Goodbye Tokyo, Hello Hakone
Having practiced our route to the Shinkansen train in Tokyo the day before, we felt pretty comfortable getting a later start this morning from Shinjuku. We've enjoyed our diminutive apartment. Just to give you a perspective of how small, the jolly green giant stands in the doorway from the kitchen to bedroom.
And yes, he is wearing one of two Tokyo City Soccer Jerseys commemorative of the year the club was formed in FC Tokyo Verdy 1969.
Unlike the beautiful blue sky of yesterday, today is overcast, and has a 50 percent chance of rain in the mountains. That doesn't bode well for seeing Mt. Fuji, but hopefully sometime during our three day stay we will get a glimpse of iconic volcano.
Trains
We made our way to the Tokyo Station and Shinkansen train to Odawara without a hitch,
arriving a half hour early. Before we left the states, we purchased a 14 day first class, reserved seat, Japan Rail Pass from September 22 to October 5, until we will officially begin our Friendship Force homestay with the Gifu Club. We got the pass officially stamped and started today.
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| Track 19, 11:56 Departure |
The train we were to board was already in the station, but the cleaning crew was busy inside during the short stop getting it ready for departure. As soon as they were done, they got off the train like clockwork, and the leader bowed and motioned to us that it was permissible to board. The crew left the station platform as another army of cleaning people came up the escalator and lined up by the gates of a track across the platform from us. The inbound train was due in 5 minutes.
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| Women Cleaning Crew in Pink, Men in Blue |
We watched with great interest as the train glided to a stop, automated doors opened, passengers disembarked, cleaning crew got on.
The leader had a time schedule, she was checking off. There looked to be six or seven trains and times on her agenda. Like precision drill teams, the cleaning crews are on and off swiftly and then on to the next train. I didn't see it happening today on the Shinkansen line, but yesterday on the JR line, the fast train had automated pivots of double seats. When it reaches the end of a line going one way, the seats turn to face forward in the new direction. Every other row simultaneously pivots. Fun to watch.
As we board our train, there is a small space just inside our car for stowing luggage. We find our seats and the train is underway.
Prior to booking the train in the US we were concerned about our ability to find our way around the train stations without being able to read Japanese. Everywhere we have taken the train, there are signs also in English, and the public address system on the train is in English, taking the worry out of the equation.
Neither yesterday or today, did a conductor or anyone else come by to check our tickets. A conductor walked through our train car from back to front, turned and faced the passengers, and bowed. He then turned and walked through to the next car. Russ and I surmised that he had a list of all the reserved seat passengers and their seat assignments. Since our car only had about 10 people, he must have just counted the people in the reserved seats and moved on.
Odawara
In less than 35 minutes, we left the Tokyo station, sped through the city, suburbs,
fields, small hills, made 3 stops, traveled 50 miles (by car miles), and disembarked in Odawara. The train travels about 150-200 miles per hour depending on the track. Too bad we cannot model efficient train systems like this in the US. The trains in Japan are fast, swift, and frequent. The key is that they have lots of feeder trains, dedicated main lines, computerized systems, and a will to move people efficiently.
Hakone-Yumoto
Once we arrived in Odawara, we got on a small local train that took us up the mountain to Hakone-Yumoto stop. This was the only train that did not have a PA system in English, but there was a map of the stops with script Japanese so we knew where to get off by counting stops.
We were renting a car here and driving the rest of the day and for the next 2 days on our own, first to a wooded area to our AirBnB, and then taking day trips to various places in the shadows of Mt. Fuji
In all the years of traveling and carrying international drivers licenses with us wherever we go, Japan is the only place where we have had to produce the license to rent a car. We knew this in advance and were prepared. The clerk at the rental desk did not speak much English, but we conveyed to him that we wanted him to program the destination and route into the GPS navigation system of the little red Toyota we were renting, and then convert the audio to English for us, which he did. Our AirBnb is quite remote and while we had printed off paper maps, the mountain road we were going to travel twisted and turned with hairpins and switch backs that would all look the same in a deep forest. We needed to see our position in relation to the route.
While in the basement checking out the car and getting it ready for us, two Japanese women heard us speaking in English. One of them asked us where we were from. Russ said San Francisco. Her response was, "Jesus!". Boy, sure didn't expect that response. "I lived there for seven years," she told us. We had a nice little chat and then we were on our way.
We usually either say San Francisco or California because these names are so readily recognizable around the world. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was our Governor, people always wanted to know about the "Guvenator." Yesterday, the Aussies we cycled with asked the same question. Tony from Melbourne asked if there was a reason we didn't say America. Ha! I knew what he was asking? But even when we used to be proud of our president, we would identify this way. Nevertheless, this led us into a brief discussion during one of our short photo stops about American politics. He said most Australian's feels our pain. Nice to know that people to people don't hold it against one another when their "leaders" are wonky or a dotard as Kim Jung Un said yesterday.
Airbnb Accommodations
It has been awhile since we last drove a right hand drive car on the opposite side of the road we are used to. Russ drove and I kept a watchful eye on the white line on the passenger side to make sure Russ didn't get too close. There was barely a shoulder and the road was narrow.
Our Airbnb host had indicated that her traditional wooden Japanese house was not near any markets and that we should bring food with us. We stopped at a convenience store as we drove up through the mountains and picked up food for dinner, some lunch fixings, yogurt and cereal for a few days. We had two small hand baskets that totaled $50.00. Not inexpensive here.
By the the time we reached our destination, it was about 4:00 pm, and it had started to drizzle. The traditional Japanese wooden house we rented is just perfect for us.
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| Peaceful Entry, Slippers Ready |
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| Large soaking tub in foreground. |
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| Forested Privacy for a Nice Shower an Soak |
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| The kitchen cabinets are so high in this house, Russ can barely reach them. He needs to wear his jolly green giant shirt. |
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| Tea Room and Bedroom |
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| Nice Walk About Before Dark |
It serene and peaceful in this forest setting. Our host, whom we have not met in person, has compiled great directions on how to operate all the electrical appliances.
We cook an early dinner, take a walk in the rain, and catchup on news an email before lights out.
All is well with the Worrall Travel R's in a traditional Japanese house snug in the woods.
