Here Are Some Adventures For Ya!
So, the travels of the past week have taken us pretty far and wide. While that is rather exciting, it's frustrating sometimes. Missing connections and figuring out train stuff is kind of stressful while you're sweating profusely and have 30 pounds of backpack strapped to your back.
We went from Tokyo to Hakone, a trip that took us a lot longer than expected. What pissed me off the most about the Odakyu line in general was their tourist information window. We went there to ask about buses to Hakone. We read in both our travel books that Odakyu runs buses there. When we went to ask about them, we were told that no such buses existed and were pressured into buying on of the Hakone Free passes. Sure, the pass would be worth it if one were traveling back to Tokyo, but I was explaining (in Japanese, mind you,) that we were traveling to Matsumoto afterwards and it would be cheaper for us to NOT buy the pass because it simply wasn't worth it. Cue snotty girl there who undercut all my Japanese attempts and just started being snotty to us in English. Grr. After a lot of explanation, she finally pulled out a calculator, and lo and behold, it WAS cheaper to not buy the passes. She was just really mean, I've never come across a customer service person in Japan as annoying as her. We bought our tickets and Sky and I were both really annoyed because of her attitude. >___> And afterwards, I noticed, yes, they did in fact, have buses. Why would they lie to us and tell us that there weren't???? I mean, in Japan, if you ask a worker if their competitor is cheaper, they won't lie, they will tell you that it's cheaper. Case in point, when we went to JR and asked about the cheapest way to Matsumoto, the JR lady told us to take (their competitor) Odakyu for a certain amount of time as it would save us money. So to have that girl be such a jerk...whatever.
Anyway, once we got there, we had to transfer to a bus that wound us up and back down a mountain. The bus ride was only supposed to take an hour, but took about two. We were standing, with our bags on, and hanging on for dear life as the bus wound around twists and turns and wow, it was painful. The road was also really narrow and we kept having near misses! We got to Hakone tired and cranky, hours after we had planned on being there. We found our hotel and it was pretty crappy from the outside. (pretty crappy on the inside, but it was the cheapest place that we could find.) We couldn't see Fuji-san because of the clouds, so that sucked. I've still yet to see Fuji-san. ;_;
We left our baggage and wandered around. We ended up having to cancel the Open Air Museum, something that Sky had really wanted to go to because we just wouldn't have enough time to get there and come back as it closed early. So we wandered around and found this random mountain and hiked around it for about two hours! It was really pretty. There was this creepy 200-step staircase that was covered in moss, and these "steep steps" which were terrifying to climb up and down. There was a gorgeous look-out point where, if it was sunny, you could see Fuji-san across the lake.
We got back and got a snack and ate by the lake and then checked in. We were tired, but took baths and then took a nap. Poor Sky was feeling really, really sick, so we slept for a couple of hours. Earlier we had wanted to go to the Onsen, but Sky had overheated, so I thought it wasn't a good idea. So when we went out for dinner, I told the guy at the front that we couldn't go. And he argued with me. I told him that we were too hot and tired to go and he said, "No, you go to the onsen because you're tired." and I said, "well, you DON'T go when you're overheated in the summer because you could get really sick!" I was super annoyed. We left and got a nice dinner and Sky was feeling a bit better. We returned towards the hotel and I noticed that he had called me. I ignored the call and when we got back inside he was like, "you just missed the shuttle to the onsen." What the heck? I TOLD him that we weren't going. Grrr. It made me so angry. And then since we were checking out super early to get to Kamikochi I was afraid that he would argue with us about that, too. Sky got upset and was like, "just go and tell him!" I said I didn't want to argue him, and she left in a huff to tell him that we would leave early.....and what ended up happening is that he argued with HER. "No, you need to stay for breakfast." We didn't have time, as breakfast was served at 8:30am. We were planning on taking the first bus out at 6:23am. Well, he argued with her and then ended up making us sandwiches (?) for breakfast. It was awkward and Sky came back and said, "I am so sorry! I didn't think he'd argue, I didn't mean to leave in a huff." I was like, "It's okay. D: I don't like that guy at all." I mean, I don't need to be TOLD how to have my own vacation. >__>
After that we packed up and went to bed. We woke up at 5:30 and caught the bus....and then our fail!adventure to Kamikochi happened....
So, all of the guidebooks said that this trip was supposed to take about four hours. We had to tack another hour on for the Hakone ->Odawara leg of the trip. Well, everything was going okay. We made our bus and then at Odawara Sky exchanged her rail pass at the station and we asked the JR Lady how to get there. We had to take Odakyu to Machida and then transfer to JR and take that to Hachiouji and then transfer again to the Chou line. So we did that....and for some reason it ended up taking another two hours. We bought tickets for our train to Matsumoto and we didn't arrive until one p.m. That means that we had been traveling for SIX HOURS already. Well, we didn't think it was that bad, just a hiccup, we'd get to Kamikochi soon enough. We got some lunch and went to take a 1pm train but missed that and had to wait for the 2pm train. That little train took about 45 minutes and got us to the bus that would take us up the mountain. The bus, which left around 3pm, was supposed to take an hour, but ended up taking 2 hours due to the winding roads and traffic. So, it wasn't so bad, we got to Kamikochi and used the bathroom and asked about the best way to get to where we were staying. It was 5pm at this time, starting to get dark and we had been traveling for about 11 hours. We were told that our place was an HOUR hike away. We were super stressed. We didn't even know if this place would have food! The restaurants in that little welcome area were closed and the other little shops had sold out of most their food. So we took a bit of a break (I was thankful for the French mosquito spray that we found for free at the Sakura Hostel in Tokyo...instead of getting forty-five mosquito bites, I think I got about five) and then we starting hiking. The hike ended up taking us an hour and a half, it was dark (and getting darker) and we were exhausted. We ended up getting there around 6:30. (I hadn't noticed that the hotel had called us to ask if we were coming because I didn't have reception.) It had also started to rain. We got there and I was so happy I could cry. A really cute guy with a towel tied around his head checked us in, they gave us tea and asked if we wanted breakfast and dinner. I said, "YES PLEASE. WE ARE STARVING." Everyone in the room laughed. They told us we could take a bath first and if we called them, they'd have dinner ready. We got shown to our room (Kasumi) a nice tatami room that had gorgeous windows that were open and we could hear the wind blowing in the trees. <3
We were shown to the bath and then we got some of our stuff and went to the bathroom. Ha ha ha. The bathroom was squat toilets, which, okay, I can use (Sky had never used them before) but I realized that there was no water, no flushing, nothing. It was literally a hole in the ground. I thought that was hilarious. I mean, we were roughing it, Japanese style!!! Hahaha. We took a bath in the large cedar bath (a few bugs decided to join us, haha) and the water was kept warm by a bunch of black rocks in the water. (Apparently they're also good for your skin.) After our bath, we went to eat dinner. It must have been because we said we were hungry, but they gave us miso soup, a GIANT bowl of rice, mountain vegetables (sansai), a fish, two curry-sauce chicken legs, tsukemono salad, and tempura. The food was soooo good. We ate our fill and went back to our room. Sky was tired and I played a bit of her zombie game....and even though there was this super awesome Japanese-style fire place, we were too tired to go and sit around it and ended up just falling asleep. At 8pm. Hahaha. Fail. Well, thank you, guidebooks. 4 hours to Kamikochi my left buttcheek! More like 12!
Well, the next morning breakfast was served at 6:50am and check-out was 8am. The breakfast was pretty good, bacon, an egg, miso soup, rice and lots of sour things. Umeboshi, takuon, and several other unidentifiable sour edibles. Poor Sky was feeling kind of sick, so I helped her eat her miso soup. :D Mmm...daikon. We got our stuff together, the workers said the rain would stop and it did! The hike back down the mountain was a LOT better. We headed out around 8am and we met lots of hikers headed towards us with their bear-bells jingling. We got back down and took the 10:10 bus back towards the train station, but before I got some Kappa-yaki!!! It was sooo cute, almost too cute to eat, but I ate him anyway. Mr. Kappa-yaki is now my cell phone wallpaper background. :D
I will fill y'all in on more of the adventures later. :D
We went from Tokyo to Hakone, a trip that took us a lot longer than expected. What pissed me off the most about the Odakyu line in general was their tourist information window. We went there to ask about buses to Hakone. We read in both our travel books that Odakyu runs buses there. When we went to ask about them, we were told that no such buses existed and were pressured into buying on of the Hakone Free passes. Sure, the pass would be worth it if one were traveling back to Tokyo, but I was explaining (in Japanese, mind you,) that we were traveling to Matsumoto afterwards and it would be cheaper for us to NOT buy the pass because it simply wasn't worth it. Cue snotty girl there who undercut all my Japanese attempts and just started being snotty to us in English. Grr. After a lot of explanation, she finally pulled out a calculator, and lo and behold, it WAS cheaper to not buy the passes. She was just really mean, I've never come across a customer service person in Japan as annoying as her. We bought our tickets and Sky and I were both really annoyed because of her attitude. >___> And afterwards, I noticed, yes, they did in fact, have buses. Why would they lie to us and tell us that there weren't???? I mean, in Japan, if you ask a worker if their competitor is cheaper, they won't lie, they will tell you that it's cheaper. Case in point, when we went to JR and asked about the cheapest way to Matsumoto, the JR lady told us to take (their competitor) Odakyu for a certain amount of time as it would save us money. So to have that girl be such a jerk...whatever.
Anyway, once we got there, we had to transfer to a bus that wound us up and back down a mountain. The bus ride was only supposed to take an hour, but took about two. We were standing, with our bags on, and hanging on for dear life as the bus wound around twists and turns and wow, it was painful. The road was also really narrow and we kept having near misses! We got to Hakone tired and cranky, hours after we had planned on being there. We found our hotel and it was pretty crappy from the outside. (pretty crappy on the inside, but it was the cheapest place that we could find.) We couldn't see Fuji-san because of the clouds, so that sucked. I've still yet to see Fuji-san. ;_;
We left our baggage and wandered around. We ended up having to cancel the Open Air Museum, something that Sky had really wanted to go to because we just wouldn't have enough time to get there and come back as it closed early. So we wandered around and found this random mountain and hiked around it for about two hours! It was really pretty. There was this creepy 200-step staircase that was covered in moss, and these "steep steps" which were terrifying to climb up and down. There was a gorgeous look-out point where, if it was sunny, you could see Fuji-san across the lake.
We got back and got a snack and ate by the lake and then checked in. We were tired, but took baths and then took a nap. Poor Sky was feeling really, really sick, so we slept for a couple of hours. Earlier we had wanted to go to the Onsen, but Sky had overheated, so I thought it wasn't a good idea. So when we went out for dinner, I told the guy at the front that we couldn't go. And he argued with me. I told him that we were too hot and tired to go and he said, "No, you go to the onsen because you're tired." and I said, "well, you DON'T go when you're overheated in the summer because you could get really sick!" I was super annoyed. We left and got a nice dinner and Sky was feeling a bit better. We returned towards the hotel and I noticed that he had called me. I ignored the call and when we got back inside he was like, "you just missed the shuttle to the onsen." What the heck? I TOLD him that we weren't going. Grrr. It made me so angry. And then since we were checking out super early to get to Kamikochi I was afraid that he would argue with us about that, too. Sky got upset and was like, "just go and tell him!" I said I didn't want to argue him, and she left in a huff to tell him that we would leave early.....and what ended up happening is that he argued with HER. "No, you need to stay for breakfast." We didn't have time, as breakfast was served at 8:30am. We were planning on taking the first bus out at 6:23am. Well, he argued with her and then ended up making us sandwiches (?) for breakfast. It was awkward and Sky came back and said, "I am so sorry! I didn't think he'd argue, I didn't mean to leave in a huff." I was like, "It's okay. D: I don't like that guy at all." I mean, I don't need to be TOLD how to have my own vacation. >__>
After that we packed up and went to bed. We woke up at 5:30 and caught the bus....and then our fail!adventure to Kamikochi happened....
So, all of the guidebooks said that this trip was supposed to take about four hours. We had to tack another hour on for the Hakone ->Odawara leg of the trip. Well, everything was going okay. We made our bus and then at Odawara Sky exchanged her rail pass at the station and we asked the JR Lady how to get there. We had to take Odakyu to Machida and then transfer to JR and take that to Hachiouji and then transfer again to the Chou line. So we did that....and for some reason it ended up taking another two hours. We bought tickets for our train to Matsumoto and we didn't arrive until one p.m. That means that we had been traveling for SIX HOURS already. Well, we didn't think it was that bad, just a hiccup, we'd get to Kamikochi soon enough. We got some lunch and went to take a 1pm train but missed that and had to wait for the 2pm train. That little train took about 45 minutes and got us to the bus that would take us up the mountain. The bus, which left around 3pm, was supposed to take an hour, but ended up taking 2 hours due to the winding roads and traffic. So, it wasn't so bad, we got to Kamikochi and used the bathroom and asked about the best way to get to where we were staying. It was 5pm at this time, starting to get dark and we had been traveling for about 11 hours. We were told that our place was an HOUR hike away. We were super stressed. We didn't even know if this place would have food! The restaurants in that little welcome area were closed and the other little shops had sold out of most their food. So we took a bit of a break (I was thankful for the French mosquito spray that we found for free at the Sakura Hostel in Tokyo...instead of getting forty-five mosquito bites, I think I got about five) and then we starting hiking. The hike ended up taking us an hour and a half, it was dark (and getting darker) and we were exhausted. We ended up getting there around 6:30. (I hadn't noticed that the hotel had called us to ask if we were coming because I didn't have reception.) It had also started to rain. We got there and I was so happy I could cry. A really cute guy with a towel tied around his head checked us in, they gave us tea and asked if we wanted breakfast and dinner. I said, "YES PLEASE. WE ARE STARVING." Everyone in the room laughed. They told us we could take a bath first and if we called them, they'd have dinner ready. We got shown to our room (Kasumi) a nice tatami room that had gorgeous windows that were open and we could hear the wind blowing in the trees. <3
We were shown to the bath and then we got some of our stuff and went to the bathroom. Ha ha ha. The bathroom was squat toilets, which, okay, I can use (Sky had never used them before) but I realized that there was no water, no flushing, nothing. It was literally a hole in the ground. I thought that was hilarious. I mean, we were roughing it, Japanese style!!! Hahaha. We took a bath in the large cedar bath (a few bugs decided to join us, haha) and the water was kept warm by a bunch of black rocks in the water. (Apparently they're also good for your skin.) After our bath, we went to eat dinner. It must have been because we said we were hungry, but they gave us miso soup, a GIANT bowl of rice, mountain vegetables (sansai), a fish, two curry-sauce chicken legs, tsukemono salad, and tempura. The food was soooo good. We ate our fill and went back to our room. Sky was tired and I played a bit of her zombie game....and even though there was this super awesome Japanese-style fire place, we were too tired to go and sit around it and ended up just falling asleep. At 8pm. Hahaha. Fail. Well, thank you, guidebooks. 4 hours to Kamikochi my left buttcheek! More like 12!
Well, the next morning breakfast was served at 6:50am and check-out was 8am. The breakfast was pretty good, bacon, an egg, miso soup, rice and lots of sour things. Umeboshi, takuon, and several other unidentifiable sour edibles. Poor Sky was feeling kind of sick, so I helped her eat her miso soup. :D Mmm...daikon. We got our stuff together, the workers said the rain would stop and it did! The hike back down the mountain was a LOT better. We headed out around 8am and we met lots of hikers headed towards us with their bear-bells jingling. We got back down and took the 10:10 bus back towards the train station, but before I got some Kappa-yaki!!! It was sooo cute, almost too cute to eat, but I ate him anyway. Mr. Kappa-yaki is now my cell phone wallpaper background. :D
I will fill y'all in on more of the adventures later. :D