Sayonara Tokyo and hello Mount Fuji and Fujikawaguchiko.
I was up very early, still not sure how our day’s transportation would go, but Laurence slept until maybe 7. We had to clean up our room, pack our backpacks, and be ready for a 9:30 taxi pickup, which I booked last night. We easily had enough time, so around 8 we headed out for some breakfast.
Our uber never showed, and after waiting about 15 minutes I rebooked and within minutes got picked up. As I never could figure out the bus schedule, among other problems trying to book online last night, I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to get to the bus or at what time, or even if we were going to the right location, although all worked out well.
We arrived at the massive and very modern Tokyo Station around 10, which is primarily a rail hub, and had to take some time to figure out where to get the bus and how to get a ticket. We did, but the earliest available bus was not until 1:10, later than I’d hoped, and three hours away. But, we stuffed our backpacks into the paid lockers (took a few minutes to figure out how they worked and how to pay), and walked through the vast ultra modern station, looking for the brick fronted other side of the station that we had seen the other day when we visited the Imperial Palace and the Marunouchi business district. The front of the Tokyo Station on the Marunouchi side is essentially now an original brick façade that houses this modern station, although some of the interior still maintains the original building. But it’s quite something, as from the outside you don’t expect this gigantic interior.
We noticed that something seemed to be taking place outside of the front entrance on the brick side, which faces the the Marunouchi district, the financial and corporate hub of the city, as the police were clearing the area and people were lined up on either side of the ropes with their iphones and cameras. After awhile, mounted guards in horseguard-type uniforms started to line up, and soon after more mounted horse guards entered the plaza, followed by two ornate horse drawn carriages, presumably coming from the nearby Imperial Palace. What seems clear is that they dropped off some official or dignitary, possibly from abroad, and sure enough after the carriages and mounted guard had left, a limousine flying the East Timor flag, with some official waving at people from inside the car, left the station area. It was quite the small spectacle, and we were glad to have seen it, even though there was not a whole lot to it.
The weather was nice, and we walked around for a while, into the business district, which is actually much nicer that it seemed to us the other day when we were here. There’s a tree lined pedestrian mall with food trucks, flanked by high priced stores, a nice area for people on their lunch breaks to sit and eat, and as we walked further into the business district, we found some nice green spaces tucked between buildings. They were really nice, and reminded me of similar green spaces in cities like London, where local workers can enjoy their lunch tucked into peaceful surroundings. Building in one of these courtyard areas very much reminded me of English buildings, and sure enough they were designed by an English architect, and these area of red bricked buildings was once known as “one block London.”
We enjoyed walking around for a couple of hours, until going back into the gigantic station complex, which houses multiple subway lines, as well as the main railways, including the bullet train, and we walked through very nicely laid down and seemingly endless shopping areas in the gigantic multi-floor building, with plenty of places to eat, and loads and loads and loads of stores. It’s quite the place, Tokyo station.
Then it was about time to pick up our backpacks, and catch the bus. We’d already figured where to catch the bus and when, so got on the bus without any fuss at all. Very easy process once you know how, despite how confusing it was trying to book online the night before. In fact, we were glad to have left this late, although that wasn’t the original plan, as we enjoyed our walk around the city area.
The bus took us west through massive Tokyo, passing endless rows of high-rise residential housing stretching back as far as you could see, until passing into residential areas that were no longer high-rise as we started to leave the metropolitan area, and eventually left the city. Pretty soon after that, we started to pass through beautiful green covered mountains on both sides of the bus, resembling what we expected from the Japanese countryside. I took a few photos from the bus – not the best, but they give as sense of what we were seeing as we passed through the beautiful countryside.
We passed through the Kantō mountain range, west of Tokyo, which forms a massive forested region between Tokyo and the coast and the Fuji Five Lakes region. As we got closer to Kawaguchiko, surrounded by beautiful mountains right out of a Japanese painting, Mount Fuji appeared, snow capped and all.
The bus trip was maybe two hours, but we were in a very different world and environment, open and surrounded by gorgeous mountains. Laurence was feeling pretty good, but tired, and we were VERY glad we didn’t abandon our trip. This area is beautiful.
After we arrived in Fujikawaguchiko, we got the lay of the land from a staff member at Kawaguchiko Station who was fluent in English, including how to get to Hakone tomorrow, and then caught a cab to our hotel, just about a mile outside the station area in the town of Fujikawaguchiko. Interestingly, the station and downtown area really could have been a small ski town in Colorado (although this isn’t a ski area, it has the feel and look of one of those small towns).
The cab ride to the hotel was a bit meandering, although not far, and we started to wonder what sort of place we had booked for the night. But upon arrival at the Fuyo Sankyo Enka, we loved it. Now, unlike Taito Ryokan, which was a bit of a dump, this was a ryokan, communal onsen (hot pool) and all.
Our room at Fuyo Sankyo Enka was spacious, nice looking, well equipped, and with lots of light streaming in. On our futons on the straw mat covered floor were beautiful quilts, with Japanese robes and sashes to wear if we chose. We even had a television and our own small bathroom (with heated toilet seats). Lovely. We were happy.
After settling in a bit, we started to walk into town.The weather is much cooler here, calling for long pants and and a sweatshirt, and as soon as we left the ryokan it started to rain (the forecast did say 100 percent chance of rain today, and it was right). A stack of umbrellas was available for guests, so it must rain here regularly around this time of year, and we grabbed a couple. Laurence was feeling tired and didn’t want to go the whole way, especially ass it was getting cooler, and wet out, but the umbrellas made the difference and it actually warmed up a little, so we walked further than he initially wanted, heading about half way into town before turning around, which was just as well as it was not only raining more heavily by then, but getting dark. In fact, we had a bit of a difficult time finding way back to the hotel as apple maps was acting up because my phone was getting wet.
Right outside our hotel, in this residential area of town, were several small eateries, each of which looked good, and each of which were inexpensive, as we’ve come to expect from Japan. Tasty meals range from $5 to maybe $10, with the most expensive hitting maybe $17, although it’s rare to see prices that high.
Small restaurants and eateries, including food trucks and small tented eateries were all along the way, some of which hold no more than maybe 5 or 6 people, even in this residential area, as there are lots of domestic and international visitors to this gorgeous region. Even the small convenience smalls (like Family Mart) carry snacks, like skewered chicken strips for instance, that are not only very tasty but costs around 80 cents each.
Like I said, we were so glad we continued our trip, rather than heading back to Toronto, which would have been this very day. Laurence had started out the day not feeling well, and thinking maybe we should not have cancelled the return flight, but as the morning went on felt better and by now, although fatigued and slow moving, was very glad to be here. We had lightened Laurence’s backpack, which I had carried for a while, and later packed some of his stuff into mine, so that made things a bit easier for him when traveling with the packs on.
The area is gorgeous, even as the light was dimming, and we walked down to a beautiful lake area, and as it darkened the hills around the lake were twinkling with the lights from homes and the village. By now it was starting to rain quite heavily and getting pretty dark, but despite struggling a little to find our way back, we made it, and our first stop was one of the small restaurants opposite our ryokan. Ramen, and in my case, french fries, were the meal of the day. Very delicious. The total for both of us was $15.
We came back to our room, and I started to blog, but very quickly, and by maybe 9 pm, I became overcome with tiredness – I had hardly slept at all last night, and was up most of the night, and I guess it just caught up with me. I hit the futon, went out like a light, and slept soundly, really for the first time in days, waking up feeling very refreshed and ready to go… only to realize the night light was on, and it wasn’t daylight at all but actually 2 am. After a while, I fell back asleep on and off, and was up around 5:30. Ready to head into town for a bit, and then onto Hakone.