This morning we left the Sheraton and set out for Mount Fuji.  Tonight we will be staying in Hakone at the Palace Hotel.  Hakone is known for their hot springs and sulfur pools.

There are 5 stations that buses can go to on Mount Fuji, 1-5 (5 being the highest in elevation) depending on the weather and time of year.  Currently the road is only open up to station 2 for buses.  When we arrived at the 2nd station, it was snowing and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see any of the mountain.  This was a major disappointment, but we have no control over the weather.

After lunch we took a short boat cruise on a pirate ship replica across the Lake Ashi.  This lake is from spring water and does not freeze over.  In this lake there were a few torii gates to Shinto shrines.

There was also a cool pedal boat that was the shape of a swan.  I’ve never seen this in the US.  Perhaps I lead a sheltered life. 

When we reached the other side of the lake, we took a cable car to the top of the mountain for a better view of the lake.  The weather was getting a lot better than earlier in the day.  Little did we know that once we reached the peak that we were continuing on to another mountain after that.  As we went over the peak, the clouds thinned out and there was a magnificent view of Mount Fuji.  The 12 people in our gondola were ecstatic and moved to one side of the car to take pictures.  It felt like we were going to top over. 

There was a great spot for viewing once we got off of the cable car.  Seeing Mount Fuji rounded out the day on a high note and lifted our spirits from the disappointing morning.

A taxi dropped us off at the Palace Hotel where the day ended.

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

• Tokyo businesses promote flex hours as the traffic is quite heavy. 
• There are professional pushers at the train stops that stuff people into the train cars during rush hour.  There was an issue with people groping women, so during rush hour there is a car at the front and back of the train that is designated WOMEN only.
• Tokyo has a lot of raised/elevated roads.  These were built for the 1964 Olympic Games to handle congestion.
• There are still a lot of smokers here.  All restaurants and all public sections of the hotels we stayed at were smoking.
• I wanted to attend a sumo match but it appears that it is not the right season, so we will have to come back.  Sumo wrestlers only eat 2 meals a day to bulk up which consists of meat and rice.
• After WWII, Japan ratified their constitution to renounce war.  Their military is for self defense only.  There are still several active US military bases in Japan.
• 10% of the world’s volcanoes are located in Japan.
• Our tour guide lived in Cliffside Park, NJ for 5 years. 

-Allen

This morning we took a 3 hour bus ride out to the city of Nikko (means sunshine) to see Nikko Toshogu (a Shinto Shrine.  There is a Buddhist temple located on the same grounds) and the Kegon Falls.  On the ride we must have seen about 100 baseball games taking places and fields lining a river.  The games seemed to go on for miles.

Finally reaching Nikko, we were lucky enough to be there at noon to catch the bell ringing.  Check out the video below.

The next stop was at Lake Chuzenji at the foot of Mount Nantai, both part of Nikko National Park.  This lake is 163 meters at its deepest point.

Our final stop of the day was Kegon Falls at Nikko National Park.  This was a beautiful waterfall that had multiple streams coming down the mountain.  This waterfall comes from our previous stop, Lake Chuzenji.  We only had enough time to take pictures from the top as the tour bus allotted 30 minutes for this location.  The elevator to the bottom takes about 20 minutes roundtrip and there was a line.  I was still able to get a few decent shots.

The tour bus dropped us off near Shinjuku Station so we could take the train back to Meguro.  Right next to the station there was a sushi train restaurant, so we grabbed a quick bite.  For those who have never been to a sushi train restaurant, you sit down at a table or counter (depending on the layout of the restaurant) and there is a conveyor belt that passes by you with varying types of sushi.  You just grab the plate that interests you and eat.  The price is determined based on the type of plate you grab (usually distinguished by color or pattern).  This place also had self service hot water at the counter so you could serve yourself green tea.  Check out the video below.

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

Gas prices are outrageous!  149 yen/liter which works out to $5.72 per gallon USD…and I thought we had it bad in the US.

Public restrooms have toilets with built in bidets and often times seat warmers.  We have one of these at our hotel too and it has a remote control!

-Allen

Our tour bus picked us up at 7:50AM and we discovered that it was actually just a transfer bus.  One other important fact that we learned was that this tour did NOT drop us back at our hotel like we were told.  The tour operators informed us that we would be taking a taxi or train back at our own expense.  A taxi would be around $50 and the train would be around $3.  Pretty safe to assume we chose the train.  More on that later.

We arrived at a transfer station and were shuffled to another bus for the Panoramic Tokyo tour from Sunrise Tours.  Our first stop on the tour was the Meiji Shinto Shine.  Shinto and Buddhism are the primary religions in Japan.  According to our tour guide, breaking down the word Shinto helps us to get a better meaning:  Shin means “God” and to means “the way”, God’s way or the way of God.  However in Shintoism, there are many gods.  The Shinto religion has shrines where Buddhism has temples.  A way to distinguish a temple from the shrine, is to look for the presence of gates (pictured below).  Shinto shines have gates and Buddhist temples do not.  The second picture is a of spring water which is used to cleanse yourself at the shrine.

While we were at the temple we saw a few weddings take place and the different clothing they wear for the Shinto wedding ceremony.

Upon leaving the Meiji Shinto Shrine, we drove by the Tokyo Tower but unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of this. The tower, designed after the Eiffel Tower, stands 333 meters tall and is primarily used for TV transmission.

Our next stop was the Imperial Palace East Garden.  The gardens are open to the public but the palace is not.   It is only open twice a year on January 2nd to celebrate the New Year and December 23rd for the Emperor’s birthday.

The cherry blossoms (sakura in Japanese) are in full bloom here and it is a HUGE deal!  People packed the streets of Tokyo to hang out, party, and drink under the cherry blossoms.  This also caused the Imperial Palace East Garden to be quite crowded.  We only took a few pictures of the cherry blossoms because there were so many people crowding around all of them.

On the drive through town we noticed several people with blue tarps.  The government gives the homeless blue tarps to keep warm and attempt to create a shelter.  We didn’t get much more information on this, but I would be interested to see what other programs were offered and how they compare to programs in the US.

The Asakusa Kannon Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, was our next stop.  This is quite a popular place as well and had dozens of cherry blossom trees.  See the picture below for the market surrounding the temple.  It was pretty busy and the cherry blossoms are visible on the right.

Unlike the Chinese Buddha images, the Japanese images lacked the swastika on the Buddha’s chest.  There where however several on other items on the temple grounds which displayed the symbol.  In Japanese culture this symbol represents harmony and was in use long before the Nazi party adopted it.

The afternoon featured a short boat cruise through Tokyo Bay passing under Rainbow Bridge and a visit to Odaiba where there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty.  France had loaned the statue to Japan to display and the Japanese loved it so much that France made a replica for them.  From Odaiba you can view the Statue of Liberty with Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower, and other buildings in the Tokyo skyline in the background.  I think I have seen the Statue of Liberty more times on this trip than I have when I am back in NJ. 

This concluded our trip and the tour made our way back to the bus terminal.  From here we had to take a train back to Meguro Station.  Our original itinerary stated that we were supposed to be dropped back at our hotel, but since it is far out of the way we do not get that service.  We thought that it was going to be difficult to find our way, but ther
e is a rail system that runs around central Tokyo and it quite simple and nice.  There are video monitors in the trains that have maps depicting each stop in both English and Japanese.  The train was immaculate, no dirt, trash, or graffiti.  Nothing like the US.  At Meguro Station, there is a shuttle bus that runs back to the Sheraton.  From there, we called it a night.  

Other comments…(and facts for those following along at home)

We have become spoiled by our private tour guides (Pat and Kay from Thailand and Ricky and Corona in China).  There is really nothing like being on a tour with your OWN tour guide where you can stop and take as much time to absorb the scenery.  In Thailand and China, these were more economical, but in Japan we would have paid upwards of $1,500 per day!

Tokyo fashion is quite interesting as there appears to be a wide array of styles.  There were a lot of people that were wearing clothes that did not appear to match.  Susan commented that it looked like they took clothes from all different time periods and put them on in layers.  I never really paid attention to anything like this in the US, so it may be exactly the same. 

We wanted to see a performance at the Kabuki theatre, but theatre is off the last week in March for rehearsal.

Saturday is a popular day for weddings here too.  We saw a total of 6 throughout the day and 4 on the boat cruise alone!

Drivers in Japan drive on the left side of the road and the right side of the car.  (Like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.)

There are over 4,000 islands that make up Japan.

People of Tokyo are called Tokyoites.

-Allen

This is a rather useless post about our arrival in Japan, so please feel free to skip this. 

After landing at Narita International Airport, it took only about 45 minutes to clear customs and claim our bags.  Like the US, Japan is fingerprinting and taking pictures of all foreign visitors.  The only thing the counter was missing was a live rating system of the custom’s agent’s customer service skills.  We first saw this in China.  I think the US should implement this system. 

We boarded a shuttle bus for an 1.5 hour ride to our hotel, the Sheraton Miyako.  This bus was very clean.  I mean super clean!  It was just as our new friend John had described.  Not a speck of dust on the floor, seats were neat with doilies on the headrests, and the windows were crystal clear and streak free. 

When we arrived at our hotel the restaurants were closed so we walked to the nearest convenience store, which happened to be a 7-11.  The streets were immaculate!  Not a piece of trash, a cigarette butt..nothing!  One the walk there were several vending machines selling a wide range of beverages.  Certainly different than my walk around NYC.

The Sheraton Miyako Hotel Tokyo will be our place of residence for the next few nights.  Once again, this hotel was booked with points.  Thank you MSFT!    The gym in the hotel is NOT free for guests, but is only $7 for access to all of the equipment, a pool, and a sauna.  Internet access on the other hand is free in all rooms.  I guess you have to pick and choose your battles.  Breakfast on the other hand is quite expensive.  Normally hotels are more costly but this is over the top.  We were looking thought the menu at it was ~$18 for a bagel and cream cheese!

Tomorrow morning the tour starts at 7:50AM.  More to come.

-Allen

Well we have left Guam and arrived in Japan.  Guam was a nice place that would visit again if I was given the chance.  It was interesting to stay in the Marriott as the Executive lounge was mostly mainlanders. 

Everything in the Marriott closes early.  They take away the beach chairs at 5pm, the pool closes at 6pm and it is roped off.  The pool could use some work too as all of the pavement around it is coming loose.  The rocks hurt to walk on.  If you want to play ping pong, you have to rent the paddles and a ball for $10/hour!!!  All of this while the hotel next door, Pacific Island Club is rockin’ and having fun until all hours of the night.  They have 7 pools!  The Marriott could use some updating, but who am I to complain as the building protected us in the earthquakes. 

Here are a few random shots to close out the Guam experience.

Make sure you don’t take an octopus!

I thought this was hilarious.  A block over from our hotel there are a series of adult entertainment businesses.  Underneath one of the gentlemen’s clubs (Club G Spot) was a bar and pool hall by the name of Backscratchers!  What a great name for the location. 

-Allen