The train ride to the Shinjuko train station was fairly uneventful, although seeing the bleary eyed Japanese people dosing off on the train bound for their respective workplaces reminded me of something eerily familiar...like in some far off place and time this had happened to me... Must have just been a bad dream. Anyways, the bus depot our bus was departing from was just outside the Shinjuko train station, and we had been there before, but nothing looks familiar in Tokyo. That is, until I spotted a Starbucks we had grabbed a coffee at a couple days before. That and McDonald's, it seems, are the constants in this world. Gotta love it.
We were pretty early arriving at the bus depot (for those of you who are familiar with Patty and my tardiness and imagine us running around like chickens with their heads cut off, we can actually be on time for things ... I think it's the fear of missing our bus that drove us in this case) so we stopped for a coffee and some biscotti that Patty's Tia Josie had kindly provided to us before leaving (thanks again!!). Man, do those two things go good together!
We got on our bus, no problem, and, in typical Japanese fashion, the second the digital clock on the bus changed from 11:09 to 11:10 (our scheduled departure time) the door swung shut and off we went. Amazing. These guys really don't fool around! :)
Our bus trip was pretty uneventful. We spent much of it perusing our Lonely Planet book and planning for upcoming cities. One thing of note, and something we had noticed time and time again in Japan, was the way in which Japanese people take care of you. I've been on a bus in Canada, and it's not pretty. In Japan, it's practically a pleasure. Air conditioning, blinds, nice seats, drink holders, hooks to hang things on, foot rests, and most importantly clean!! I've been very impressed with how well I've been taken care of in many of the places I've been here. Perhaps we've just been lucky. Knock on wood.
So, like I was saying, our bus trip was pretty uneventful until, for me, Mount Fuji reared his mighty head. What a sight! I don't think I've ever been in such awe of a physical thing. I have to say that pictures do not do this mountain justice. It rises, isolated, out of the ground as if someone had just determined that a mountain shall be there, and it was. It is one of the few breathtaking things that I have seen in my life and is something I won't soon forget. Hopefully we can capture some decent pictures of it tomorrow morning. I will definitely post a couple.
Once we arrived at the train station in Kawaguchi-ko, we struggled to figure out where we were. Thankfully, there was a map nearby. Oddly, it was the first public map we'd seen in Japan in which north was pointing up! Even just earlier that day in Tokyo we were looking at a map on which north pointed down and slightly to the right. Bizarre. Of the five or so public maps we consulted in Tokyo, none had north pointing up and never did north point in the same direction twice. If there's a logical explanation for this, it escapes me.
Anyway, we determined the direction of our hostel and set off. The town itself is really quite beautiful, and quite the contrast to Tokyo. It's situated on a beautiful lake, one of the five, I believe, that surround Mount Fuji.
After a 45 minute walk, we made it to our hostel, which, it turns out, is awesome. It has a huge kitchen, a huge 'shared living space', clean, and modern. We are very impressed, especially for the price. Here's a pic from our balcony:
We decided to make use of the kitchen and headed straight for a supermarket after we had checked in. We ended up making some very delicious sandwiches, which were surprisingly similar to ones we would make at home. It really reminded us how good a nice home made meal can be.
After lunch we headed to a nearby onsen. For those of you who are unfamiliar with an onsen, it is essentially a Japanese bath house where the water is typically drawn from a spring. The one we went to was extremely modern, so I'm sure there are much better ones out there. Still, it was quite relaxing. Weird to be naked in public like that, though I doubt it would take much to get used to that.
After this, we went back to the supermarket and picked up some groceries for dinner, breakfast, and lunch the next day. We will be going around tomorrow to visit many of the sites in the area. We'll talk about those tomorrow. For dinner we ended up making a fish stir fry that turned out really good. Here's a picture:
We also met a very friendly Aussie while eating. He gave us some helpful tips about traveling in south-east Asia. We'll be putting those to good use!
Bye for now! :)
Congrats on braving the Onsen...sadly, my North American 'sensibilties' would likely prevent me from attempting that!
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