We started today early. Heading back to Saitama, with more Railway Museum tickets, we once again had a look around more trains and took a few more pictures… this time I look less like death haha. The reason for this detour -well, I say detour but the museum was literally in the opposite direction of our actual plans today in the sense that we literally had to pass Ikebukuro on the way back-was that we needed to exchange a t-shirt we bought for Sam on Sunday. Unfortunately, the t-shirt was confusingly labelled so, Sam picked up a size “M” instead of a “Men’s M” and it was far far too small. I would like to add though, the non-mens M did not say ladies or female or anything on it, and the tshirts came in both kids and adult sizes, and the examples on the hangers only displayed one adult t-shirt and one child’s t-shirt. Absolutely nowhere did it indicate that an adult “M” would actually mean “teeny tiny women’s M” (like usually I am somewhere between a small and a medium and this t-shirt didn’t fit me either so… Bad labelling haha). ANYWAY, it’s all okay, I explained to the worker what had happened and they switched it for us (for anyone who knows anything about my speaking anxiety I’ve been having atm you’ll be pleased to know this entire interaction was in Japanese so, I guess, I’m getting over my troubles slowly which is great to finally say). Yes, it was annoying having to buy tickets again for the museum, but the t-shirt was quite expensive and of course I am not going to complain at getting another opportunity to look at some more trains so, all in all, it was a nice “little detour”. We both had fun and felt very happy and energised leaving Saitama around lunchtime.
Catching the next train to shinjuku and then changing to jump on another limited express, we headed to Otsuki. On this train we ate our bento and sat back reading for an exciting and smooth journey, only to have the train suddenly stop halfway. We heard “caution the emergency breaks have been applied” and then awaited instruction or explanation. The man speaking in the voice over spoke extremely fast, so I couldnt catch what he was saying, but within 5minutes we were moving again, so I guess everything was fine? Haha, if only he repeated himself or spoke a little slower, maybe I could have had more of a better story to tell you all.
Anyway, once at Otsuki, we caught the Fuji-kyuko line towards the Mountain! This train was absolutely incredible. The deep reddish and gold tones of the outside made it look like a carriage for royalty. Then, inside the carriages were all decked out in the most luxurious wooden floors, ceilings, walls and decorative chairs. The windows had traditional blinds that rolled up and stored away like modern train blinds and the view from the carriages was absolutely mind blowing. I tried to capture some things on camera, but there’s some things that just need to be seen in real life to really take in its true beauty. I highly recommend this train ride if anyone is interested in such things.
Our plans for the day were literally to take our new 7D (which luckily arrived yesterday) out for a test drive at Arakurayama Sengai. We kept all our fingers and toes crossed for a clear day, knowing that if there were clouds, we would not see Fuji. On the way, the sky stayed blue with only a few faint wispy clouds. It was looking promising, but we didn’t want to get our hopes up. Then, on the Fujiyoshida train, many thick, bulging clouds seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere. We knew on this journey, that we were unlikely to see the view of fuji we had hoped for. Still, we kept on going, enjoying the ride and knowing it’ll be beautiful when we got there regardless of if we saw the peak of Mt Fuji or not.
When we got to the train station, we started the walk to the shrine. The first 5minutes of the walk were easy and really beautiful; passing local houses and a little coffee stall, we walked and enjoyed the view. Little did we know, we had a big climb ahead of us! Almost 400 really steep, stone steps to the viewpoint overlooking the town, shrine and Fuji-san. After our week of outings and the big hike in Izu on Monday, a mere 2 days before, I didn’t know if we could make it. However, we pressed on and made it to the top. The sight when we got there was mind numbingly amazing. Literally breathtaking! The clouds had also dissipated, especially for the occasion of course, and we saw the very top in all it’s green summer glory!
We stayed a while. I played about with the camera (and still didn’t fully get the hang of it even after like an hour of pissing about, I’ll get there, it’s just so different from my old one so I’m taking a while to adjust…literally…It takes me like 10-20 seconds to figure out how to adjust the shutter speed…It’s honestly painful to watch) and we sat under our umbrella watching the clouds pass over the summit for a while. I don’t know how long we were there telling you the truth, but it felt like it could have been both a minute or a whole day. It was like time stopped.
Once we felt ready, we made our way back down the steps and caught another limited express back to shinjuku. It seems we were lucky with the special wooden train on the way, as there was no sign of it on the way back. We didn’t question it though, the experience we had was one we’ll cherish forever so we’re just grateful to have had such a ride (what a lovely surprise to top off a fantastic day).
As always, I’ll drop the pictures below. Thankyou for everyone who reads my blog and takes an interest in our lives. It means a lot to both of us. Sending you all our love.
-Alice
