The Catastrophic Costs of Mt. Fuji

I want to start this post off by stating that most of our experiences in Japan have been positive...this one just so happened to not go so well.

The other day we decided to go to Mt. Fuji to get some pictures and maybe go on a hike to Japan's most famous mountain/Volcano. We first used our Japan Rail pass to get to the end of our first leg then we were just going to hop onto the next train when the ticket person made us pay a $20 fare because this train was operated by a different company...no sweat, we payed, Fuji awaits.
We finally arrive at Kuchigoku, the town with a supposedly fantastic view of the mountain, a charming lake in front, reflecting Fuji off of the water. One problem, we get there and the mountain isn't there. We look at our map, glance at the place where the cylinder-shaped Fuji should be and just see a large mess of clouds and no sign of getting clearer--we are also about 10 miles from the base of the mountain.

Undeterred we look into any transport to the base for a closer inspection. Without batting an eye, $25 each to go to the 5th station (halfway up), $40 round trip...and we may or may not be able to see the top. The cost doesn't bother us as much as the fact that once we get to the 5th station we can hike 4 hours over gravel and sand to get to the crater...where visibility may only be 30 feet, not ideal for photos. The only pic we were able to get of Fuji is the one to the right, which is one of their manhole covers.

OK as a side note, we are not obsessed with money, but we are on a budget and unemployed...and our cash has to last us about another 115 days, so just throwing wads of Yen at bus drivers is not what we want to do here.

We decide to switch to plan B; we are flexible and Fuji-san has decided not to cooperate. Plan B was to soak in one of the local Onsens, or thermal pools in the area...we heard that they were beautiful and relaxing, plus a long hot soak sounded ideal to us. We also decided to stop at the shrine that Buddhist pilgrims dedicated to Fuji around 700 AD, which means hopping on a local bus. One thing you need to know the buses here work a little differently. You get on the bus and pay before exiting. It's like a giant taxi, where all the fares are calculated on a giant board above the driver depending on the stop you get on. For example, you get on the bus look at the board, box 6 is the last one with a number in it, you watch that number as you go, then pay the amount shown in that box when you exit.

We get off the bus at what we think is the shrine (pic below), take some pics, then get back on the next bus. Then we pass what is the actual shrine, we ask the driver to stop, but he passed the stop by about 50 feet and was stopped at a red light. We figured it would be no problem to just open the door since we were at a full stop anyway but he refused to let us off. "No, next stop". The Japanese are not very flexible we are finding out...we end up going 3 or 4 miles up and down big hills, he stops, then opens the door for us, we decide to stay on the bus, the hot springs were sounding better by the minute. Now we got on the bus on stop 4, and we think this town is only a few miles down the road. We end up riding for another hour and go about 35 miles farther...By the time we reach our destination box four is up to 1,450 yen, about $14, and we are very salty. We try to get off at the bus station and the driver says "ok you pay number three", we tell him no, it's number 4. "Hey! Hey you! You pay number three!" this goes on for like 5 minutes--I really think this guy was from New York; we relent pay the extra $5 difference--the ole Japanese nickel and dime.

We then go over to the town map and discover that the baths that we want are 10 miles back the way we came, then another 5 miles up another road. So to get to the bath we would have to take two buses there, two buses back and it was getting kind of late and we weren't sure just how long we would be able to soak anyway....then we would have to get back to Tokyo...all and all we would be looking at around $100 each to just ride a bunch of buses all over the Japanese countryside, and who the hell knows what the thermal pools would be like. I then looked up at the station and noticed that it ran a train, that we could use our pass on, back to Tokyo...we decided to cut our loses...Damn you Fuji!

After we got back to Tokyo, we headed over to an area known for it's hyperactivity. There were tons of people out on the streets- everyone from young teenagers to businessmen to kimono clad women. It was a great people watching experience and as the day faded to night, the lights of Tokyo began to come on.