Tokyo

Mt. Fuji

Only about 30% of the tours to Mt. Fuji get a clear day. We could hardly believe our luck, we were among the lucky few. First a few facts about Mt. Fuji. It’s 3,776 meters (12,388 ft). One of Japan’s 3 sacred mountains. In the summer, people hike to the top. The crater at the top is often referred to as representing a woman’s body and is therefore referred to as “she”. Japanese refer to it as Fuji-san. Our tour guide, Naoko taught us a song about Fuji-san. We sang it on the bus. Surprisingly we sounded pretty good. The song pays tribute to how she looks out over the clouds and stares down on the surrounding lands.

Tour guides make or break a tour. Naoko had a crazy sense of humor. She had us in stitches with some of her stories. I made a note so I could give her a good review when I rate the tour.

It was quite a long bus ride ( 90 minutes) to get to the viewing area in the Hakone resort area. On the bus every time Mt. Fuji came into view all conversation stopped including the narration from the tour guide. She was as excited as we were. Then you heard “click” “click” “click” of the cameras.

The first stop was a visit to the Hakone Open Air Museum. This was an outdoor sculpture museum. I thought “ok” but WOW when we got there it was spectacular. The sculptures were very impressive. This could have been a tour on its own but alas we were faced with a familiar problem of not having enough time to enjoy the site.

Lunch was served at the museum. Stairs, well we should be used to them by now, everywhere we go there are plenty of stairs to climb.

Lunch was a buffet with Japanese food. They did have western silverware but I chose chopsticks. I’m getting pretty good at using them. I even learned how to use them with soup.

After lunch, we took a boat ride on Lake Ashi. We only went 2 stops but once again we could view Mt. Fuji. It never gets old.

Our final stop was to Hakone Komagatake Ropeway. Up more stairs to get to the gondola. Once at the top, more stairs going up then more stairs going down to the viewing area. Crazy design! But what a view! Surprise there was snow on the ground, my sneakers didn’t grip the snow very well. I slipped but I didn’t fall.