Day Two in Hakone

After the museum day 2 in Hakone continues, and we are on a mission to have a beautiful Mt. Fuji sighting!

According to area guide books, the best way to view Mt. Fuji is from the "Hakone Loop", which is a giant route around Lake Ashi with 4 modes of public transportation including: train, ropeway, boat, and bus.

We took the train from our hotel to the museum, so now onto the famed "Hakone Ropeway".  Similar to the ropeway up to Mt. Misen on Miyajima Island, we had to get off in the middle and board a second ropeway. 

Ready to board the first ropeway!

Climbing up to the halfway point... it's getting a little cloudy and foggy.

This is the spot that is rated #1 for spectacular views of Mt. Fuji! 

Advertisement for your reference, if the clouds were not in the way...

Switching to the second ropeway... again you cannot see a darn thing!!

We have arrived at mode of transport #3: the boat ride!

Crowds of people are running to get on these old Spanish pirate ships!  Thank goodness the boat cruise isn't cancelled due to inclement weather today.

#2 rated spectacular view of Mt. Fuji... this weather makes me so sad.

Here's what I should have been seeing!

At least I could enjoy a fun boat ride. 

(If the boat tour had been cancelled, we would have had to backtrack the "loop" via ropeway(s) and trains again!)

Transport #4: our empty bus ride back to the train station. 

This is the least crowded we've seen anything all weekend!  Yesterday there was not even extra standing room.

We arrived at Odawara shinkansen station much earlier than planned.  We had reserved a train several hours later because we had expected to spend lots of time photographing the majestic Fuji-san!!

So we decided to explore the town of Odawara.  First stop = Odawara Castle.

This castle is also a replica (like Nagoya) and has a museum inside.

But it still looks darn impressive from the outside!

I must admit the golden dolphins of Nagoya Castle are way bigger and way cooler than this guy.

View of the castle grounds and Pacific Ocean.

View of Odawara city from the lookout on top of the castle.

On our walk back to the train station, I saw a poster for these cool-looking car-shaped treats you put in children's lunchboxes.  I'd like to think they are made of yummy colored fudge, but the more likely ingredient is mashed up beans and vegetables.

Let's do a little food shopping in the station, too. 

Mom couldn't quite imagine my birthday cake at work where everyone got a different piece of cake, so here's a typical bakery counter.  The pieces are all sold individually. 

Holy GREEN bananas!!  Will these things ever turn yellow?!

Apparently there are two sizes of grapes in Japan:

golf ball-sized or pea-sized... but they still taste pretty good!

Tarynn and a vine of edaname!  We had no idea these things grew in a clump on a vine, they are always separated and individual by the time it makes them to the consumer!  (~$6.38)

Good thing KG loves green onions--this one is giant!  (~$2.84)

So the weather was a major disappointment and shy Mt. Fuji never made an appearance, but Tarynn and I still managed to have a good time in Hakone, and we also learned an important lesson...

visit in winter next time!! 

The lake is calm, the weather is clear, and Fuji-san is almost always in perfect view!

beep... beep... SPECIAL REPORT... beep... beep...

I interrupt the regularly scheduled Hakone blog post for a special report on … Summer Heat in Japan!

August 17th marked a turning point for residents of Japan.  This was the day when 2010 officially took over as the most deadly summer in Japan’s history.  The death toll reached 283 due to the ongoing heat wave, and there is no temperature relief in sight!  Nearly half of these deaths occurred in people over the age of 65. An additional 31,579 people have been hospitalized and treated for heatstroke this summer.

The majority of these deaths occur at night (between 5pm and 5am) because a person can become dehydrated and weak throughout the day, and then his body literally shuts down on him while he is sleeping.

Nagoya broke the historical record for having the most consecutive days above 35 C (~95 F) in the month of July. 95 may not seem so hot, but the heat index raises the temp at least 10 degrees due to the humidity. Couple that with the fact that many residents of Japan feel that A/C is “unhealthy” and makes your body weak, and you’ve got a deadly combination. In fact, some train cars in Japan are labeled “low A/C” or “no A/C” because many people prefer to go without. (Even when I am in a train car with air conditioning, I usually have my fan out and I am still sweating!)  Entering stores, restaurants, or offices can provide a little relief, but there is still the government energy restriction that all A/C settings must be 82 F or higher, and many places keep the entry doors propped open at all times (even in the winter) so the outside temperature can sneak right in.

In addition to the pure heat and humidity, I can always tell which days are worse than others based on the thickness of the air.  Most days it's like a sauna, and I have difficulty breathing.  It literally takes your breath away.  That's another reason why I would rather be outside in the shade of a tall building because at least there is a chance for a breeze.

Check out this clip from NHK World News from Japan

Tokyo temperature topped 37 C (~99 F) yesterday for the first time in years, and its neighboring suburbs measured in at 38.2 C (~101 F). This scorching heat wave is especially problematic for Tokyo because the heat index gets out of control due to the high density of people and tall buildings, which prevents air circulation. Those residents that use A/C units crank up the blower on these hot days, and then more hot air from the exhaust fans dump into the streets.

A strange coincidence to this heat wave is that there have been 60 instances of overheating iPods on Tokyo trains that start burning, burst into pieces, and the smell stinks up the trains. (Apple claims this is a battery issue and is letting their battery supplier determine a fix.)  The notorious timely train system was even stopped for 8 minutes recently to investigate where the burning smell was coming from!!

On the bright side to all of this tragic information, I couldn’t find any reports of deaths due to children being left in vehicles. This makes sense in Japan since so few people drive, but I did find 36 unfortunate reports of dead children in the USA already this year.

There have also been reports of record ice cream sales across the country in order to keep cool.  Japanese people and I can finally agree on a yummy food product!


Truthfully, I don’t really complain about this situation much (only on facebook and blog entries), but that’s because the locals do enough complaining for everyone. Usually I just want to punch them for whining. (I mean, they choose to live here every day, while I was actually assigned to this temporary location.)  Everyone in Nagoya knows it’s hot outside, there no need to state it every time we step outside. 
 
Atsui ne?  (It's hot, isn't it?)  ATSUI!!!!  (I'm HOT!!!!)

As you are making your way from your home to your car and wondering why the heck it's so hot in the US, think of me defying death every day in Japan by walking to and from work for 20 minutes! 

Oddly enough, I’m really looking forward to typhoon season, which reaches its peak every year in September, and traditionally brings wind storms and heavy rainfall.