First a quick serious note about Typhoon Krosa which is set to hit landfall in Tokyo at any time. We are totally safe and not in harms way - but that is not the case for a lot of people who are on the western coast of Japan. Please take a moment and send some good vibes and/or say a prayer for the safety of everyone in its' path.
We had the chance to take a day trip today to visit Mount Fuji - the highest mountain in Japan. It was formed over 7,000 years ago and continued to grow through the years from multiple volcanic eruptions. The last eruption was in 1707 - it was so large it spewed rocks all the way to Tokyo which is ~90 miles away. It is still considered active - but thankfully has not had an eruption in a long time.
Although we are far from the core of the typhoon we experienced a fair amount of rain from its' outer edges today. Unfortunately that meant we weren't able to see the mountain while we were on it - the cloud cover was too low and there was a steady rain. Still we figure not many people will be able to say they were on Mount Fuji during a typhoon, so...
Our tour guide was Fumi - he was awesome. The weather didn't really cooperate today but he helped make it a great trip with his story telling and terrific attitude. He even taught us all origami - we made our own souvenir Mount Fujis :)
We met a very nice father (Tim) and son (Kevin) at lunch today. They are from San Francisco and were in Tokyo to watch their daughter / sister in the Jr World Rowing Championships that wrapped up on Sunday. Kevin also rows and just finished his freshman year at UC San Diego. Confirming what a small world it is, they have spent a fair amount of time in Sarasota at our wonderful Benderson Park rowing facility. For those of you not in LWR, this is ~5 miles from our house. Here's a picture from a gondola ride we did with them just behind us.
Even though the weather wasn't great we did see some pretty sights on a short cruise.
We have two follow up stories related to yesterday's post. First - back to toilets. Yesterday I was bragging about the wonders of Japanese toilets with all the bells and (literally) whistles. Today on the trip up to Mount Fuji we stopped for a bathroom break and it was a bit different. Below is a picture of the "toilet" I found in the stall. Basically you hold on to the bar on the wall, squat and aim :). Funny enough there was still a musical option!
The second was a reality slap after we were a bit over confident with our successful navigation of the Tokyo subway yesterday and walk back to our hotel. Thankfully we were rescued by some really nice locals who took pity on us!
First though it was pretty cool. Instead of a bus ride back after the tour we were able to experience the "bullet train". What would have taken 2 - 3 hours of driving only took 30 minutes. The train goes ~200 mph and is an incredibly smooth ride. We also learned Japanese engineers have utilized magnetic levitation on a test track section with a new train going ~375 mph. They are working on making it fully operational with new tracks that will significantly speed travel between their larger cities. Very cool.
So back to our trip. The tour company gave us the ticket for the bullet train. We were returned to a train station near our hotel. From there we knew EXACTLY what we needed to do - because it was very similar to what we did yesterday. We simply had to buy a ticket for a local commuter route for a few stops to get back to the station near our hotel and then walk back like we did yesterday. We got off the train and walked confidently to purchase our new ticket. We walked up to the first set of machines and quickly realized they weren't right. We then set off exploring - in a very very large train station. We walked for a while and realized the names of the trains were changing from what we needed so we backtracked. At this point we were getting ready to ask (ha! what an idea) when a young woman came up and asked us if we needed help. She quickly pointed us in the right direction - ironically where we were headed earlier when we convinced ourselves it was wrong. We found the train we needed but still no tickets. We went up to the ticket agent to ask for help. After I showed him my ticket from yesterday - not today :) - he was quite patient and we finally straightened things out and learned we didn't need to buy another ticket.
We finally breathed a sigh of relief - on the right train and only a few stops away. We exited at the right exit - now we just needed to walk through the tunnels like we did yesterday. Easy. We took off - confidently. After a minute or so we thought things looked a little different - but we kept going. We then emerged outside at a very busy intersection and knew we were lost. OK - google maps. We were trying to orient ourselves - when another young woman came up and offered her help. She was so sweet - and pointed us back into the station with some directions. Great. We went up the escalator - started walking - and all of a sudden she was tapping Craig on the shoulder. She apparently was watching us and realized we were going in the wrong direction again(!) and decided to walk with us a little bit. Totally out of her way - so very kind. We finally got back on track and said our goodbyes and thanks. She left us with the advice that "maybe" we should walk a little slower to make sure we didn't miss our turns :). Pretty good advice.
That's all for now.
Enjoy the Ride!
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