I had booked the Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Train which started early and with a meeting place that was about twenty minutes from the hotel, I got up early. The weather was overcast and there was only a slight drizzle. I was informed that there was a 7-11 across the street within walking distance, so I went to get something for the ride to drink. Compared to California, Tokyo is surprisingly inexpensive. I had a conversion app on my phone that also did currency. I took a cab to the meeting place (Tokyo Metro Ginza Station Exit A13). The cab fare was unfortunately about $30 US.
While waiting for the tour group, I met several visitors from Canada, the UK and Australia. Everyone introduced themselves and shared where they are from. Normally I am an introvert, but I am able to pretend to be an extrovert on occasion. As we loaded on to the bus, I met my “bus buddy” (the person sitting next to me on the bus), Lolina, who was also traveling alone. She was a heavy equipment operator from Perth, Australia. I never heard of it, but the whole trip was a learning experience.
On the bus trip toward the place where we were going to see Mt. Fuji, the cloud ceiling and the rain started to come down. This cancelled our trip to Mount Fuji and instead we stopped at a very nice place, with the cherry blossoms, streams, koi ponds and several food venders and souvenir stores. One store was selling squid on a stick for $1200 Yen ($8.41 US) where they would cook it up in front of you. I do like calamari and this did not disappoint, very good. Since I could not see Mt. Fuji, I bought three postcards of Mt. Fuji and the cherry blossoms.
After viewing the ponds and streams, I ran into our tour guide, Sorli who wanted to get some pictures. Even though we could not see Mt. Fuji, Sorli introduced us to Japanese culture, saying and greetings. She definitely made the tour amazing. Our next stop was a nice lunch of tempura, ramen and white rice at Kouka Ninja.
This tour included a ride on the Ropeway (cable car) which unfortunately the view was a whiteout condition which limited our viewing drastically. I and the rest of the tourists were having so much that we began cracking jokes about seeing Mount Fuji. One of the other tourists held up his phone with a picture of Mount Fuji. Then onto a short boat ride on a pirate ship. Our views were again limited due to the weather. The tour ended and we were dropped off at the train station to ride the famous bullet train. I missed the opportunity to get a video of the train coming through the station but the video from inside is not as impressive.
Now if you are unfamiliar with the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet trains, it is the high-speed rail system that reach a top speed of 100 mph (320 km/h). That’s Odawara station to Tokyo in 25 minutes (47.7 miles). I got off the train at Shinagawa station which was close to my hotel. I was unfamiliar with the trains in Japan that I spent about $20 for a taxi ride back to the hotel. Spoiler alert: If I took the train, it would have dropped me off three blocks from my hotel, Tokyo Mercure Haneda Airport Hotel. Spoiler Alert: I found out about this the next morning talking to the receptionist about getting to Tokyo Disneyland.
I want to say thanks to our excellent tour guide Sori, it turned into a great hangout. Met some great people.
