… And we’re off!

Tokyo has been crazy and busy but today we took some time to get out
to see Mt. Fuji. Our plan almost worked – we got there successfully
ourselves (instead of paying more than double to go with a tour) but
it was so cloudy we couldn't see anything. We had to walk to the metro
station (about 15 minutes), take a special train called the Romance
Car to Hakone (about 1.5 hours), take a switchback train up a mountain
(about 45 minutes), take a cable car up a steep hill (about 20
minutes), and take the Ropeway to a lake (about an hour including
transfers). All to see a foggy lake! In theory, we were supposed to be
able to see Mt. Fuji on the second ropeway in between where we got on
and a turn, but we couldn't see anything. I'm sure it's there
somewhere in the background of the pictures though.

Doing that took from about 10am to 8pm so we got some dinner on the
walk back to the hotel. We have to check out at noon tomorrow and then
we'll drag our stuff down the street to the metro station. Since we
ate at a place tonight that didn't take cards (we didn't know that
until we went to pay) we'll have to walk instead of take a taxi. We
literally used all but about 200 of our Japanese Yen (about $2US). We
were going to eat lunch around here and then head to the airport at 3
or so but now we'll have to just go out there at noon and eat at the
airport using cards. Seems silly, I know, but it's not worth paying
ATM fees for a little spare change. Our Air Canada flight leaves at
7pm Tokyo time (5am to those in Kansas) and we arrive in Kansas City
at 10:30pm July 22, assuming all flights go well. The flight from
Tokyo to Vancouver is about 9 hours, the flight from Vancouver to
Chicago is about 4 hours, and Chicago to KC is about an hour. All in
all we'll be on the move for roughly 24 hours. So consider yourselves
forewarned if we seem grumpy.

I loved seeing how different Japanese culture was from other Asian
cultures, all the fun karaoke and game places, their fun spirit, AND
awesome school supplies! One of my new favorite stores is a place
called MUJI which has really fun pens, highlighters, pencil cases,
etc. I'm a big dork, I know. Tokyo was an expensive city though and
not so friendly to people who don't understand a lick of Japanese. I
can deal with it (Jason had a tougher time) and look forward to coming
back to Japan, perhaps with a pocket translator and a plan to get out
of Tokyo.

We're looking forward to catching up with everyone and being back on
solid Midwestern ground. See you in 39 hours!