Mt. Fuji
For our second tour, we decided to go to Mt. Fuji. On most days since we have been in Tokyo, dark grey clouds hang low in the sky, but this day dawned bright and warm and clear. Unfortunately, Walt was not feeling great, but he gamely popped some aspirin and we headed out.
I was excited. I have wanted to see Mt. Fuji since I first found out it existed, and it looked like we would actually see it - that it wouldn't be obscured by clouds and fog.
When our guide boarded the bus, he didn't look very promising. His English pronounciation was not good, and he didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor. Fortunately, our first impression of him was wrong. He had a very dramatic way of speaking, and he soon had us laughing as he described the Tokyo sights we were crawling past. Traffic in Tokyo always seems to move slowly, and stops at red lights are long, but when we got on the expressway, it slowed even more than usual. Our guide told us this was due to an accident and that it should soon clear. About 2 miles and 1/2 hour later, we abandoned the expressway for the local streets which were not moving much faster. After what seemed like hours, we got back on the expressway. Finally, we were on our way. But, no. There was yet another accident to crawl past. By the time we got our first glimpse of Mt. Fuji we were over 2 hours behind schedule, and I was wondering which activities would have to be cut from the tour.
The first stop was for lunch at a large hotel. The view from the 12th floor restaurant was incredible. The hotel is surrounded by an amusement park - the hightlight of which is a large roller coaster called the Mt. Fuji. Our guide told us that at one time this was the fastest roller coaster in the world and that on a beautiful day like this one the wait to ride would be about 4 hours.
