Tokyo Japan

Not my favorite stop. Being the largest city in the world, you can imagine the crowds, skyscrapers and traffic – if not,  just more than double New York City and you have it. One of the first things you notice is about 10% of the people are wearing masks, many had colds or the flu, and some perhaps with allergies. We were scheduled for a two and a half hour “scenic drive” to view Mt. Fuji and Hakone National Park. Scenic, not so much. For one thing the first hour and a half was just getting out of rush hour traffic in greater Tokyo. When we finally hit the toll ways there were screens and cement walls lining much of the expressway.  I know Japan is about the size of California so I am not saying there may not be some beautiful areas in Japan, but given the chance I would probably pass up Tokyo if I visited this way again. After almost 3 hours in the bus, we arrived in Owakudani Valley. Maybe my mood was already set, but the 8 minute “spectacular gondola ride” was viewing brown grass and some dead looking trees, not much to behold. I guess it was the wrong time of year. We arrived at the top of the lift to over 100 steps leading the black eggs Mecca. Yes, black eggs. This area is chocked full of sulfur springs – which of course smell like rotten eggs. This seemed a strange choice of foods to serve here but they sell hundreds, if not thousands, of black eggs every day.  After you climb another set of ramps and steps you reach the egg stand where people are lined up to buy these black eggs. The eggs are cooked/steamed in the sulfur mineral springs until their shells have turned jet black – about one to one and a half hours. These black eggs are sold everywhere in the area -– it looks like a herd of evil Easter bunnies have struck. They say that if you eat one black egg it will lengthen your life by 7 years – Jim ate three. Thinking these gross looking things might actually shorten my life, I tried one anyway. Just tasted like a hardboiled egg once you peeled off the black shell. At least from this height I did get a couple of pictures on Mount Fuji. It was pretty cloudy. Back to the bus and on to Lake Ashi to board a “Viking Style” boat for a scenic cruise of the lake. I’d give it about a 6 ½.  I do have two positive things to say about the outing. One, the tour guide was interesting. When people complained about having to climb all the steps she told us a Japanese man 103 and a woman 93 had scaled Mt. Fuji – this was just some steps. (As in quit whining lazy Americanos).  There was also a 30 minute story about her trip to America in 1979. As near as I could tell, the highlight of her Stateside visit seemed to be the hash browns she was served at Denny’s. She also told us about the new Japanese custom of serving KFC for Christmas dinner. Since we were a bit skeptical, she showed us an ad with Col. Sanders in his Santa hat. Other traditions, on Valentine’s day girls give boys chocolates. On April 14^th, “White Day” and the boys give girls candy – often marshmallow related, but never chocolate. Another thing she related, that I found interesting, was when businessmen work past the last train home, the hotels are so expensive in downtown Tokyo that they usually stay in “Capsule Hotels”. (pic above) These are entire hotels full of these little sleeping capsules kind of like the old time sleeping berths on trains. When asked about religion she said she was Shinto. Don’t hold me to it, but as best I could understand it their deity was called Kami and they had 8 million gods and goddesses. She talked about the earthquake as it occurred almost exactly one year ago and killed 150,000 people.  Something I had read a couple of places and she agreed with was, that about 90% of the Japanese people buy and ready comic books daily.  And my last statistic – 24 people have been killed or received serious skill fractures while bowing to each other. She ended the tour by passing around a “wonderful Japanese candy” for us to try – it was a Kit Kat. Yes, one and the same.  Okay, for the other positive, I give Japan full kudos for their potties. Wow. I am talking about bus rest stops here, not 5 star hotels. They had the Rolls Royce of potties. You could have fake flushing sounds or music playing while you peed - then you could be spray washed  and blown you dry – before it flushed  for you – seriously.  I doubt I will ever return to Tokyo, but Tokyo does win my vote on the best potty facilities so far this trip.