Day 28 mostly consisted of an 8.5hr train from Nagasaki to Tokyo. Imagine an eight and a half hour train with 2 changes on a London Midland or Arriva Trains Wales service? That journey would be painful and suicides would occur en route, but in Japan… a dawdle.
For a start, the trains are on time, all the time. Secondly, I reckon as standard you get three times the room on the Shinkansen than you do on our trains. If you throw in the fact they recline (reclining isn’t an act of terror like in the UK because of the room you get) then the journey is great. You also have PowerPoint and locals can get wifi too.
I arrived back in Shinjuku, Tokyo lateish and I went to drop my bags at the capsule hotel. I headed for Shibuya to see the famous crossing and catch a glimpse of the hotel from ‘Lost In Translation’. The crossing is pretty crazy, I doubt my photos or videos did it justice.
I ate in Shibuya and had a dish local to the area. It was called Sobashinta or something and basically was noodles, pork in broth with leeks on top. This had garlic in too though and it was amazing. As usual, it came with a raw egg which I cracked on plonked on top, amazing.
I headed back to the capsule hotel after looking around Shibuya and the shops there. I am buzzing for Mount Fuji tomorrow.
Day 29 and it was Mount Fuji tour day. I was pretty glad I was doing this as part of a tour and not winging it myself. I got to the designated bus stop and waited for the tour guide.
I could see the people with same colour sticker as me who’d be on the tour and I was making snap judgements. The one guy that looked like he was European I had decided was a dick.
I learnt loads of weird and wonderful stuff you NEED to know but that can wait until after I’ve gone through what we actually did.
We all got on the bus and our first stop was the Mount Fuji visitors information centre where we watched some video on the history of Fuji. There wasn’t much there, I think it was much a courtesy stop for the weak bladdered grannies than for anything useful. We only stayed for 20 mins so that was fine.
Next up was the fifth observation level of Mount Fuji (the highest you can take a bus). The views were amazing but we could tell from early on, due to the cloud we were not going to be able to see the top. We were told only 20-30% of people now actually get to see the top due to the cloud formations.
Still, there were loads of good views and shops about. I tucked into this Mount Fuji shaped cake thing which are quite famous apparently, it was amazing! I also sent a postcard from up there back home so that will probably get back in about 6 months.
A guy sells little lucky bells up there, I forget the story but they bring luck and we all got one of those as a freebie. At this point this Chinese guy on the tour was cooking my head. When we were at the stations we didn’t go as a group but just seeing him in the distance was boiling my swede. He was a Chinese version of Louie Spence is the best way to describe him.
After spending a bit of time on Fuji we headed for lunch at Lake Kamwaguachi. I’ve 100% got the name wrong but if you’re checking then you need your head testing. The Japanese lunch was really good and got some great views of the lake.
The next part of the trip was meant to be a ropeway up one of the mountains but they called and said the ropeway was cream crackered. I was relieved as last thing I want to do is go on a faulty ropeway. Instead, we went up this other ropeway closer by and it turned out well because we got much better views of Fuji than we did at the observation level.
Our last stop was a lake Agashi (name) cruise and it started to piss down which didn’t spoil it completely because seeing the cloud and rain across the lake was pretty spectacular too. I bought a couple of gifts from the shop too which were traditionally made in Hakone.
After that we headed back to Shinjuku, in total we spend 9 hours out and about and it was well worth the dosh. The tour guide was great and I used every opportunity to quiz her about the stuff she was saying or stuff I’ve wanted to know along the way.
First of all, my favourite thing. I don’t think I mentioned before but the multi storey car parks here are amazing. You drive your car into a lift, you get out and get given some sort of password and then your car is automatically lifted into the car park and put into a bay by a conveyor belt. When you return, you enter your details and your car comes along the belt, down the lift and spins around for you to drive away. Anyway, in Japan, when you die you get cremated and your bones and ash are put into a tomb or shrine along with all your other family members. In Tokyo, because there are no room for these graveyards they operate similar graveyards. You go into a building, type a password and the family grave (tomb/shrine) comes down the belt, the lift and is presented to you at the doors!
I think I mentioned before how mental the subways are during rush hours, well they have ‘pushers’. The train conductors ram people on the subway to get more on. I actually saw a video of this before I left and It looks brutal, the tour guide was saying this morning she did an hour journey with her face touching the glass window!
Speaking of trains, even if crowded, actually BECAUSE they are crowded, Japanese pervos used to kop a feel of the ladies. Now, if this happens a woman will grab a man’s hand and raise it in the air, he’ll then be cast off by the passengers and arrested. This is why on crowded trains men are
advised to hold the rails above their heads.
With the springs mineral water is a big deal here, it takes 20yrs for it to filter through the mountains!
Also found out rent can be 10k per month in Tokyo and that’s for a modest place. I also now know 3, 5, 7 and 8 are good numbers in Japan. When a child is these ages they go to a shrine.
Bad numbers are 4 and 9 and you won’t see these room numbers in hospitals for example.
Japanese people used to consume 120kg of rice per year per person, it’s now 60 with younger generation being westernised.
I also found out a Brit was the first foreigner to climb Fuji, and when he got to the top he boiled the spring water and made tea to go with his biscuit. When you see the sunrise from the summit of Fuji you’re meant to shout ‘Banzai’ which means ‘Hooray’, I just thought of Yokozuna.
I had my confusion cleared up on the religion. There are two, Shintoism and Buddhism but the Japanese believe in both and mix the two.
On the way to Fuji was cool because there was a song in the road lines on certain parts, this was the official Fuji song which apparently every single living Japanese person would know.
Last but not least I got the bowing thing sorted. If you see a friend in the street it’s a 15 degree bow, a boss 30 degree bow. If you’re thanking a customer it’s a 45 degree bow and if apologising you need to get right down there for a 90 degree bow. Shame I’ve learnt this on last days, I doubt my tiny 5 degree head dip has meant much to them.
When I got back I headed to the British bar to watch Japan and Cambodia. I had fish and chips and a lovely bottle of Aspalls. It was so funny when I ordered it and she asked ‘how many glasses?’, I looked at her funny! Sharing a bottle of Aspalls, wouldn’t get you very far would it?
After my Aspalls which cost three times more than my meal I got back to the capsule. The end of my trip is very close now, it must be if I was resorting to British pubs, cider and football, maybe I’m trying to re- acclimatise.
Going to spend the day shopping and chilling tomorrow, may even start to plan my next trip. Then I think i’ll be having a sushi dinner to finish off on.
