We were up early to walk to meet up with tour – about a 45 minute walk through Tokyo. Once on the bus we met our tour guide who was just awesome! She truly went over and above to make our day great, joking non-stop, singing, giving up gifts and ending our day on a real high note.
Here she is giving us a talk and she’s organised a way to hang up a poster in the bus so we can follow along.
The day was cloudy and a bit overcast so chances of seeing Mt Fugi were slim. However being autumn, the views were just beautiful as we drove through the mountains.
We had a bit of a walk around at the fifth station Mt Fuji. The top was covered in cloud.
This is the view looking down from Mt Fuji – above the clouds!
Then we went to Hakone theme park for lunch. There were several roller coasters here and this was the biggest.
Then it was another nice trip through the mountains to Lake Ashee, which sits at the top of a volcano. The area and the lake were really lovely but because it was overcast most of my pics are too dark so not many to post. The water is very clear – to a depth of 12 metres and you could see heaps of fish swimming about.
Half way around the world Tony met up with a cycling friend from Lithgow on the ferry.
We took the cable car to the top of the mountain. The views were fantastic at first…
Then we were engulfed in clouds and couldn’t see anything at all at the top.
It was a very full, very nice day out in the mountains – beautiful scenery!
The final part of our tour was to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo with our guide. She very kindly, and bravely! offered to take any one who wanted on the train back to Shinjuku with her – in peak hour with people going home after work, through the busiest train station in the world ( 3.4 million people go through it a day). So our guide, took 24 tourists through to our destination – it really was a great experience!
…walking through the station…
The cabin I just got out of…
… and that brings our holiday to an end.
Overall its been a really good trip, no rain except in Vancouver, met lots of nice people and saw some amazing places.
This morning we are just packing up and getting ready for our flight. We’ll be home Saturday evening some time and a few days off before we go back to work.