January 1, 2011

 This New Year's David and I did not ring in the new year.  Instead, we chose to rise early. Skip and Rei (Pronounced Leigh) invited David and I to go on a mystery bus tour with them. We were promised five stops to various tourist attractions around Japan.

Five a.m. came way too early, we caught the 6:40 train to meet our bus in Tachikawa at 7:30.  Our drive to the first stop took us along the Pacific coast, the view was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, the sun was coming up and I was unable to get a clear shot of the ocean, but it was a spectacular view.  David said it reminded him of taking Highway 1 along the California coast.  As we neared our destination we came to a town that was embedded into the coast with surfers catching their first surf of the new year.

Our bus stopped at the top of a hill in the Izu prefecture (compared to a state in the US) where we were to climb up 170 steps to the Shirahama Shrine,  famous for ensuring a long and everlasting love in your relationship!  There are actually 600 steps  that start at the coast...!
  

 Japanese, for the most part, do not celebrate Christmas.  They celebrate New Year's and it is a big production, one of their big traditions is to go to temple (a shrine) and pray for health and happiness for the new year.  Here is just a picture of the shrine. I hope that the link provided works, it also inclues more pictures from our trip. 

I'll not bore you with details of stops two through five. Rei explained that the japanese love their souvenirs, they feel compelled to buy a little trinket for all their loved ones when traveling about.  Along with shopping for souvenirs, Japanese also love food!  This was a definite factor when the tour company planned our trip.  Stop two was an all you can eat buffet where you can gorge yourself on every type of japanese food imaginable.  I must say, it was well thought out and thoroughly organized.  They have to make a killing, at any given time there were about 10 tour buses in the parking lot with about 40 people per bus, with the buses rolling in and out like an assembly line. Afterwards, you are invited to peruse their food and souvenir section.

Our first stop was the only significant attraction on this trip...stop 2 was lunch.  Stop 3 was a wasabi factory with a huge grocery store inside.  Stop 4 was a natural cold spring with, of course, a place to shop for souvenirs...by this time the four us we're just silly..because we realized  that this was just a shopping tour..Stop 5 was...a grocery store!  No really, it was! Here is where I thought this was interesting,we found a wasabi flavored Kit Kat.  I was not, however, ready to lay down $10 to try this tasty treat!

Overall, this day was not a bust.  I was hoping for Mt Fuji, even though I know it's closed this time of year. There are lakes there where one can visit during the winter.  The reason I was hoping was that each stop took us closer and closer to Mt Fuji...the view was almost surreal.  We seemed so close, but still far. In the end we had a wonderful time just riding, laughing and chatting with one another and I really cannot think of a better way to spend a day!