pretty lit up and populous so it's fairly safe. Especially for 7 of us, and it's only 2115. We have to make it to the hotel by 2200 to check in. We wander past the baseball stadium and a garden and some shopping/bar areas. We ask for directions at one point and 2 men point up to the Washington Hotel. We've almost made it. It's a massive, tall hotel set back from the main street. Sam, Shannon, and JD take our bags and go inside to check in since all 7 can't say we're staying in the 2 rooms. The max per room is 2. We don't have that kind of money.

15 minutes of freezing and singing they come back and we head out to find a bar. We wander up a one way road and stop at JohnJohns. An older Japanese man welcomes us in. The whole bar is covered in Bob Marley pictures and John Lenon posters, etc. There's a Bob Marley dvd playing in English with Japanese subtitles. The owner is really nice to us and just appears to be a huge stoner. The bar is tiny. There's a few men sitting at it, one is tall and skinny and looks like he'd be in the Japanese mafia. This excites me. Men cycle in and out for the next hour and we get a few drinks. Also, we get these delicous garlicky-chili-esque honeycomb looking chips. So good. Everyone's tired so we don't stay long. Plus we gotta get up early. By now the owner loves us. We each pay our tab and Sam and Jd buy shirts. We head back together.

It has gotten colder. Sam realizes in her drunken state that she didn't pay her tab thinking one of us took care of it. We send her back in and explore the convience store for these chips from the bar for the morning. No dice.

We get back and go to the convience store attached to the hotel and grab stuff for breakfast since it's gonna be an early morning. I get a coffee and crossant looking
thing. JD buys a beer. Naturally.

The front desk isn't on the first floor so they don't notice all of us Americans come in. Becca, Tania, Nic, and I share a room and Shannon, Sam, and JD take the other down the hall. There are 2 little beds and an even smaller couch. Nic and I cuddle up in one and Tania and Becca cuddle up in the other. One giant sleepover.

The room is kept at 80 degrees. Kind of hot. Every store and restaurant is kep excessively warm. Very different than home. We all manage to fall asleep. The plan is to wake up at 0430 and get the first train at 0530. Its now 0130. Joy.