I've been out of action for a while, it was the week-long Golden Week holiday, although two of the official days off fell on the weekend, so it was cut short this year, much to the annoyance of office workers the country over, as well as travel agents who reported slumps compared to previous years.
The first day we went to the Planetarium in Gotanda - I was surprised to see my home station had one, the smallest in Japan in fact, and to my knowledge I've never been to one before. In the community centre, it was pretty tiny, about 20 chairs, but they are closing it for a two year refurbishment, so it should be fab in about 2010; stick it in your diaries!
The view was peaceful and lulling, but I was kept awake by some naughty kids. The most interesting thing was finding out that there is a disputed 13th star sign! Opiuchus, the serpent holder, should come between Scorpio and Sagittarius. It is left out because only his foot crosses the line into the star sign area of the sky and astronomers reject this partial inclusion.
Sunday was the big trip out of Tokyo, and we decided to go to Yamanashi prefecture, about 2 hours West of Tokyo. Mt Fuji and the Five Lakes is the big tourist spot here, and the weather was clear. Sadly, everyone else in Tokyo decided to accompany us there. The train was packed so we had to stand the whole way to Lake Kawaguchi.
The 30 minute bus from the station toward our first destination - the lavender fields - was caught up in heavy traffic. About an hour in, and nowhere near the destination, people complained to the driver and he decided then to tell everyone that it would probably be another two hours before we get there, and no buses had arrived yet. Half the bus got off in the middle of nowhere to wait for a bus coming the other way to take them back. We'd got that far and it seemed better to be stuck on the road to somewhere than stuck on the road to nowhere.
The 'five minute' call finally came from the driver; 30 minutes too early, as we hit another traffic jam! At this point I want to comment that nearly every car had one person in it, if you consider 30 people or so on our bus, and exchange 30 cars for one bus, the traffic would be drastically alleviated. Forget all this plastic-bag, lightbulb, recycling nonsense which is baby steps at its best, we should be pushing for public transport.
Anyway, we decided we weren't moving so we got off the bus to walk the last few miles. At this point, it was about 2pm (we left Tokyo at 8:30!) and our itinerary had gone to pieces; we weren't going to see most of what we'd planned to today. About half of the remaining passengers followed us off the bus, so it was a little embarassing when the traffic started moving and the driver picked us all up again a few minutes later.
On arrival, a collective stop at the toilets; collective in the least 'together' meaning possible of course when talking about toilets. Portaloos in Japan have the old Asian squatting style, so if you ever consider whether a portaloo could be worse, yes they can, you could slip a foot in there. Be warned.
The fields were beautiful, with different shades of lavender spreading out. Mt Fuji was in the background but, sod's law, behind a great cloud.
Here's what it can look like if it's a promotional website partaking in some photoshopping:
On a packed bus, hoping for a quicker journey back to the main train station. From a different side of Fuji, the clouds cleared and it was beautiful. If only we could make it back to the ropeway for a beautiful view from a mountain top.
So we decided to go to one more place before heading home. The bus only took 1 hour, but we just missed a sightseeing bus connection, so at 4:30, we'd been to one place and travelled for a good 6/7 hours. I was getting frustrated and ready to pack it all in.
Missing the connection, we walked down to the ropeway, and stuck in an hour queue, so by the time we made it up the mountain, a cloud rolled over and never let up. Kachi-Kachi mountain has a famous fairytale story; an evil raccoon-dog killed an old man, and as revenge a rabbit sets fire to him, and tries to drown him in a mud boat. As disturbing as it sounds, it's a children's story!
If I'm looking for a silver lining in the cloud, I'm sure there is a figurative one but the literal cloud is in the way. Maybe this is it:
A 3 hour slow train ride home. It was a little disappointing having travelled so far and for not much. I guess it's a lesson that I can't really use much in later life; if you're in Japan over Golden Week, stay in Tokyo.
So Monday, we stayed closer to home, and went to see the koinobori - flying fish, for boy's day -along Sumida River. This display had about 350, as well as a firefighter display and earthquake simulator.
We also went to a nearby flower garden, in Higashimukoujima, which housed some beautiful colours, and then stopped for snacks in Asakusa. One day I'm going to have to learn some flower names.
In the evening, we had ice-cream! Not just any ice-cream, Baskin Robbins' 31, which is incredible. My favourites include Baseball Park (pretzels, popcorn, nuts) and Popping Shower (mint ice-cream with crackling candy pieces). A new department store just opened in Gotanda, lifting it a bit in esteem from the surrounding mega-stations of Shibuya, Shinagawa and Shinjuku. And now we even have a 31 ice-cream store, although that's probably a bad thing for me in the long-run. And for the store's anniversary, all the prices were 31% discounted! Mmm, cheap ice-cream.
The last day of the not-particularly-successful-but-still-fun GW, we hedged our bets and went to... Odaiba. I'll save that for a separate entry.
