Natsumeku 夏 & 富士山
After staying right next to the equator for almost 2 decades, it felt like I have just truly experienced the real summer times during our 10 days trip to Japan in early Aug when the heat spell strike. Just 'Woah', the weather was so humid and muggy and clammy and roasting everyday except when we were high up on Mount Fuji.
Grumblings on the blazing sun aside, it was a very summer-ish trip. It was a collation of seasonal fruits (Yamanashi peach, Kyoho grapes and Yubari Melon! Wheww fruits that we couldn't bear to splurge on in Singapore but half priced in Japan), Sunflower fields, Ice coffees and Summer Matsuri with fireworks~ Pretty much the kind of Japanese summer I envisioned before the trip, except that I conveniently forget to include the heat that was about to come at our faces, and every pores of our skin.
Going back to Toyko reminds me of the first overseas trip Lnr brought me to during our very initial courtship hurhur. 4 years down, we walked past the very same junction near Shinjuku station and it feels like the city hasn't changed much. The same aesthetic, neon boards lighting up the night sky; A FamilyMart every 100m away; streets full of people, apparently more locals than tourists in the hot, unpleasant August weather.
Compared to our last Europe trip, there was minimal planning needed this time. On the first day we wandered around when we first arrive in the city while trying to come to terms with the heat, got to our first airbnb and took a long waited cold shower, crashed in by taking a nap. And left for Izakaya at Omoide Yokocho when the sun has finally set. Japanese food are always such a soul comforter as we gulp down the ice cold beer in one hand, and griled skewers in the other. :')
On the second day, we made a day trip out to Kawagoe, about 30 min rain ride from where we stayed. Being an edo-period castle town, a short stretch of the street have preserved the traditional merchant houses, as well a Meiji- Era candy valley. Given that it was our 3rd visit to Japan, I set out to visit less temples or castles since we have visited a lot of them during the Osaka-Kyoto trip, but rather to tour some museums if possible to better understand the past of Japan. Hence we visited the Kawagoe festive museum to learn a thing or two about floats used during festive seasons, the railway museum with a wide collection of train models and the Edo museum tokyo. The last was very informative to give a overview of the history, social hierarchy, livelihood and culture. Unfortunately it seems like I brought back very little of these knowledge with me back to Singapore.
On the 3rd day we embarked on the highlight of our trip, the main reason why we chose to come to Japan during the summer - to trek up Mount Fuji over a somewhat 2D1N journey. The official Mt Fuji trekking season are during the summer season from July to Sep where there are no snow at the peak. (which makes it a lot less Fuji-like considering that most people recognise her by the snow top)
Mt Fuji is 3776m high at the peak, and there are three different trails that lead up to the top. We opted in for the easier, more accessible and most popular Yoshida trail which starts at the height of 2300m. The ascend takes about 6-7 hours and descent about 3-4 hours on a separate. We pre-booked our express bus ticket from Shinjuku to Subaru 5th station online and arrived at the base after 2.5hours. After dumping our luggage at the lockers for about 1200Yen (which fits our big luggage) overnight and a quick lunch at the resting hut. We were more or less ready and packed our 30l decathlon backpack with cold wear for the summit, 3l of water each, trekking pole, head lamp and basic toiletries.
The trek from 5th station (the base that we started from) to 6th station was a gentle and leisure walk for about an hour before everything started to ascend vertically. We started the trek at about 1.30/2pm while it was still hot and sticky, but the weather slowly cooled down as we ascend. Despite trying to avoid the popular Oden day (mountain day, PH in Japan) and trekking on Sat, the trail was still packed with locals on the Sunday we were there.
Our trekking pole has proven to be of great help when it comes to ascend (and very much so for me during the descend the next day). As we got higher and the trail got narrower, there was slowly a long queue forming up by the time we reach 7th station. Which on the brighter side, sets a good pace for us so that we do not over exert ourselves.
From the 5th station onwards, all trekkers would have to keep their own rubbish in their little trash bags and carry the rubbish down Mt Fuji because there was no bins, and each toilet trip cost 200Yen (which is equivalent to S$2.50!) based on honesty. And hence we spent almost $20 precious dollars on peeing over the 2 days.
While a minority group of trekkers will opt for summit and descend in the same day, the majority including us reserved 2 space to rest for dinner until midnight when people get up to continue the ascend. We chose a mountain hut above the 8th station so that we could cover most of the trek on the first day (the peak is the 9th station) and also because it was the cheapest I could find at 7000Yen per pax for dinner (curry rice) and a sleeping bag at the hut.
Ah what could I say about the accommodation let's see. While the place was kept very clean, curry was hot and the hut shelter us against the wind, that was pretty much it. Our sleeping space was really cramped over 20/or maybe 30? over sleeping bags overlapped against each other on a wooden plank. The space allocated to each person was at most as wide as a 30cm long ruler, and we couldn't sleep a wink because there was a 'thunder God' snoring right above us. Funny as it sounds as I recount about this comfortable at my desk now, it was the most uncomfortable night of sleep I had. Though on hindsight, our night at the mountain hut in Fansipan was also full of disruptions with us drenched from the heavy rain, and loud chit chats and laughing from a large group of trekkers. But at least back then we had a 'room' segregated by wooden planks to ourselves, our guide who volunteers to dry our socks with fire, and a righteous fellow trekker that shouted 'can you please shut up we are trying to sleep here' to silent the rest of the night for a peaceful rest.
Anyhow, we gave up our sleeping space after 3 hours of cramping at our non-existing space and came out to the common area to wait for time to pass. At about midnight, trekkers started to get up and prepare themselves for the last stretch of the summit. We left the mountain hut at about 2am aiming to reach the summit before the 4.30am sunrise. The trail got even narrower than the night before and everyone formed 2 rows, with the head lamps lighting up all the way to the peak as we move with the crowd.
Considering that we were moving at quite a slow pace, I got really cold as we inch to the top despite my 3 layered tops and 2 layered bottoms. Tbh by then all I wanted is to find myself soaking in an onsen or lying on a bed taking a good sleep, or even just stay at where I was and wait for helicopter to get me down the mountain. And I carried these inner thoughts with me with each steep step we marched on against the chilly wind. By 4am, we have finally reached peak. It really wasn't the sunrise I was looking forward to but the $10 Nissin cup noodle that I preciously held in my hands that warmed my tumtum and my soul~
A cup noodle and hot mocha can later, we moved out from the hut and was just in time for the sunrise from afar. Wewere pretty lucky that the sky was clear and it was a almost perfect sunrise. Though we were really just exhausted from the lack of sleep and I was still very cold after the cup noodle effect worn off. From what we observe some trekkers that totally concussed with their hoodie zipped and slept at the open space.
The exhausted us didn't really linger or explore much of the summit, or walk the crater like we initially might have planned to, but started to descend soon after the sun rises. It was only after I came back to Singapore when my colleague told me that there is a special post office at the summit where you can mail postcards out, whereby a crawl tractor would carry the mails down the mountain each day.
In hindsight, it was probably just another instance where nature is telling us how insignificant and powerless we are in front of mother earth. And despite the whole unpleasant descend experience, it is likely that in a year or two I will forget about the agony all altogether and go up yet another mountain. I don't know how best to explain this whole mountaineering experience, the rationale or the gains. Perhaps at the end of the day I just want to prove to myself that ' hey, I could and I did it'.
After we reached back to the base at 5th station, we throw our barangs aside, lied on the ground and got ourselves a ice cold coke. Best. Coke. Ever. It was noon time when we finally took the local bus out, collected our rental car for the next 3 days to go around Fuji.
Unfortunately we were still early to check into our next hotel, we went to the nearby restaurant for lunch and swing by the supermarket (have to say that I really love supermarkets in Japan HAHAHA every one feels like I'm in Don don donki). Most of the big supermarts have the cooked food section, we bought some ready made food back for dinner for the plan was to just crash and catch up our sleep for the day.
Dinner turned out to be really good as we heat the food up with the common microwave, sipping on our beer, while watching Mt Fuji directly outside of our window. And feeling really relieved that we are down here in the air-conditioned hotel room rather than up there in the mountain hut~
Surprisingly we didn't too worn out after the nap in the afternoon and we walked to take kawaguchiko nearby for the biggest fireworks festival in August at the Fuji 5 lakes region. There was continuous fireworks for 2 hours, from what I understood as different firework items (3-5min each) each sponsored by different companies/societies/tourism board in the area.
The next morning we bid goodbye to our Fuji view hotel and loaded our luggage to our lil red Suzuki and started the mini road trip to a few tourist attractions around Mt Fuji. Though we did explore taking public transports, the frequency is low and there is very little flexibility in planning or covering the areas we want to go all in a day.
Our first stop was the Yamanakako Hanano Miyako Park with a sunflower field located at the base of Mt Fuji. In fact the park is really huge with some parts requiring admission fees, but the sunflower field was free to all.
By then it was our 5th day in Japan and it was either not as hot as Tokyo due to the higher altitude, or that I have more or less accepted the summer weather there. The heat was a little more bearable that day. Or maybe because seeing sunflower made me happy.
Which reminded me that when I was young back in China, we had a small garden with some sunflowers too. When the flower first bloomed, I was really excited to eat the sunflower seeds, only to learn that the raw sunflower seeds are bitter and tiny, and prolly they are just of different species from the edible ones sold in markets.
The prefecture we were in are famous for their juicy peach and kyoho grapes during summer. Though it was not cheaper, they were much more affordable there as compared to Singapore, and I am quite sure we splurge quite a lot over there on fruits everyday. But no regrets really. The tastes were, sensational~
The Kyoho grapes literally means ' giant mountain grapes' and they really are huge. And the premium ones can be really expensive. But I guess costly atas fruits are no stranger to Japan. Just a few weeks ago while in Takashimaya, Lnr and I saw the legendary Red ruby grapes going for S$599 per branch like wow? I wonder what happens to the grapes if they couldn't sell it past the best consumption period.
The photo is not doing justice but this was one of the better pond where you can see clear bluish transparent water in the midground. Perhaps autumn or winter would be a better season to visit here. After that, we made a long drive to the other lake in search for the scenic spot that was printed on the back of the 1000Yen bill. Unfortunately the sky was still gloomy and we decided to travel south to our next accommodation instead.
On the 6th day, I had my dreamy visit to Maruko land in Shizuoka perfecture which I have already dedicated a long post on the trip before this post. Although there was a few other spots to visit, it turned out to be quite meh and we completed did pay attention to the opening hour of the temple we were suppose to go. But still, I set out to visit Maruko and I did. Maybe that itself was fortunate enough to be grateful for. And on top of that Lnr complained nothing despite the long drives the entire day. :')
Maisen (Main store) near Omotesando station
Nakamura Tokichi near Ginza station
Interestingly, despite it was our second trip to Tokyo, we have never visited the famous landmarks such as Toyko tower, Skytree and Senso-ji temple. So we went this time, though it was more of a touch and go because we also realized that we are really not that into them after all.
Toyko tower
Senso-ji
After learning from past disappointment that the Ghilbi museum tickets was all sold out the last time we were in Toyko, I camped at their online website on 10th July 9am when the tickets for August was released. The response were so overwhelming that I had my colleague to help but the website kept crashing, but after one whole hour I finally managed to snatch up a 2pm timeslot for the two of us this trip. The Ghilbi studio museum was located about 45min away from Shinjuku and photography was unfortunately not allowed inside. The museum felt like a maze with storeys interlinking with another, secret ladders and tunnels for visitors to run about and explore. :') How wonderful it would be to translate your creativity and ideas into something physical, yet so whimsical?
We spent the last part of our trip pretty much on shopping for souvenirs, snacks for ourselves, beauty products and my favorite character merchandise. Which turned out to be pretty taxing towards the end while we had to worry about how to bring everything back HAHAH. Oh well what a pain. But eventually we acknowledged that this is also the charm of Japan that we could bear through the trouble to being them back because they are just so irresistible and much as we complained about the hassle, we also really wanted to bring them back to share with people we love and care for. Although perhaps next time we could have just settled the snacks part at the airport.
Guess this wraps up another trip down with Lnr. Had to admit that the hot and sticky weather made us a little snappy and easily irritated, and also made us swore to never travel to a country in Summer again unless it's south east asia where it's always gonna be summer climate. But still I am grateful for sharing this journey together, having Lnr accommodating to my anime pilgrimage, to trek Mt Fuji with no blaming on me despite the horrendous descend, and never said no to anything that I bought even if they may ended up in the storage boxes unused ~ :')
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