Japan! Day 4

As Winnie The Pooh would say, it was a blustery day out.  That kind of impeded the goal of the day which was to see the beauty of Mt. Fuji and Hakone.  Instead we used our imagination of how pretty it would look if we could see it.  haha  I still had a fun day though.

It was an early one, with my alarm going off at 5:45 am.  Then a quick breakfast and a dash to the bus by 6:45.  (I realize there was an hour of time in there, but for some reason I am always in a rush in the mornings.)  

The drive to Mt. Fuji was dismal, but relaxing.  I divided my time between listening to the guide talk about the area and listening to podcasts about neuroscience (don't judge.  Everyone has to have a hobby.)  :0P  

Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan and seems like it is quite beautiful based on the pictures I have seen of it.  We were lucky that the roads up to half way up the mountain were open despite the fact that it was snowing and around 20 degrees F out.  Many of us, including myself were very much not prepared for this cold weather. 

 Luckily, I don't have temperature sensation in my feet so the fact that I was wearing flip flops actually didn't matter.  I even tested if I could feel cold by sticking my foot in a snow bank.  Nada.  After a while of walking around my feet went completely numb and kind of hurt, but other than that the cold was no problem.  For my feet that is.  The rest of my was quite cold.  

One of the highlights of the stop was to go to a Shinto temple for the goddess for good marriage.  Since one of my most bestest friends has recently gotten married I made a special wish just for them.  :0)  My guide showed me the proper way of doing it which goes: toss the coin in the well, bow twice, clap twice, close your eyes, fold your hands and say a prayer, bow twice, and clap twice more. 

The rest of the brief half hour stop (worst part about tours is you always feel hurried) I spent trying to stay warm in the gift stores.  I didn't want to buy anything (way too expensive!) so I kept myself busy by taking pictures of some of the cute/strange items for sale.

This wasn't for sale, but I didn't know where else to put this picture.  haha  I want my toilets with seat warmers back!  

Now that is an epic cheese stick!

From what I can tell, these were plastic baby heads, like off of a doll.  You could lift up their skull and inside was something that looked like Vaseline and lotion mixed together.  It it hadn't been $30, I would have definitely bought one.  haha

Is this golden poo?  Awesome!

This mysterious object was in the port but also didn't know where else to stick this picture.  

I got back to the bus early and my ship dad and I built snowmen.  :0)  It was too bad my hands don't share the immunity to temperature that my feet do!  Still, it was very fun making my first snowman in 5+ years!

Then back on the bus to the Mt. Fuji museum.  Again we only had a half an hour which I spent watching a dance and music performance.

We got our lunches on the bus and I took a picture.  EVen though I think those lunches were usually pretty disgusting, I know I will miss the sight of them when this voyage is over.

I could tell Hakone would be beautiful when the sun was out and visibility was better, but as it was, things all kind of looked pretty dreary.  I did have fun riding on some gondolas and boat across the lake.  The fog even cleared enough for a few minutes for me to get some pictures of the shore.  :0)  

Then a bus drive back and I had to say goodbye to land for a long time.  I think we have 10 or 11 days at sea now which will be full of the mountain of homework I haven't had time for over the last month.  I'm actually looking forward to the rest and being able to just hang out with people.  There still may be one or two people I know on this ship who I have not converted to Whovians.  :0P

We got a send off from port by an excellent band playing a mashup of every American song I can think of (disney, christmas, patriotic, etc.)

How 'bout them Giants? (Aka Japan Day 3, Part 3)

All this and it was only 3:00 in the afternoon.  We got in line for tickets early (they start being sold at 3:30) to make sure we would get good seats.  And oh yes we got good seats.  But more on that later.  

    Then it was back to the dollar store so they could get some origami paper and to the ship to drop off our awesome science stuff.  We also changed into our baseball outfits we had bought and I broke out the face paint.  Finding a place to eat dinner was a challenge.  The places nearby had personal pizzas for $20 and the prices went up from there.  We found a tiny, French-ish style cafe with only $15 hamburgers so we ate there.  I ordered a hot dog and despite it's dodgy look, it was quite good.  Plus, there was a cat in the cafe.  So it was a good choice.

    Theeeeeeeen GAME TIME!  We knew our seats were good when we bought them, but we found out they were AMAZING once we got to the stadium.  I believe we were in the fifth row right near first base!  I don't think I have ever been that close outside of a Spring Training game!   It was so fun to be at such a familiar type of event in such a different setting.  I tried to note all the differences like how there were cheerleaders and bands at the games in Japan, they play for 10 innings (I think), and there are no garlic fries (sad face.)  One thing that was the same was that the Giants were playing!  (As the visiting team)  Same colors and everything!  And like their World Series Champ sister team in the States, they skunked the competition!  Hannah and Courtney were making fun of me because I cheered whenever either team got a hit or made a play.  

    I think it was around the third inning when it started raining, but it didn't really appear to be a problem.  It was warm enough that we were content to get completely soaking wet and still enjoy the game.  I got bored and started reading though...

Just kidding.  (That is a joke with my family so I just took the picture and then went back to game watching.)  We also had a really good conversation about spirituality and life changing experiences and philosophy and stuff.  Because of course that's what you do at a baseball game in Japan in the pouring rain.  

It was a very exciting evening that we ended with a hot chocolate party back on the ship.  :0)  I was a little giddy about being up past my usual sleep time and thought I would show them how street I am.