Japan : Lake Ashi, Hakone and Harajuku, Tokyo

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Hotspot #13 and #14 : Lake That Hid Fuji and It's Cosplay Time

“Thank you soooooooo much for the amazing hospitality.”

“Nothing la…wanted to bring you for local foods, but you guys slalu balik malam, gile punya itinerary.”

“Hahahaha! Kan…”

It was our last day in Tokyo. Since we failed to get Okayama night train (Sunrise Seto), we had to drag our plan to an earlier train, via Shinkansen Hikari, on reserved seat.

We left our bighearted host and her family, and walked to Gyotoku Station, to catch a train to Otemachi, on Tozai Line.  From there, we changed to Tokyo Station, on Marounochi Line, that cost only 230yen with the help of JR Pass along the way.

It was quite challenging to find the platform, at first, since it was Saturday. Compared to weekdays that full of men in suits and women in coats, weekends gave us an idea about fashionable and trendy yuppies.

“Can’t wait to experience Harajuku!” I said. “It’s been my dream to go there, besides Shibuya Crossing.”

“Wait…we meet Fujisan first.” Hubby slapped my face.

In Tokyo Station, we looked for coin locker around the Shinkansen area but failed to look for it. Without wasted any longer, I asked one of the officers and she pointed the direction, where all lockers were located at one floor below. We purposely took the nearest locker, just right in front of the escalator, to ease the trace.

There were three types of sizes…small, medium, and large, which each and every size came in different prices…300yen, 400yen, and 600yen. Since my bag pack was quite bulky and bigger than hubby’s, we took a medium-size locker that cost us 400yen per day. I snapped the picture of the locker location and walked back to the Shinkansen platform.

“Ok…so where to?”

“Hakone.” The natural beauty for locals who looking for a break from Tokyo city. It is part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park that famous for hot springs.

“We need to wait for Hikari 483, car no. 6. Let’s look for the correct platform.”

Hubby then explained clearly on the differences of green cars, reserved cars, and non-reserved cars. Before I got myself confused with the numbering, I followed hubby to the correct platform. Suddenly…

“WHOOOOSHHHHH!”

“WHAT WAS THAT???” I totally stunned.

“Shinkansen la.” Hubby gave me a smart face.

“I know la Shinkansennnnnn! But was that a Nozomi?” I was hoping to see Nozomi, the fastest Shinkansen to date.

“I don’t know…maybe…”

Within 3-4 minutes, again…“WHOOOOSHHHHH!”

“OMG! SO FAST! I FEEL LIKE BLOWN AWAY!” More and more Shinkansen passing by. 500 series, 700 series, you name it. It came in different shape but all of them were remarkably handsome!

I was crazily excited and tried my best to capture the moment on still picture, but it wasn’t easy! So I took videos after one and another, but I was too slow to catch the motion! Hahaha!

“Ah…the great Shinkansen…I finally got to ride one!” I had butterfly in my tummy.

“Not only once, could be more than 10 times! We are soooooo going to over-utilize the JR Pass!” Hubby laughed evilly. (Read on how do I get my JR Pass, here.)

A bit of facts on Shinkansen. All Shinkansen is under JR Group. It is divided into 5 operators, Hokaido, Central, West, East, and Kyushu. Each operators having different names, ie: Tokaido, Sanyo, Tohoku and such. And every Shinkansen has different names like Hikari, Kodama, Sakura, Nozomi, as well as different series like 500, 700, etc. I will, for sure, try Hayabusa, next time I go to Japan :)

When our ride came, we walked into the coach with a smiling face. We straight away looked for the reserved seat, but were confused with the scene, where reserved coach was quite full compared to unreserved coach. Huh…? Baik tak reserve jer kan…hahaha!

There was not much different if to compare Shinkansen with bullet train from Tianjin to Beijing, but Shinkansen has stewardess. Hehe. Nice…and she bowed before entering and going out from each coach. I mean, EACH coach!

It’s been said that Mount Fuji can be viewed along this stretch (Tokyo to Osaka). Indeed, along the way, we were presented with nice view of Mount Fuji from afar. The snow can be clearly seen from far, just like what we’ve seen on the Hazeline Snow day cream. Hahaha!

It was a 30 minutes ride before we finally reached Odawara. I quickly went out and went to the end of the platform, to pose with the aerodynamic famous face. Mancung hidung dia!

From Odawara Station, we looked for Tozan bus station, located outside the station. Since we can’t simply cross the road like what we always do in Malaysia, we tried to find the connecting tunnel to the other side, but later, went out from the wrong exit. Not once, but twice!

At this moment, the cloud started to group, covering the sun. AH SUDAH!

We purchased the Tozan bus day pass that cost us around 1700yen and waited at the designated platform. While discussing the route (Tozan bus has three main routes) and looking at the Tour Cookbook, two bus attendants came and greeted us. The spoke English quite well and told us that it was quite late to view Mount Fuji since it was already 10am. Plus, it’s going to rain. (Blame the forecast weather!)

With doubt, we had no choice but to proceed with the plan, since we had allocated the day for Mount Fuji viewing from Lake Ashi, one of the Five Fuji Lake (Fujigoko). We prayed hard, for God will grant us the chance to experience nice view, along the way.

Good enough, it wasn’t raining…but the sky wasn’t clear either. After an hour of bus ride, we reached the Moto-Hakone Port, the most recommended place to view Mount Fuji by the famous Lake Ashi. It was a very cold windy day that once in a while, we had to stop and hide from the breezy wind.

“I don’t see Mount Fuji. Where exactly the spot?” I started to lose patience. The highest dormant volcano mountain with height of 3776 meters was not in presence.  

“It should be somewhere in between the hills.” Hubby pointed to the right, where on top of the hill, I saw one cable car on ropeway, riding down the hill.

I gave him a sad face.

I looked at the quayside, there were two to three men, fishing. I looked at the lake that was formed after the eruption 3000 years ago, there was one big red Tori Gate standing still. There was sightseeing boat cruising around the lake.

I almost cried. And I sobbed...but I smiled...

Hubby tried to soothe me. “I swear, regardless Moto-Hakone or Hakone-Machi, these are the best place to view Mount Fuji. It’s all about luck.”

I recalled, I read somewhere on the internet, you have to consider yourself lucky if you get a clear view of the mountain (by Japan EGuide). Redha jer la. Luckily we had a clear glance of Mount Fuji during Shinkansen ride earlier.

We walked towards the main road and waited for the next bus. This time, we planned to catch an Tozan Railway train (scenic option) at Hakone-Yumoto Station, since it is covered under Tozan Pass. In 20 minutes, we reached Odawara Station and took a Shinkansen back to Tokyo Station.

Where do broken hearts go?

Harajuku!

We knew that we’ve reached Harajuku Station once we saw more and more yuppies in fancy clothes and colorful hair. The station exit was super duper packed and we had to queue in order to get out from there.

Guess what? It was triple packed outside the station! Well, as everyone knows, Saturday and Sunday are the correct time to visit Harajuku, in order to experience the teenage culture and its most extreme cosplay (costume play). That was why we PURPOSELY chose Saturday. From the station corridor, over the flyover, to the other side of the road, came back to the station entrance, all were OVER CROWDED!

I quickly asked hubby to cross the road while snapping pictures of those yuppies. Hubby later, suggested for a better aerial view from the flyover. Without a doubt, from this view, with zoom lens, we able to capture more Harajuku girls.

“There! There!” I pointed, hubby clicked.

3 minutes after, “There! Another one!” We repeated the craziness for almost half an hour.

There was one Harajuku girl in big hair tied with big ribbon sat still near us. I consistently asked hubby to snap tones of her photos but hubby didn’t care much. He said “She looks fake…like wannabe…and she’s Eurasian.”

Ah…no wonder. But later, another Harajuku girl came. This time, she’s a Nihonji.

We then went to Meiji Jingu (Shinto Shrine) but decided not to explore the whole area since we need to give some buffer time to catch the Shinkansen to Okayama at 6pm.

From Harajuku Station, we took JR Yamanote Line (the only line that encircling Tokyo city) and stopped at Tokyo Station. We did some quick window shopping on local souvenirs, mainly on snacks and desserts. I swear, I almost wiped my saliva on the floor, knowing that they were so delicious (judging from the look), but I can’t have them! Dang!

And what I bought was only onigiri. Sob sob.

It was getting colder. While waiting for the bullet train, I was struck by one local man, walking attractively in yukata. I approached him and he agreed to pose for me. In the train, we grabbed the chance to pose with the seats (don’t ask me why), just to show that how empty the Shinkansen was. Hahaha!

In less than one hour, we reached Okayama, the largest city in Chugoku Region after Hiroshima. Since we booked Okayama Business Hotel Annex last minute, the price has cost us a bomb! 6000yen per night was definitely double up from what we’ve got for other pre-booked hotels.

Locating the hotel was not difficult as we earlier, snapped the map directly from the internet. The hotel was clean, presentable, and pleasant. The reception officer spoke minimal but understandable English.

In the room, we enjoyed wearing yukata and watching TV. "Haiiiit!" I played karate kid.

“Eiiii! So cold la!”

“Where’s the heater?”

“Got heater ke?”

“Just turn on the air-cond, and set to the highest temperature. Jadi la heater.”

“Oooooooo…” I seriously never thought of that.

“Sleep, sleep. Tomorrow need energy to explore the Castle and Korakuen!”

Read HERE for Travelista version.