Super early morning for me, having woken up at 4am. Jordan and Emily made it to the alarm at 7 for our scheduled 7:30am breakfast. This breakfast was even less appetizing to Emily than the dinner the prior night. Weird mixture of salad, pickled vegetables, boiled tofu (the worst tofu), fried tofu, soup (with tofu), egg, yogurt and of course, rice. Meanwhile, Jordan got bacon and eggs with a bun, croissant and fruit. Was tasty, but very weird for breakfast.
Then it was onwards to set the record for the most types of transportation taken in a single day. First was a cable car part way up the mountain, a portion of which I hiked up the prior night in search of drinks. Then it was the Rope Way Gondola, which was sadly closed for two of the portions, including the one that includes the possible view of Mount Fuji. We were treated to a very cool view over the valley and mountain, including the mountain that has the Chinese character for “Large” literally burned into it.
Even better was the insane plumes of sulphuric steam that revealed itself after we crossed a ridge line. It was immediately smelly in the gondola. Also got a bit of a Mount Fuji view from here, but it was pretty overcast. The specialty of this station is Black Fried Eggs, which get cooked first in the sulphuric water, then for 15 minutes in regular water. Tastes just like any regular boiled egg, though. From here, it was a bit off the rails, both literally and figuratively.
Because the Rope Way was down for maintenance, we took the replacement bus to Lake Ashi. Instead of amazing views, it was just trees on the side of the road. Then it was on to the Pirate Ship(!) ferry across the lake, but we were unlucky on the timing and had to wait 50 minutes just standing in the boarding pier. We also had the misfortune of ending up sat next to a giant school group which got old pretty fast on the 30 minute ride across the lake. The boat was very, very full and many people had to stand, including on the stairs which didn’t seem super safe.
We got off at the first stop and on to a long bus ride towards Odawara. This was a weird area and it was weird figuring out what the actual routing should be. Luckily, we ended up getting to the train station and made the connection with a few minutes to spare. Convenience store lunch (which is consistently great and inexpensive in Japan), as our lengthy journey meant we had to get something in all of us quickly, lest we descend into the depths of hanger.
We took the long route to Odawara Castle to get the proper entry route through the pretty gates. Odawara Castle is originally from the 15th century, though it was reconstructed a few times due to natural disasters and World War 2. Here, Jordan became a ninja, learning about lots of techniques of the spies that were (allegedly) created by the Lords of this area. Further up the hill was Odawara Castle itself and the Samurai Museum. This was featured in Season 6 of Jet Lag The Game, so it was cool to be in the same place! It was solid value, with only 200 Yen entry into the Samurai museum. Some great information and displays of armor and helmets. Also a very cool projector show that did some neat interplay between the screens and a statue of Samurai.
Downstairs from there was the actual highlight of the trip, which was the Samurai dress up that Jordan did. We all had the biggest smiles on our faces while we traipsed around the courtyard with Jordan threatening us with her newfound sword and armor. She even made a friend with a random Japanese person who wanted Jordan to crash her picture. Only got to do that for about 15 of the 30 minutes we could have, as we had to catch the once-an-hour train to Shibuya (and pull more cash from the ATM to refill our SUICA train cards). This was one of the highlights of the entire trip. I think we had a smile on our face the whole time, except when Jordan was doing her menacing intimidation face.
The plan was to take the 75 minute train and drop our bags at a coin locker at Shibuya station to most easily navigate around the very busy area. This was actually an audible call as we were on the bus towards Odawara, as we had originally plotted a route to our hotel, then Shibuya. Turns out that the lines made it make much more sense to go to Shibuya first. It did mean that we had our bags with us, which we figured would not be a problem. Despite being one of the biggest and busiest stations in Japan, there was not a coin locker to be found! This was probably because of the extensive construction, but we had to go to the conference center next door and go up to the 11th floor. Took quite a while to figure this all out, but it all worked out in the end.
Shibuya as an area is absolutely crazy. Most notably the Scramble crossing, where everyone crosses in all directions at the same time in a wild mass of people. Somehow, we made it across in one piece and headed towards a tepanyaki restaurant Emily had found in her searches. It was a total hole in the wall with maybe 15 total seats, but it was seriously excellent (and inexpensive compared to other places we had found). Highlight was the Wagyu steak, avocado-kimchi-creamcheese bites and sashimi (with the good wasabi again).
It wouldn’t be a day in Tokyo without hitting up the Pokemon Center, so it was a short walk over there. Jordan drained the last dregs of her souvenir budget (77 Yen left of 7,000 Yen). This one had a very cold Mewtwo display, but it was otherwise similar to the others we visited. I also hit up the Nintendo Store right across the hall. We also drained (nearly) the last of our cash to hit up the exclusive Nintendo Gacha Machine with some cool prizes of game controller buttons from. Nintendo’s history. Stopped for dessert on the way back to the train station (cheesecake bites for Emily and I, fruit custard for Jordan).
Two more metros and a short walk and we finally got to call it a night in the hotel. Broke the record for latest night for Jordan, as we arrived at 9:20pm and she was messing about until she finally fell asleep at 10. Luckily, this hotel has a comparatively late checkout of 11am, so hopefully we can get some rest before the flight at 5pm tomorrow.
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