Our main plan of the 40-day "Journey To The East" was twofold: climb YuShan (tallest peak of Taiwan) and Mount Fuji (tallest peak of Japan). Ideally it would be nice to complete entire "Asian Trilogy" (Fuji-san, Mount Kinabalu, and Yushan), but since we never climb guided trips, which is the case of mandatory requirement of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, it was left off.
So, Yushan was a success, enroute to Japan off we go...
Bye-bye Taiwan
Tigerair is a budget airline that we flew to Tokyo. After you buy a ticket, you have to pay for the check-in luggage and on-board food. You are not allowed to eat your own stuff - even a cookie. If you do, a flight attendant will show up and let you know about that.
We stayed in Tokyo just next to the "Imperial Palace". One day was enough though..8)
Vera was trying to find out why police are equipped with wooden sticks like that. Contrary to my theory, "..no relaxation.." was the answer..
Typical impeccable Japanese cleanness is everywhere..
Not sure what tourists come here for, to us (right after Taiwan what a contrast!) it looked quite a boring place. Nearby National Museum of Modern Art was more fun though.
Piece of Tokyo Imperial Palace (park) as seen from The National Museum of Modern Art.
What we read on the Internet about Japan, was not exactly true: regular transportation was not that expensive.
Buying long-distance bus tickets to FuJi Shi, our base town for the Mt. FuJi climb.
Buying bus/train tickets without knowing language was not a big deal - compared with other countries I have been to (no big lines, and no glass separation between clerk and you). Japanese politnesee (= patience) + smartphone Japanese dictionary helped too 8)
Mount Fuji TIP: There are no permits required or fees to be paid. No quotas either. The wide trail is class 1 (family type), sometimes briefly changing to class 2. As such it makes Mt. Fuji the easiest peak to climb (at least to us): bypassing ~100 Japanese hikers, some breezing canistered oxygen and yet others smoking (no kidding!) it took us 6.5 hours from parking, return, including the complete rim walk. Public shuttle bus (inexpensive) conveniently takes you to/from trailhead.
PHOTO: Despite it was a weekend, getting on a bus to the Fujinomiya 5th station didn't need reservation - plenty of sits was still available. We purchased the tickets in the morning of the climb.
Before the trip we believed that transportation in Japan is so expensive, that we decided to rent a car, and even obtained International driver's licences required in Japan. It was a good thing we didn't rent - public transport (long distance buses and regular trains) was just fine and ticket prices reasonable. Yet another myth about Japan that is widely circulated in the media is that you must rent a pocket WiFi or you will be left without access to the Internet. We are not those types that can't live without Internet for longer than 10 minutes, so hotel's free and fast WiFi was always enough.
PHOTO: This hotel in FuShi Shi just open a few weeks ago. Cleaner than some hospitals. 8)
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发表于 2017-7-23 04:46:18
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