Well the adventure begins. Easy flight to Fiji. Lovely 29C temp with a cold beer beside to pool a delight. A midnight change of room due to sleeping next to a aircon unit which was like being inside a jet cockpit. Somewhat frazzled but back to the airport early to await flight to Tokyo.
9 hrs to Tokyo passed very quickly with plenty of old movies to watch again. We arrived at Narita along with 300+ on the full flight. Got through immigration, customs (otherwise known as herding) bag collect made our way to the train level. Flagged picking up our Japan Rail Pass as the que horrendous. Had secured some yen previous so bought our train tickets, $18, to our accommodation we had booked 20mins from Narita. Inziamakinohara hotel close to the train station so arrived 9.45pm. Room was fine for the night and staff helpful. Sadly dinner was off but recommended to we go to the 7/11 store. Entering this store was like a wonderland......rows and rows stuff we did not recognise let alone be able to read. Ahha spotted bananas, lettuce rolls and steamed buns. A machine made lattas and worked out the cash....$15. Had a feast in our room then crashed at 11pm.
Bathrooms are something else...need a degree to drive the toilet and shower. Breakfast was outstanding...noodles, salmon, egg and croissants!
Next morning train to Uneo to collect the famous Japan Rail Passes. Then on to Tokyo ....massive station very busy but to our credit we nutted out where we needed to get the next train platform without a cross word! Shinkasen or Bullet train to Mishima was a nice ride and fascinating scenery. Mishma is famous for being very close to Mt Fuji. Friends live in a small town called Daiba nearby. Kumi and Darryl are both teachers in primary schools, Darryl originally from Dunedin. Jeff and Darryls Dad are car buddies from way back.
In Japan children in junior school go six days a week with sport or club day Sundays. Was very weird to see school kids in uniform when we arrived in Mishima Saturday. Thankfully Darryl and Kumi (whose family have lived here for centuries, cemetery beside the house) teach smaller children who only do five days so have the weekends but are at school by 7am.
We went for a good 2 hour walk around the village the had very yummy sushi made at a local specialist down the road for dinner.
Today, Sunday, we went to Hakone to the east of Mt Fuji which is a resort a bit like Queenstown 50 years ago. Magnificient walking through ancient redwoods. The shrine is in amongst these towering trees. Weddings photos and dozen of people leaving wishes for "happy life" "good health" beside the shrine. Cobblestone path are part of an ancient way from Tokyo to Kyoto.
Japan similar to New Zealand has plenty of earthquakes so when you wander about the town there are power lines strung everywhere. Just as you see in Nepal an ugly mess. Reasoning is when they have earthquakes it is easier to reconnect power overhead rather than if it was buried. Another observation is we have seen no litter beside rail tracks or any graffiti that you see throughout Europe and the Middle East. Nor any dropped in the streets.
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