Mt Fuji and Hakone Tour

Day 3

Bucket list day today. We are hoping to cross several things off, so we are up early and negotiating our way to our tour departure point. A brisk 30 minute walk from our hotel, departing at 7.30. We just join the foot traffic heading towards Shinjuku Station and then onto the “human expressway” that takes us under the train lines and on to the Kieo Plaza Hotel where our tour begins. After checking in, we are given our tour sticker and told to stand in line to await our departure. At 8.15 our group, one of 5 departing from this point, follow our guide, Harumi, with her little white flag out to the bus. Philip nudges me and suggests that this tour could be a little too structured for him and we haven’t even got on the bus yet!! ( P:- Anyone who knows Phil knows structure and too many instructions are not a good combination for him!). We have allocated seats for the day and there is good leg room and overhead storage for our backpack. Heading out of Shinjuku, Harumi tells us that due to an avalanche several days ago, our first stop Station 5 at Mt Fuji will not be happening we will instead go to Station 1. It’s very cloudy and not looking good to view Mt Fuji. After several hours drive through the outskirts of Tokyo we arrive at the Mt Fuji World Heritage Area. It is now raining slightly and the cloud level has dropped. At Station 1 we disembark the bus to see nothing, but Harumi tells us we are lucky to stand on Mt Fuji, albeit the very low foothills. (P:- All we could see was a block of “out of use” toilets and a gate across a road – awesome! And they wonder why I am not keen on bus tours!). Hope things improve for the rest of the day.

The drive out to this area was quite lovely once we got out of the city area. There are many Cherry Blossoms blooming up the hillsides intermingled with the other native flora making it quite spectacular to look at but hard to photograph as we travel by. Through some small villages we can see tiny market gardens and rice paddies tucked away on almost inaccessible areas. Any spare areas have solar panels.

From Station 1 we drove down to Lake Kawaguchi Oishi Park. This is a resort town in the northern foothills of Mt Fuji. A very pretty area. We stop here for another view of the mountain but again it’s not obliging. We wander around the gardens and Souvenir shops before walking down to the lake front again where we can just get a glimpse of the sides of Mount Fuji.

After a short stop here we reboard the bus and drive out to our lunch spot. An odd spot as there is no view, no gardens and on the side of the Highway. A big hotel with large dining room, obviously designed for tour bus lunches. Lunch looks good though and tastes even better. Not sure about the Japanese drumming performance they had as soon as we sat down. Just about did Philip’s head in. After lunch we climbed aboard the bus again and drove on to Lake Ashi where we board a small cruise/ferry that takes us across the lake to the Hakone Kamogatake Ropeway. The lake is formed in the crater of a volcano. The ropeway, cable car takes us up to a mountain top where we will supposedly have spectacular views over the area. On the ride up, Mt Fuji becomes visible and we were able to get a few photos before it clouds in again and the view disappears as we reach the top. From the cable car stop we walk up to the shrine about 750 metres away with fog/cloud swirling around us. Makes for some good photos of the shrine. Walking back down to the depot we can barely see 20 foot ahead of us so we head down again. Dropping down below the cloud Mt Fuji is still visible. Another bucket list item ticked off.

Back on the bus and we wind our way down the mountain on a narrow, steep road with beautiful views along the way. We are now heading into Hakone and onto Odawara Station where we will catch the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) back to Tokyo. While waiting at the station several Shinkansen pass through at an impressive speed. We are told to line up and when our train stops find the first seat available and sit, which we managed to do. Some didn’t find seats and had to stand for the duration of the trip. Arriving back into Tokyo Station we once again follow Harumi and her white flag as we negotiate our way to the platform we need to get us back to Shinjuku. (P:- I am forced to eat my words about comments I made earlier in the day of the Tour leaders little white Flag! As she was vertically challenged the white flag was all we could see of her in the mass of peak hour human traffic! I “have seen it on TV” before but experiencing the Tokyo rush hour in real life was a hell of an experience!). There are so many people here and many, many tracks and directions people are going. We board the train for the short 20 minute ride with two stops. At each stop more people board and the carriage gets crammed full of people. They just step in the door, turn around and push back until everyone fits in. Not much breathing space. As we step out at Shinjuku we just go with the flow. People moving towards exits or other platforms. So many people. Finally we get out of the station into fresh air again. The station is just one huge mass of moving people, personal space is non existent. What an experience. An another item off the bucket list.

We head back to our hotel and drop our bags. We have now been gone for twelve hours. It’s been a huge day but a very interesting one. We’ve seen Mt Fuji, not in all its glory, but we’ve seen it at least. We enjoyed a traditional Japanese lunch, We’ve ridden the bullet train and we have decided multi day bus touring is not on our agenda for many years to come.