It was a wet morning.
I had booked the Sunrise Tour for a One-day Mount Fuji and Hakone Tour (Return by Shinkansen) as part of my itinerary. For one or two weeks, I had monitored the weather forecast closely and the various weather sites had forecast rather positively about the weather that day. I knew that June wasn't an exactly fantastic time to see Mount Fuji, but I didn't have a choice since I could only go on a holiday in June and December. I wanted at least a non-rainy day. Whether it's sunny or cloudy - didn't matter. Just non-rainy will do.
A day or two before I departed, I was shocked to see that the weather forecast had totally changed. It was forecast that the day I had booked the tour would be a 'thunderstorm' day! I straddled between cancelling the tour and losing 30% to 40% of the fees or simply going ahead and risk not seeing anything at all. In the end, I decided to 'just do it'. If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be. Que sera sera.
I had chosen Keio Plaza Hotel to be the meeting point for the tour as I deemed it to be the nearest venue to Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku. It was supposed to be a 10-minute walk via the Shinjuku Station. The day before, we had walked just about the entire stretch of the Shinjuku Station to reach the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and had seen the sign leading to Keio Plaza Hotel. I was confident that the exit to my destination would be easy to find. I would also allocate 20 minutes for the walk and a minor search for Keio Plaza if need be.
Unbeknownst to me, our packing in the morning would take a fair bit of time and by the time I realised, we were left with 15 minutes to walk to Keio Plaza Hotel! We hurried out and tried to look for the entrance we exited by the day before, as it looked like it was the nearest to Keio Plaza Hotel. Horror of horrors! We could not find it! It seemed so near to the hotel just the day before but it had vanished overnight! I was frantic. I had read and heard so much about the Japanese being particular about being punctual. Even the email from JapanICan stated that the tour guide would not wait for you if you are late. I had to reach there at 8.05am and it was already 7.55am! I quickly asked a young couple for the directions to the 'subway', 'Shinjuku Station' and after showing the picture of the station, the girl understood,"Train!"
She pointed to the front but I still could not find it.
I tried to flag for a cab and none was available!
I had to walk on and finally the train station entrance appeared. It was sort of hidden in the myriad of buildings. All the time, my mother and Baby looked on as they could not help at all.
We had to rush to Keio Plaza Hotel in the quickest possible manner, but it was difficult as my mother and Baby were not the fastest walkers in the world. I walked in front as the guide while they followed behind. I would wave to them from the front to indicate my position and to assure them that I had not disappeared.
By the time we reached the hotel, it was 8.15am! I was extremely worried that the tour group had left. I dashed to the reception and asked 'Where is Sunrise Tour?' I did not mean to be rude or curt, but I wanted to keep my question short and comprehensible to the locals. I was under the impression that asking long questions such as 'Can you tell me if Sunrise Tour is still around?' may confuse them and may result in shaking of heads out of a fear of the language.
The lady pointed to a tour guide. Thank God! She was still there, waiting for us!
We took a Hato Bus to the bus terminal and changed to our actual tour bus to Mount Fuji.
It was quite an adventure for us. I thought to myself that it was a relief that we were not on a group tour, remembering how rush and stressful it was for us during our Taipei trip 6 years ago.
And our trip to Mount Fuji commenced while we sat back to catch our breath.
The tour guide, Keiko, who showed us the 'pray for good weather' doll she made, preparing us mentally for the likely disappointment ahead.
After 1.5 hour, we reached the Visitor Centre for our toilet break. Keiko mentioned that in good weather, visitors could view Mount Fuji from here, but apart from the very misty clouds, we saw nothing.
The bus we took
Sigh! Foreshadowing our disappointment ...
We were driven to the Fifth Station where visitors were more excited to take pictures with the sea of clouds than the Mount Fuji opposite.
Do you see the dark brown earth? That is Mount Fuji.
We were so close to seeing Mount Fuji. Of course we had to take a picture of it.
The souvenir centre
We were so busy taking pictures of the clouds that we didn't have the time to shop there.
As if in an answer to my prayer, the lunch bell chimed.
We were taken to a canteen-like place to have a local/Japanese set.
The buckwheat noodles with 'nutritious' soup, so said Keiko.
The setting
After that, we were told that Hakone was too misty and dangerous to take a cruise and ropeway, so we were driven a short distance away to Lake Kawaguchi for the ropeway and cruise.
What we saw of Kawaguchi when we were up there.
Oh, we were taken up there to see Mount Fuji!
It was like a shy girl covered with a thin misty veil. When the clouds floated across its 'face', it was covered; when the clouds moved away, it revealed itself.
By the time I set up my tripod, it was covered again.
So we waited patiently for it to reveal itself again!
Then we took the ropeway down and walked across the road to take a cruise on Lake Kawaguchi.
Interestingly, Mount Fuji was behind another mountain all along! As the cruise swirled across the lake, all the visitors on the cruise had a good look at the beautiful and elegant mountain.
People were taking pictures with Mount Fuji but I didn't think the pictures would look fantastic with a big head beside the mountain, with people beside you, so I didn't take any with us in it.
I knew that we were really lucky to be able to see Mount Fuji in wet and cloudy summer. I had read up tonnes of materials of how you won't be able to see Mount Fuji in June as June is cloudy with high humidity, rainy too! I am really thankful that the trip wasn't a wasted one.
After that, we continued the drive to Hakone, just to see how misty Hakone was.
Misty misty
At the foot of Hakone, I suppose.
Some people alighted the coach to spend the night here. Yeah man, why didn't I think of that?
We were given our Shinkansen tickets to Shinagawa Station.
We got back to our hotel to rest a little before heading out to another highly recommended sushi shop on Tripadvisor in Shinjuku for our dinner.
We were rather tired for the day so I promised my mother it would be a short walk.
I loved the salmon belly with cheese (top right) but my mother missed the sushi at Sushi Zanmai already! She felt that the sushi there were 'fresher' since the sushi here are placed on a conveyor belt for customers to choose, as apposed to the ones at Sushi Zanmai where they make them on the spot for you.
I finished these plates anyway!
Directions:
Himawari Sushi
Local name ひまわり寿司 新都心店
Local address 〒160-0023西新宿1-15-3
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