After having the cursory glance at Tokyo, I really had the urge to get out into the country and that meant Mt. Fuji. The helpful African guy working at the hostel front desk in Tokyo said that the mountain would be closed to hiking. After being shut out of hiking the Milford Track in New Zealand, I simply couldn’t take this on blind faith to be true. So I jumped on a train, actually three different trains, and am now nicely settled in a traditional Japanese hotel room at the base of Mt. Fuji.
The room experience should be really interesting. There is a little tea table in the center (I am enjoying some hot green tea right now) and that is it.
The floor has traditional matting but it is by no means soft. In a shelved area is something resembling a thick comforter, that hopefully is the mattress of sorts. I am grateful to have my camping gear along. If all else fails, the Thermo-Rest backpacking pad will make an appearance and all will be well.
I experienced jovial welcoming behavior from both ends of the spectrum today. Before leaving Tokyo I stopped into the neighborhood noodle shop for a bowl. Sitting at the counter, I had the destiny of eating right next to a happy drunk (mind you this is 10:00am). He was all smiles and hick-ups. I didn’t know people actually did that. After finally connecting, in recognition of the name “Ichiro”, he launched into speaking a mile a minute. The entire conversation was in Japanese. I just kept smiling and nodding, which amused the cooks. After a well paced ingestion of noodles, broth, veggies and rice I thanked everyone and was more than ready to hit the road or in this case rails.
The other welcoming experience was on the train, after making a transfer to a particularly busy rail car. A sweet Japanese grandmother type figure made room in the seat next to her and I sat down. Again, no English was spoken, as she glowed and loved chatting with me. I showed her my ticket and she dug into her purse to find a small scrap of paper and a pencil. She then drew what looked like a circle with squiggly lines rising perpendicular to the surface. (After arriving at Kawaguchiko the tourist signs pointed out the locations of natural hot springs utilizing the same symbol.) Later in the trip she fell asleep so I thought it would not be rude to listen to my ipod. Staring out the window across the aisle from our seat I felt a nudge in my left shoulder. She wanted to share a piece of hard wrapped candy with me. She made my day, so we took a picture.
A nice recognition in Japan is an apparent respect for recording their physical history. It was great to run across this old train, that used to run the Fuji route, preserved next to the station.
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