Tokyo Day 2 – To Fuji

With a big stretch and a yawn our wonderful Liverpool arose to some spectacularly clear blue skies in their swanky hotel in one of the more up market business districts of Tokyo. Ok I’ll drop the weird third person perspective but the sky really was amazing on our second day in Japan’s capital. So clear in fact that it was possible to see Mt. Fuji from our hotel windows. Well that was that then our goal for the day was clearly settled. We were off to get a closer look at Fuji.

I’ll have to just spend a bit of time here to discuss how amazing the train systems are in Japan. It really is easy and fairly inexpensive to get across the length and breadth of the country by train. Now fair enough Shinkansen costs can start to add up but if you are willing to grin and bare through some slightly longer journey times you can get pretty far by local trains.

A quick flick through the guide-book and a potter on the internet found us a likely candidate for a nice place for a bit of mountain watching and photography. Gotemba (御殿場). In truth it’s a tiny little town, in fact there is almost nothing there, but it is the gateway to Fuji, one of the two main trails starts from Gotemba.

 

It was however perfect for our current purpose and the views were spectacular. Fuji absolutely dominates the landscape with clear shots being available wherever you walk. Also with Gotemba being so tiny it gave my Dad his long desired insight into what the ‘real Japan’ looks like. Sadly much like suburbia anywhere else in the world.

After a good wander and much mountain snapping we made our way back towards the train station with our beady eyes peeled for a coffee shop. I think it’s fair to say that, unlike in Europe, there is still little in the way of coffee shop culture in Japan outside of the big cities and, unsurprisingly, we were pretty hard pressed to find anything. Still we did find something eventually although a little outside of our expectations.

 

It was a coffee shop sure, but it also doubled as a clothes shop for women. The most eye catching thing, besides of course the rather flamboyant owner, were the various nicknacks that were all over the shop, including a Princess Diana memorial plate. Well after seeing that how could we not enter. The old lady was pretty interesting, mostly shocked that tourists would come all the way out to Gotemba let alone patronise her shop. There were pictures of her all over the place from her younger days including a picture of her on her way up Fuji. The coffee and tea was pretty pricey but I think the whimsical charm of the shop made up for it.

After that we made our way back. I opted to take local trains rather than the shinkansen, it’s expensive やで。It did mean sacrificing speed but the lovely costal views on the way back Tokyo made up for it, and I got to get a bit of reading in too. I do love trains deep down, I guess I have to since I spend almost a quarter of my time on them it seems, and I think I get all of my best reading done on them.

 

Pretty wiped we just milled about the hotel for a while before embarking into the surrounding madness that is Shiba. This is clearly a central business area as the surrounding streets are just chock full of Izakaya’s and pachinko parlors to cater for the outpouring of office workers after a hard days work. We went into one such establishment for some yakitori and I did some people watching.

The speed at which these guys got totally rat-arsed and chain-smoked their way through packets of cigarettes is pretty alarming. This is a side of Japanese society a lot of people outside of the country don’t see and to be honest it’s something I really don’t like. You sacrifice everything to your company, head out to a bar late, eat, drink away the stress, head home on the last train and then do it all again the next day.

The more I see it the more I realise it is not what I want. I just can’t take the high tension Japanese working life and seeing it up close and personal on this trip really hit that home for me. While I do like it here it reminded of one scary fact. I can’t stay, I just don’t fit. I love the people, and some of the cultural aspects of Japan are truly wonderful and admirable but I can’t slot in as another cog of Japanese society. I want to turn left when it wants me to turn right.

Sorry to end on a bum note but that was a really strong memory from the time in Mita. The lines and lines of men and women in Identical suits streaming out of offices and into Izakaya’s late at night is a bit scary to me. It is admittedly a bit better at least than some of the drinking culture in the UK but if that’s all there is for me if I stay here then I can’t do it. It really hits home how much I love the freedom of thought and expression that is afforded to me by research and how lucky, truly lucky, I am to be paid to do nothing but think somedays.

Next post will be a bit happier I promise, it has clowns and stuff. Also here are some wonderful Japan rail train sounds.

Ja mata neeee.