Uncle Bob's Scenic Tours

The next morning was dry and bright and after a coffee stop just down the road from our hotel we were soon back at the station for the 10 minute rain ride to lake Kawaguchi.

The Intermediate station is ‘Fuji Highland’ where is a large hotel, a theme park and surprisingly, “Thomas the tank engine land” . Something none of us expected.

Arriving in Kawaguchiko we passed a restaurant with a great sign which lost nothing in translation.

Just down the road we had some very nice noodles for £3 at a roadside noodle bar. The choice on the menu was, noodles or fried rice, both were delicious

Down by the lake the views were fantastic!

Whilst we were down at the lake Diane bought us all tickets for the boat trip and cable car, so off we went.

Great boat trip over, we headed for the nearby panoramic ropeway.

Some great views from the top.

After a couple of beers we were soon back at our hotel after 2 great days in Fuji and looking forward to a couple of days in Kyoto.

TTFN

Bibbley

After a busy day we relaxed in our hotel and shared a bottle of wine, (or 2)!

After an hour or 2 we were off to bed and looking forward to a couple of days exploring the area.

At about 04.10 I woke up and had to visit the bathroom. A couple of minutes later I was back on my Japanese futon and snuggling down for another couple of hours sleep.

As I tried to relax a strange feeling came over me. The room started to shake, the windows rattled in their frames and I thought that the glass was going to break.

The sliding doors separating the sleeping area from the bathroom started to slide back and forth.

Oh F*** I thought! Too much wine!

But no, Earthquake!

As soon as I realised what was happening it was all over. I had downloaded the Japanese safety app of what to do in the event of an earthquake or tsunami and couldn’t remember what it said.

Anyway I am sure it said something like finish that glass of wine you poured last night to calm your nerves, so I did and was soon asleep again.

In the morning I looked at the earthquake app and it said it was a large quake of magnitude 5.4, centred just south of Tokyo and felt for a wide area.

Luckily there were only a few serious injuries reported and at the same time there was another 5.2 magnitude quake in japan and a much larger one offshore in the Pacific ocean.

So on we went with our holiday and to tomorrow I will take you around Mount Fuji and the surrounding area.

TTFN

Bibbley

One of the highlights of this trip was going to be spending some time at Mount Fuji.

We boarded the train at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, excited for the journey ahead.

The sprawling metropolis of Tokyo gave way to the lush green mountains of the Fuji-Hakone national park.

The train swayed gently as it followed the tracks as Diane and Gary chatted about their visit.

As we neared Mount Fuji Station we caught our first sight of the iconic mountain rising majestically in the distance.

We finally arrived at the station eager to see more.

After a walk downhill to our hotel we checked in to our rooms.

I had chosen this hotel as it was in a traditional Japanese style with futon beds and no TV in the rooms.

Off we went to explore for a while before retiring for the night.

In the morning I woke up and opened my bedroom curtains to a glorious sight!

Taking a stroll the town of Fujiyoshida I noticed a couple of jnteresting things.

What I originally thought were manhole covers were actually covers for fire hydrants, many painted with local scenes.

Even the traffic cones were getting into the action!

This just reinforces my belief of the Japanese sense of fun. Why be boring, make things that bring a smile and joy!

In a local souvenir shop Diane was also getting jnto the spirit of Fuji fun!

Anyway that ended our first day in Fujiyoshida. In my next blog you will hear of our rude and quite scary awakening at 04:16 the next morning in true Japanese fashion.

JISHIN !!

So TTFN

See you next time

Bibbley

As we relaxed over a beer after our karting experience we decided on a visit to the Tokyo Tower for our outing for the following day.

Hope it’s not too busy I said, it’s the last day of Golden Week here.

Golden week is a series of 4 national holidays occurring in the same week in Japan and tomorrow would be Children’s Day, the last of these.

So off we set in the morning and after a quick subway trip we’re back up on the surface and next to the Tokyo Tower.

The tower was completed in 1958 and stands at 332.9 metres tall.

A huge crowd of people were swarming in all directions, it looked like the tower was a popular spot on children’s day! Gary and Diane joined the end of a queue, we were not sure what the queue was for but it was the focus of most people’s attention. I tried and failed to get information about where the ticket office was and so after a few minutes I joined them.

As the designated person to operate Japanese machines after queuing for an hour I purchased 3 tickets for entry at 2PM.

So off went for a look around for a couple of hours.

There’s a shrine just down the road said Diane after studying her phone as we stopped for a coffee, why don’t we go there?

It’s just across the river and only about 5 mins walk from there.

Off we set and again Google maps in Japanese proved difficult. We consulted a couple of friendly local ladies on bicycles who pointed in various directions and on we walked.

NOTE TO SELF: going to need new shoes soon after all these miles,

We soon found a big shrine complex where it seems half of Japan had decided to spend the public holiday.

On the way we passed the Asahi beer headquarters with what I am led to believe is a flame on the top.

Anyway after another very pleasant 5 mile stroll in the sunshine we were back at the tower.

The views out over Tokyo were superb, we could see for miles.

And so ended another highly enjoyable day.

Off to Akihabara, “electric city” tomorrow, home of Anime and all things cute Japanese, should be fun!

TTFN

Bibbley

Many times I had seen videos on YouTube of go karts speeding around the streets of Central Tokyo with the drivers dressed as super mario and other cartoon characters.

“That’s totally bonkers but looks great fun” I thought and booted up Google to find out more.

1 hour around Tokyo, £100 including costume hire, promised the website.

The number 1 fun thing to do in Tokyo!

The number 1 must do in Tokyo!

I was hooked and read up some more.

International driving permit required, get one at the post office, only £5.50, bring your driving licence and passport.

An hour or so later and I had it.

Diane agreed straight away, Gary took a little persuading and soon all was booked with ” Street kart tokyo bay”!

Anyway fast forward and we were all waiting nervously in their garage, fully kitted out in our chosen costumes.

The mandatory safety video, instructions on brakes, indicators and “FFS don’t crash ” and then

“Drivers, start your engines!”

Oh boy, what have we got ourselves into we thought as we cautiously released the brakes and applied throttle and headed out of the garage.

,Vrom vroom! Off we set following our tour guide. Out of the garage and onto the streets of the biggest and busiest city on planet Earth! Totally bonkers! Only the Japanese would allow this!

We soon got the hang of the heavy steering and negotiating the traffic lights, taxis and trucks. WHAT FUN!

Through the famous scramble crossing 4 times, scattering slow moving pedestrians!!

Through the bus station, past theatre land with hundreds of people taking our photos, what a ball !

I wished it could never end, but sadly we were soon back in the garage, beaming our biggest smiles ever!

What a great experience, do it if you can!

TTFN

Bibbley

So off we went up to Yoyogi Park, it was only 15 minutes up a fairly steep hill , just a couple of rest stops on the way.

Up past the NHK TV studios, I quite often watch this channel when at home as it has an interesting mix of news and articles about Japan and the neighboring countries.

Soon we were in a fairly big park with a couple of lakes and fountains and pretty busy with locals enjoying a walk or a picnic

The temperature was creeping up past 23C and we sat in the shade , relaxing in the tranquility of the park.

After a brief consultation of our map a visit to the nearby shrine seemed like a good idea. 20 minutes later we arrived at the first gate leading to the Meiji Shrine.

Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken. It was built in honor of their restoration to the throne in 1868 and completed in 1920. The shrine is set within a peaceful forest and surrounded by towering trees, making it feel like a serene oasis in the bustling city. As you walk through the torii gates you feel a sense of timeless peace and tranquility.

20 minutes further on we came across a surprising scene. A rack of wine barrels from the Bourgogne region of France that had been consecrated here.

On the opposite side of the gravel path was a rack of Sake barrels from local producers

I’ve not tried sake before but sure I will soon

The shrine itself was a peaceful place despite the many visitors

After a brief stop we were off back through the park to central Shibuya for some lunch

Crikey, said Diane, we’ve walked over 2 miles! As we moved towards the park exit.

Over the bridge on the main road towards the city we came across a level crossing.

After waiting for several trains passed off we set. Turn left we all agreed and strode off chatting about the sights of the day so far.

20 minutes later we all looked quizzically at each other. I don’t remember this said Diane and I agreed.

Gary looked at his Google maps and said ” we should turn west and cross the main railway line and then head towards the sun with the wind behind us and we’ll be there in no time”

Off we set eagerly watching the sun and putting a finger in the air to test the wind direction. 2 rest stops later we were at the top of a hill, out of breath and longing for a cold beer.

“Are you sure this is the way we quizzed Gary”

Diane and I consulted our Google maps and soon realised…….

“You’re not connected to the Internet!, your map is upside down! FFS where the f##k are we!

The 3 of use decided on a way forward and 2 hours later were back in the city with a cold beer.

In the pub Diane consulted here map and called out, “crikey boys, we just walked 7.8 miles!”

My feet know I moaned, ordering 3 more pints!

Gary sat quietly in the corner seat looking innocently out the window!

TTFN

Bibbley

Waking up in the Ibis hotel in the high end shopping district of Ginza at 4AM I just couldn’t get back to sleep, even after my marathon journey of 26 hours to get here.

My room is very comfortable but quite compact with all the usual amenities and very good value at about £45 a night. I booked this trip 8 months when Japan was in lockdown and travel from overseas was not possible and I presume hotels were happy to get any reservations. I did look a couple of weeks ago and my room had gone up to £150!

Anyway my first surprise came when I sat on the toilet. It beeped and the bathroom extractor fan started.

“That’s a good idea” went through my head and I gave it no more though.

Sitting there and looking around the pretty normal bathroom I noticed a small remote control.

Making no sense of the lower 4 buttons with Japanese labels my eyes gazed on the other buttons.

Well, let’s try one I thought, wondering if it would dim the light or adjust the air conditioning.

Something whirred into action and I soon found out what it was as the warm spray of water hit me, “ooooh !!”

Totally a Gadget that only an oriental mind with their fastidious notion of cleanliness could of thought of.

Back and front warm water jets, with fully adjustable temperature and pressure. warm air dryer, also fully adjustable. With a heated seat and smell extraction fan.

I must have sat there for half an hour adjusting the various functions and think how comfortable it was.

Perhaps next time I should bring my cup of coffee and a book? LOL

Anyway it was soon time to head off out with Gary and Diane and take a look around. We won’t go far we agreed as we were all still pretty tired.

So we decided to take the train to Shibuya, just 25 minutes away but still very much in central downtown Tokyo.

You may have seen photos taken here of the famous ‘scramble crossing’, which must be one of the biggest pedestrian crossings in the world.

Absolute madness as the pedestrian light goes green, thousands of people make a dash to cross, many stopping to pose for a photo or video. Just start off in the direction you want to go and hope the people around you are also aiming for there.

Then the light goes red and in a matter of seconds the crossing is deserted and traffic is passing again

Safely over the crossing we wandered through the busy streets taking in the sights of the various eateries and shops.

One shop took our attention. Full of brightly coloured slot machines stretching throughout the building. Hundreds of them.

For between 100 and 400 yen, 80p to £3 you could be the owner of a burger ring, cute toy fluffy keyring or a pokemon character doing a vault jump

There’s a big park up the road with a shrine I told the others. “Sounds great, let’s go there” so up the road we went.

“Perhaps just for an hour” we agreed as we’re pretty tired. So after a coffee and cake stop we set off.

Google maps was summoned onto the phone and we headed for Yoyogi Park and the Meiji shrine which were a ten minute walk away.

Watch out for the second part of today’s story later.

TTFN

Bibbley

Those of you who have eagle eyes will no doubt have noticed that my last blog, “here we go again” was actually posted after I arrived in Tokyo.

Well to be honest, I just clean forgot to press the ‘publish” button.

Whether this was down to old age, red wine or the excitement that comes from starting a new trip will never be known. Anyway my dear followers you are all caught up now and I will start my journey to the land of the rising sun.

Tuesday May 2nd.

The alarm gives me a rude awakening at 5AM. Since taking early retirement 5 years ago, this an event that rarely happens and take a few moments to realise what is going on!

Excitedly I gently crawl out of bed, kettle on and head for the shower. Whilst waking myself under the stream of hot soapy water my brain is working overtime.

Did I pack everything?

Have I got all the tickets for all of us? As you will recall my friends Gary and Diane are coming along on this trip.

Is my phone charged up? And my tablet?

Have I got my passport?

Did I finish uploading the forms on the “japan travel app”

Well that last point is a bit of a sore point. The app is designed to give you fast track entry into Japan. You create an an account online, entering your basic details and passport number etc, then

upload photos of your covid jabs QR codes and these are then verified as OK by Japanese authorities and an hour or 2 later you get confirmation this has been done and a QR code appears on the app for you to scan at immigration in Tokyo. Japan was still in lock down until only a couple of months ago and restrictions are only recently being relaxed.

Anyway this process sounds simple but did take quite some time to complete.

Next you fill in details of your visit, dates, name and address of hotel you are staying at, including phone number and post code, when this is completed, hey presto, another QR code appears on the app and saves you having to fill out the immigration and landing card on the plane, and of course that sight of 360 passengers all trying to borrow the same pen!

Finally there is the customs declaration form. Are you importing drugs or guns or any type of plant or seeds or animal products? So better finish that ham baguette before getting off the plane! When completed, “ping” a third QR code appears and you are done with it all.

Just a few days later I read the news announcement, “All Covid restrictions now lifted, your Covid QR code will magically disappear from the app on May 1st. Grrrr! All that time we spent on it!

Anyway, more about this later as you will see.

7AM on the dot Gary and Diane turn up and we are off to Heathrow. After many months of planning and talking we are finally on our way.

Our flight was with Cathay Pacific on a Boeing 777 Dreamliner and off we flew at 12.20, exactly on time. A glass of wine was sipped before lunch and we all drank a toast to a happy holiday.

Very nice it was too, washed down with another glass of red, well I am on holiday.

So we are are 2 hours into this 12 hour first leg to Hong Kong. So watch a film, plenty of choice on the inflight system. OK, only another 9 hours to go. Play some video games, try to sleep, can’t sleep have a glass of orange juice, only 8 hours to go! Twiddle thumbs, look at the map, blimey we are only just passing Turkey. So off go the cabin lights and try and rest, hour after hour go by and finally lights on and only 3 hours to go. I take another look at the map and notice we have flown over many places I visited previously, Taraz and Almaty in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China.

The cabin crew spurt into action and after breakfast we finally descend into Hong Kong for a 3 hour layover.

Our new aircraft then speeds us to Tokyo. After an hour or so immigration cards and customs forms are handed out and we smugly decline as we have done ours weeks earlier. So we look on as only 357 people try and borrow one guys pen! Mutterings around the cabin, ” what’s the postcode of our hotel? What’s their phone number?, etc.

Off the plane we go and into the terminal we head. At the baggage carousel 2 airport staff had taken all the bags off the conveyor and lined them up for us to easily find, very helpful.

I turned to the others and said, OK, we will need to open the app and get our QR codes ready now.

Diane opened the app and said, “OK, got them open”

Gary’s jaw dropped as he uttered, ” WHAT!? not sure if I got mine, I thought they weren’t needed any more”

No, Gary only the Covid one not needed!

After a few frantic minutes of trying to remember passwords etc he did find them and forward we went.

So, off to passport control. I have never seen anything ike it, every 10 metres , airport staff bowed and directed us onwards, all smartly dressed and smiling, their white gloved hand showing us the way. Reaching passport control we were greeted with a “hello” please go to gate 7, the passport official smiled and greeted us with a polite nod, checked documents, took our fingerprints and photo, scanned our QR code wished us a good trip and within 2 minutes we were through,

Plenty more smiling faces guided us to customs gates, again scanned our QR code and passport and were in!

We all remarked that we had never had such an easy and pleasant experience at any other border control.

Well done Japan for giving your visitors such a warm welcome,

I Collected our train passes and made seat reservations for the Narita Express to Tokyo. Only an 8 minute wait for the train which was exactly on time and taking our seats I smiled with relief as we were finally in Japan and way to our hotel for 6 nights in Tokyo.

TTFN

Will get some pics of first day in Tokyo tomorrow.

Tomorrow I start new travel adventure to Japan.  A place I have always found interesting and wanted to visit.

Those of you who have followed my travels cannot have failed to notice that I normally travel alone but this journey will be different as my friends Diane and Gary are coming with me. So I have bought some new clothes, packed my case and am ready to jet off to the first stop in Tokyo.

I must say I am a bit apprehensive about the long travel time. London to hong kong will be 12 hours, then  a 3 hour stop over before the final leg to tokyo of 4 hours.

In the days before a new journey I cannot help but remember the high points of previous travels

So let’s see where the next 3 weeks takes me on trip through Japan. I hope can follow my blog and that I can show you some interesting sights.

TTFN

BIBBLEY

April 11th 2023

Time has flown by since planning this trip last year and now it’s only 3 weeks until we will be at Heathrow airport, eagerly waiting for the Cathay Pacific flight to Tokyo via Hong Kong.

After booking my flights and hotels I had a visit from my good friends, Gary and Diane.

Gary and Diane in the Maldives

After I had told them of my plans both of them said they would love to go to Japan and asked if they could come too?

I immediately agreed and started to book their flights and hotels. An hour later everything was sorted and we went off to the pub for a chat about Japan and to toast our upcoming holiday.

So we leave on May 2nd at 12.20 and Arrive in Tokyo at 16.05 on Wednesday 3rd into Narita airport, about an hour away by train. As we will be travelling mainly by train I ordered Japan Rail Pass for us all as it works out cheaper than buying tickets for each journey and will be much easier.

The rail pass allows you to travel on most of the railway network including the Shinkansen bullet trains. Japan is famous for having a very efficient railway system but this does mean tickets can be quite expensive, so a pass made complete sense

Anyway , I am writing this post while I am waiting for our tickets to arrive, which are due this morning. You get a voucher which you need to exchange for your ticket at Narita airport. Rail passes cannot be purchased in Japan and are only available for foreign tourists. So that’s our first challenge, finding the ticket office.

Luckily many of the signs in Tokyo are in English.

Then it will be onto the ‘Narita Express’ railway to Tokyo and a quick taxi ride our hotel, the Ibis Styles in the Ginza district in the heart of the city.

In my next post I will let you know our itinerary and some of the places we hope to visit.

TTFN

Bibbley