On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
I have mentioned my trials by air travel before. I want to start by saying that this was the first trip in years where every detail worked as planned. I was still waiting for the disaster as the car was pulling out of O’Hare heading north, but there was no disaster.
We spent three days in Tokyo before boarding the ship in the Port of Yokohama. The cruise part of the trip was 17 days, with three days in Japanese ports and then 14 day on the sea, out of sight of land until we arrived in Los Angeles.
My sister is a huge Disney fan, so we went to Tokyo Disney. It was Disneyland in Japanese, very weird.
Some things about Tokyo Disney were very Japanese. The stroller parking lots outside of each venue were literally parking lots with lines painted on the pavement; and every stroller neatly centered in the stall.
My brother-in-law is a train buff, so we decided to ride the Tokyo Sakura Tram, a hybrid tram/light rail line, originally opened in 1911 and currently operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation. My sister insisted that we use the modern Tokyo subway system to get to where we could board the tram. According to the internet and her guide book, it should have been easy. I have traveled by subway in Chicago, NYC, Paris, and London among other cities, but I never experienced anything like the Central Tokyo subway station. In the end, it was worth the trouble.
The tram was beautiful, with flower gardens on both sides of the track for the whole route. Real, ordinary Japanese people use the tram to go to work, to the shops and to school. I did insist that we took a taxi back to the hotel. All the cab drivers seemed to be elderly men with NO English. Even though we had the hotel address written on a hotel notepad, the only thing that cut through the confusion was “Disney”. That got us into the neighborhood and a little trial and error go us to the hotel.
Our first port in Japan was Shimizu. We all took buses out to view Mt. Fuji. As we were leaving the ship, we were warned that it was “weather dependant.” And Fujisan did not want to come out to play that day. We got glimpses from time to time.
Our first stop was at the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Center. It was very impressive. But since pretty much everyone from our ship was there at the same time, it was crowded; and we didn’t have enough time to really appreciate the displays.
In addition to all the visitors from the ship, there were several groups of students who had notebooks that they had been working on and were there to finish
The second stop was the Fujisan Hongu Sengentaisha Shrine. Interesting factoid, the Shrine owns the summit of Mt. Fuji.
The student groups were following the same program as the cruise tourists. Back at the port, a street fair was being held in a park next to where the ship was docked. They had local performers, local food, beer, and crafts. I’m not sure if it was put on for the benefit of the cruise ship passengers, but we enjoyed it very much.
Baud
Very nice. I’ve always wanted to visit Japan.
Scott
Brings back memories. Climbed Mt Fuji around 1987. A night climb with hundreds of people. Got to the top at sunrise. Not too hard. Beautiful. Still have my Fuji stick I used to climb.
Raven
@Scott: I saw it from the window of the plane during a refueling at Tachikawa Airbase.
stinger
Interesting trip!
randy khan
I began to understand the cultural significance of Mt. Fuji when I visited Japan and it seemed like you could see it from everywhere if the weather was right. I have maybe 8 or 10 photos of it from different places. It was remarkable.
On the taxis, we specifically were warned that almost no taxi drivers speak English and that it was critical to have the address of your destination written in Japanese.
Another Scott
Nice. Thanks for bringing back memories. We were in Tokyo for a few days in the late 1990s.
Indeed – the Tokyo stations are harrowing! Even figuring out the correct exit was very stress inducing. But we got to where we needed to go. I assume it’s a little easier now, with cell phones and decent magic translators, but it’s still controlled chaos.
We didn’t see Fuji – too many clouds. The postcard pictures of the peak against a blue sky are either AI or a once every few years event, it seems.
Every USian should go to Japan at least once. It’s important to see that different ways of doing things can be better. And they can also merely be different.
Looking forward to the next installment!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Me too! Loving the photos.
Mike Mundy
We’ve been to Japan several times, but have had only one good view of the mountain.
JoeyJoeJoe
Visited Tokyo last year. Eventually I got the hang of the subway system. There are two systems, and you can’t transfer from one to the other without paying. The subway system didn’t seem too bad last year, I just looked at the letter and number of the station I was at and where I was trying to go, and didn’t have much of a problem after the first day.
Even just staying in Tokyo, there was so many options. I definitely recommend going when one of the major sumo tournaments is happening, and get tickets to the Imperial Palace way in advance. I learned that the hard way
WaterGirl
@Mike Mundy: Wow!!!
You could always think about submitting an On the Road post from your travels :-)
Mike Mundy
@WaterGirl: Thanks!
Though it’s already hard enough posting daily photos to my blog!
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