Japan Day 3: On Top of Mt. Fuji

It goes without saying that any American tourist that goes to Japan needs to come back with stories about the toilets in Japan.  I am no exception, and I can say that the fancy toilets in Japan are a third favorite thing of mine. Sure, it wasn't so much that they were incredible toilets -- nor did I really take advantage of all of the services they could provide -- it was more the novelty of them.


For some reason, Jamie was determined to take a picture of our toilet in every hotel.  Apparently, this is the only one that came out...unfortunately, it was one of our less complicated toilets.  And for the record, neither I nor Jamie were the ones who turned the "Spray Strength" all the way to the maximum.

The stories of the toilets that had heated seats, would make the sound of running water while you relieved yourself, or that would clean your bottom for you are all true.  In fact, every hotel that we visited had these fanciful toilets.  As did most of the public toilets that we went to.  In addition, most of the public restrooms I visited also had a nice little toilet seat sanitizer dispenser that you could put on some toilet paper and wipe on the seat.  Those were some spotless public toilets.

That being said, I think it's funny that in the same bathrooms where they had these fancy "western" toilets, they would have twice as many "Japanese" toilets that were little more than holes in the ground (although many did have a button you could press to make the running water sound.)  Another example of Japanese hospitality?  Or do they think all us "westerners" are wussies that need a throne to use the restroom (slight pun intended.)

Enough about toilets!  Our third full day in Japan started with an early morning trip to the Tsukiji Fish Market.  Unfortunately, foreigners aren't allowed in the fish auction, but we got to go through the vendor stalls and eat some pretty fresh sushi and snap pictures of all sorts of crazy food items.

Sadly, I did not have my good camera for this portion of the trip (or the following day) because somebody did not pack the battery to my camera which was charging in the last hotel room we had been staying in.  I may have been a little grumpy at my husband since he insisted that he had packed it when I asked, and the Tsukiji Fish Market was the thing I was looking most forward to in our trip.  I mean, it provides fish and produce to 90+% of Tokyo!  Millions of people!  It was pretty spectacular.  And, as my dad says, a photographer is only as good as their camera so my pictures were pretty lackluster until the next to last day of our trip.  Sad times.

Fortunately, we did bring an extra camera on the trip so I used that one until the hotel people could ship our charger and battery to our hotel in Kyoto.

I still don't know what those noodle-looking things are -- maybe noodles?  But at 150 yen it seemed like a bargain!

From there, we hopped on the Tokaido Shinkansen (the Bullet Train) and went a couple stops -- just for the experience.  We were cheesy tourists demonstrating the basic American Tourist-in-Japan pose.

Then we got back on our bus to head up to Mt. Fuji.  Which, by the way, was absolutely freezing.  Being overwhelmed with work before leaving for the trip, neither Jamie nor I took the time to actually looking at what the weather was like in Japan before leaving.  As a result, neither of us really packed for very cold weather.  Not smart.  When we got to the Fifth Station (which is a little more than halfway up Mt. Fuji) the temperature was -10 degrees Celsius, which Google tells me is about 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mt. Fuji in a brief moment when her "hat" (what our guide called the clouds that usually cover her peak) came off.

Jamie at the Fifth Station pulling off my favorite cheesy (and more advanced) American-in-Japan pose.

Yes, the fountain was frozen solid.  I didn't have sleeves.  Brrrrr.

From there, we went to Owakudani which are volcanic thermal springs.  Most of the people on the bus were frozen solid and did not want to spend too much time there -- it was also pretty stinky -- so we only had about 30 minutes there.  Jamie and I were the only ones who decided to brave it up the mountain in order to snap some photos and breathe in some nice, big lungfuls of hydrogen sulfide.  Our reward?  Some eggs that had been hard-boiled in the bubbling mud and springs.  Their shells turn black from the hydrogen sulfide, but they are perfectly normal after they are peeled.  Except that they supposedly add 7 years to your life when you eat them.

Gases from the thermal seeps coming out of the mountain.

We took the trip to our hotel which was in the middle of nowhere.  However, it had access to the thermal springs and provided the opportunity for us to go into the Onsen (Japanese Baths).  Jamie was the only one awake and brave enough to venture out and enjoy some public nudity.  I'll let him tell you all about that adventure...