Here we are at Japan, day 2. Since we are of course an adventurous family, we wanted to explore one of the most famous mountains in the world and a huge tourist destination, Mount Fuji. This trip didn't involve any actual climbing since they only allow that a few months out of the year. It did involve a train ride, a cable car ride, a gondola ride, a boat ride, and a bus ride.
Of course I started my Mount Fuji day off, as everyone should, by drinking fire. This fire tasted a lot like iced coffee.
We started by riding the JR to the train that would take us out to Mount Fuji. In a bit of a rush to catch the next train, we ended up boarding a train called the romance car. I don't know exactly why it's called the romance car, but the seats were really nice. When the guy came to check our tickets and found out we had cheaper ones we had to shell out a bunch more money. I did something unromantic to their bathroom toilet at least.The train did offer some nice views of Mount Fuji along the way. I'm going to level with you, this is the best photo I was able to get due to the amount of fog that day. There's an electrical pole in the way but it's still my best.
And, in case you are wondering, this gondola does hold the Guiness world record for busiest gondola lift. It may also hold the record for smells most like eggs also, but they didn't have a sign about that.
The egg smell was because there is a lot of sulfur in this valley and a lot of sulfur mines, as seen below:
So we got to the next stop near these sulfur mines where they offer a small nature hike. We didn't feel up to it because it was ridiculously windy. So, we rode the gondala down the next leg to form of transportation number 4, this pirate looking ship. We were on one of the lower floors, and we couldn't see much from the boat. Luckily, Kelsey and I were sitting next to this little girl who challenged us to a face making competition, so we were entertained. I'm pretty sure Kelsey and I won.
The boat took us across Lake Ashi where we rode a bus, form of transportation number 5. The bus took us to another train station, another one of my highlights of the day. I liked this train because it operated in both directions, but only had one track. The way this worked was that the trains from both directions had to stop at a station at the same time because the track separated for only a little bit at the station.
Well, that was about the end of the day. We went out to eat and made it back to the hotel and were pretty pooped. We had to rest up for the next day, which you will be able to read about tomorrow.
Along the way, we stopped in a town called Odawara to view a castle. It was a charming little town with some nice New Year's decorations up.
The castle was quite impressive, it had been converted into a museum about the history of the castle and with a lot of information on Samurais. I couldn't take any photos inside, unfortunately. Here's a view of the front of the castle, though:
This is a gate they were proud of for being the biggest one in the castle. It's pretty big, I guess.
From there it was another short train ride to Owakudani, where we could ride a cable car and then a gondola up a nearby mountain for a better view of Fuji. The gondola ride was one of my favorite parts because these ropes were so long dangling us over the valley.
And, in case you are wondering, this gondola does hold the Guiness world record for busiest gondola lift. It may also hold the record for smells most like eggs also, but they didn't have a sign about that.
The egg smell was because there is a lot of sulfur in this valley and a lot of sulfur mines, as seen below:
So we got to the next stop near these sulfur mines where they offer a small nature hike. We didn't feel up to it because it was ridiculously windy. So, we rode the gondala down the next leg to form of transportation number 4, this pirate looking ship. We were on one of the lower floors, and we couldn't see much from the boat. Luckily, Kelsey and I were sitting next to this little girl who challenged us to a face making competition, so we were entertained. I'm pretty sure Kelsey and I won.
The boat took us across Lake Ashi where we rode a bus, form of transportation number 5. The bus took us to another train station, another one of my highlights of the day. I liked this train because it operated in both directions, but only had one track. The way this worked was that the trains from both directions had to stop at a station at the same time because the track separated for only a little bit at the station.
Well, that was about the end of the day. We went out to eat and made it back to the hotel and were pretty pooped. We had to rest up for the next day, which you will be able to read about tomorrow.P.S. go Packers!
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