Japan: Day 5

Ms. Ruch and I woke up to Vidosic's text, "Fuji is out!" and rushed to the window to see the iconic Japanese mountain dominating the skyline. It was hidden by clouds most of the day, but every now and then it peaked out for us to enjoy. This pic was from inside our hotel:

Today was very rainy and damp, and it didn't really let up much like the other days. Steady rain the whole day; it might have been a bit cozier if we hadn't had similar weather the past five months in SoCal, but the students have still been good sports. I, for one, have been readily embracing the umbrella culture. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" 

One thing the rain did to enhance today's experience was it brought out all the natural colors of Japan's foliage. It was a stunning drive on the bus all day long! There were beautiful forests of rich, dark Japanese cedar, vibrant and bright bamboo, Japanese maple and dozens of other trees I didn't know. The shades of color were impressive in their variety, and made me exclaim, "It's so gorgeous!" dozens of times as we wound through the "mountain" roads. 

We first went to the valley at Owakudani, which is an active volcano (also, a big "Thank you!" to Ms. Ruch and Mr. Vidosic for helping me remember the names of things; Japanese words are not hard to say, but I can't remember them easily for some reason, so I continually need them repeated to get them to stick). 

One of the famous aspects of this region is the black eggs that are boiled in sulfur, which give the eggs a very unique color.

You might be wondering, "How did they taste?" Um, like hard-boiled eggs. But now we can say we tried them, at least.

After braving the sulfurous smell (honestly, it wasn't that bad) and the misty dampness of the volcano, we made our way down to the stillness and tranquility of Lake Ashi. 

Before venturing on the water, we took a quick stint up to Mt. Komagatake where we saw even more... fog. 

At that point we were literally in the cloud or as Ms. Ruch said, "In the source of the rain." 

(Look at this happy bunch of kiddos! We didn't see much, haha. But the ride was fun.👍Here's a CLIP of everyone enjoying the gondola.)

After returning for a quick lunch, we took the ferry across Lake Ashi, and I dare any lake to rival its beauty. Here's a quick CLIP of a portion of the journey (I'm sorry about my commentary, it's usually me sounding clueless. 🤦‍♀️ Way to go, informed and put-together "sensei"...)

I'm getting carried away with nature/scenery pics. I'll stop now.

Also, the pictures make the lake look more dreary than it was. Trust me when I say that this is definitely one of those times when video/photos just don't do a place justice. I thought it was magical, especially with the sound of the rain and the view of the clouds' tendrils hugging the mountains. Highly recommend!

The last stop we squeezed in before our two hour train ride to Kyoto was a quick look at Odawara Castle. None of us went inside the castle itself, but as we dodged puddles and tried to keep somewhat dry, the travellers did some souvenir shopping, admired monkeys kept in an enclosure near the castle as well as appreciated some glorious hydrangeas covering a small hillside below the castle in the gardens nearby (there were also Japanese Irises as well; Mr. Prodan was a little bummed that I knew what they were, and he didn't. He was pretty excited to prove me wrong. Whoops. Maybe next time, Steve?).

Here's a CLIP of these lovely things in real time. Can you tell I love nature and plants?

Now we are finally getting to dry off from our very damp day. I am currently on the bullet train as I write this. It's a smooth ride and has more leg room than business class on a plane. Luxury! 

Also, it was breathtaking getting to watch multiple bullet trains scream across the platform as we waited for our train. You could hear the exclamations of shock and wonder from the other EF tours waiting by us on the platform (I forgot to mention this before now, but we've been five minutes behind another EF group from Colorado for all our stops since Tokyo. 😅 We've even been sharing the same hotels! They almost feel like travel buddies at this point; on the bullet train platform, though, there were actually 4 or 5 EF groups. It was quite the crowd! We took up two whole cars of the train.).

And I'm sorry to say, I didn't record the bullet train going by even once. Each time it took me by surprise. You'll just have to visit Japan to see it for yourself! Here's the next best thing in this CLIP...

Joking aside, in this CLIP, here's all our travelers saying hello from Japan!

Mr. Newton pointed out that we took the following modes of transportation today (he made this list with the cute emojis; I can't take credit for it):

Today we traveled by:

-Bus 🚌 

-Cable Car 🚟

-Boat 🛥️ 

-Train 🚆 

-Taxi 🚕

(The taxis were interesting! We took ten different ones with groups of three students in each. It was fun for us chaperones to compare which taxi drivers were more honest (i.e. which gave us change back) and which just took all the money in the little baggie Michiyo gave us to give them. Ms. Ruch's taxi driver somehow managed to get them to our hotel for 1300 yen when the rest of ours charged 1400 or 1500... 🤔)

We had a delicious dinner of curry and fried chicken (but Japanese-style fried, which just tastes different and has a different texture from ours). Speaking of which, this morning's breakfast was also fantastic, as it had a lot of traditional breakfast dishes with many options and variety. If you thought baked beans and black pudding was a weird or outlandish breakfast (those are some items from an English breakfast, fyi), then you should have seen all the varieties of seafood at this breakfast--who knew there were so many different ways to eat/cook fish! Thank goodness there was french toast and delicious sticky rice, too. 😋

To conclude, and as promised, I interviewed some students/travellers about their impressions of "Onsen" (remember, that's the public baths in the hotel) so here's what some of them shared:

DIA: The three temperatures were very nice! The outside bath was really beautiful! You could see the bamboo forest.

LOGAN: It was amazing! It was a little nerve-wracking but once I saw other people doing it it was fine and quite relaxing.

LYNETTE: The outdoor bath was so peaceful, tranquil and relaxing. Glad I did it! I was a bit hesitant at first but ended up enjoying it. It was a really interesting cultural experience.

JAIRUS: It was good! Really interesting walking in and getting prepared. Kind of shocking at first, but then you get used to it and the view was amazing. It was a freeing experience.

MASON: The cleanest I've ever felt and I had really soft skin afterwards. I did the cold plunge after and that felt great! 

NILES: The relaxation of being able to look out over the mountains while in the water on the rooftop was rejuvenating.

Tomorrow is our first official day in Kyoto; more to come!

~Ms. Carr