Day 8, Thursday 19th March


Today was my only proper organised group tour. I booked a trip to Mt. Fufi and Hakone before I left as it was something my parents helped pay for (my mum especially wanted me to go) and it turned out to be pretty good. It was a bus trip to the base of Mt Fuji with a tour guide speaking English. While waiting for the bus had another Japanese toilet experience this time with the other extreme, one of the computerised ones! I should have taken a better picture of the control board but it had three pictures off of bums with water sprouts. The first looked pretty gentle, second looked fairly normal but the last one looked like, well, it would clean you out! Thankfully it also had a roll of toilet paper there so I didn't have to find out.

The Fuji visitor centre was the first stop to see art dedicated to Fujisan and was probably where everyone got the best photos. Then we drove up to the fourth station which is about half way up Mt.Fuji. There are five stations but the fifth was still closed because of snow and we were lucky to get to the forth with it opening only two days before. Saw lots of snow but wasn't the best view of either the surroundings (haze) or the top of the mountain (as happens on side of mountain).

Had a very nice lunch that had some interesting things that I hadn't had yet. I am not a fan of Jelly Fish though.

The weather up until this point had been beautiful but as we drove to Hakone and Lake Ashi the weather turned terrible! The wind picked up something vicious and we couldn't go all the way on the cable car as part of it was closed because of wind. Still went up a fair way to Hell Valley and froze but didn't have much time to look as the quickly piled us back on the bus and drove us back to the lake for the cruise.

Didn't get to go on one of the pirate ships but took on of the normal cruise boats. Once again froze from the wind and didn't get to see Mt. Fuji as it was hidden by clouds which was sad. Even with the terrible weather it was a nice ride and very interesting. Lake Ashi is a very beautiful area.

Back on the bus and dropped off the few that were staying the night in Hakone. It was a pretty interesting drive around the mountains and to see where they had built and were building.

Part of the tour was a ride on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) back to Tokyo. This was something I was really looking forward to and another reason why I picked this tour. Once you are on the train you can't really tell how fast you are going, especially at night but when you stand in a station and one goes through, WOW its fast even though they have slowed down.

Got off the Shinkansen and made my way back to the accommodation. As Juunana and Spacexat were working late I just picked up myself some Japanese KFC. It was pretty much the same as home but in a nice little carry bag, and to my annoyance, they didn't know what upsize was.