Monday we were scheduled to take a day trip to Mount Fuji. We’d arranged it through a tour group. This turned out to be our least enjoyable day of the trip. We met a representative at a nearby hotel, and they took us to a bus station where all of the tours originate. It was a madhouse – lines, people and buses everywhere, etc. We found our bus and were disappointed to find that due to traffic, it was going to take over three hours to reach Mount Fuji. Our bus driver liked to talk, and he talked for most of the day. A lot of it was interesting – history, culture, etc. We were a little surprised by his statistics on the high rates of suicide and how most people (including himself) were in unhappy marriages. All of this information was delivered with a smile on his face – so different. Due to traffic we weren’t able to make it to the Vistor’s Center, so our first stop was for lunch at a resort near a small amusement park. We had not prepaid for lunch, so we skipped the buffet and found a small Japanese restaurant. It was a nice break from the crowd, and our noodles and tempura were good.
We got back on the bus for the ride up to the Fifth Station of Mt. Fuji, which is most climbers’ starting point. The mountain is only open for climbing in July and August, so it was very crowded, and we were surprised at how touristy it was. Also, the mountain was clouded by fog, so it was chilly, and we never got a good view of the summit. We were only there for about 20-30 minutes – long enough to buy walking sticks and send a few postcards.
The next stop for the day was a lake trip across Lake Ashi, described as “A delightful cruise aboard a large sightseeing boat.” It took a really long time to get to the lake – about an hour and a half. We were expecting a cruise across a lake to take around an hour – not the fifteen minutes it actually took. There was a family from London who had come to Japan after spending some time in China, and we were interested to hear about their time there.
By this point, we were ready to go back to Tokyo, but we still had one more stop – a gondola ride up the hill. We drove for ANOTHER 45 minutes, took the gondola up, then had to wait a half hour for the bus to get up there. The views were nice, but not spectacular. The most interesting part was going over a valley with sulphur steam vents. 
We were happy to find that we were heading to the train station next for the train back to Tokyo. Since we had our rail passes, our tour guide was able to cash in our train tickets and give us a little money back. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy for a tour to end. It was nice to get out in the country and spend a day in air conditioning, but we had no idea that so much of the time would be spent on a bus and not actually out seeing or doing things.
After we got back to Tokyo, we went to the Rappongi District to check out some of the famous neon signage that appears in so many pictures of Tokyo. It was crazy – everything was so big and bright, and a little overwhelming.
We got back on the bus for the ride up to the Fifth Station of Mt. Fuji, which is most climbers’ starting point. The mountain is only open for climbing in July and August, so it was very crowded, and we were surprised at how touristy it was. Also, the mountain was clouded by fog, so it was chilly, and we never got a good view of the summit. We were only there for about 20-30 minutes – long enough to buy walking sticks and send a few postcards.
The next stop for the day was a lake trip across Lake Ashi, described as “A delightful cruise aboard a large sightseeing boat.” It took a really long time to get to the lake – about an hour and a half. We were expecting a cruise across a lake to take around an hour – not the fifteen minutes it actually took. There was a family from London who had come to Japan after spending some time in China, and we were interested to hear about their time there.
By this point, we were ready to go back to Tokyo, but we still had one more stop – a gondola ride up the hill. We drove for ANOTHER 45 minutes, took the gondola up, then had to wait a half hour for the bus to get up there. The views were nice, but not spectacular. The most interesting part was going over a valley with sulphur steam vents. We were happy to find that we were heading to the train station next for the train back to Tokyo. Since we had our rail passes, our tour guide was able to cash in our train tickets and give us a little money back. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy for a tour to end. It was nice to get out in the country and spend a day in air conditioning, but we had no idea that so much of the time would be spent on a bus and not actually out seeing or doing things.
After we got back to Tokyo, we went to the Rappongi District to check out some of the famous neon signage that appears in so many pictures of Tokyo. It was crazy – everything was so big and bright, and a little overwhelming.
We got a laugh out of the Hello Kitty paramedic sign – Hello Kitty is really everywhere.
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