Case Japan
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Day 15: November 5th 2008 Wednesday
Tokyo, Kawaguchiko, Mt. Fuji
Mt. Fuji
So we woke up early, and rode Yamanote to Shinjuku, from where the bus departed. We got tickets to the bus, and about 2 hours later, we arrived to Kawaguchiko. From there, there's a cable car to top of one nearby hill, which has nice view around the region, including Mt. Fuji. We walked to the cable car station, and got up. The view was nice, and after taking some pictures around the region, we came back down. North side of the city, there's a lake, and we walked around the shore.
A bit later, we walked back to the bus terminal to take a bus to the Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, because the main season had ended 2 days earlier, they had cut down also the number of buses 2 days earlier, and the last one for the day had departed 5 minutes earlier. There was car rental in the adjacent building, so we went there to ask for a rental car. At the counter, we told we'd like to drive up the Fuji, and I handed them my driver's license. The guy told he has to ask his manager because it's foreign card. After a while, the manager came back, and told it's not good enough, that I'd need international driver's license. Then they both left, leaving the counter empty. I thought it was a bit rude. No "Is there anything else we can help you with", or anything. They just went away.
There was tourist information booth at the bus terminal building, so we went back there, and asked the woman how we could get there. Her response was that we cannot get there. After discussing for a while, we decided to go by the road leading to Fuji, and hitchhike up there. Unfortunately it seemed no-one dared to pick up gaijin, so finally we gave up.
Walking back to the downtown Kawaguchiko, we started looking for some restaurant. The local specialty is houtou, so we went to a place that served such. Basically it was noodle dish, similar to ramen. Then we spent some time around the city, and went back to the bus station to take a bus back to Tokyo.
Back at the apartment, we checked weather forecast again. Nikko was one of the places on our list, and the next day weather seemed fine for Nikko, so we decided to go there on the next day. Unfortunately the ticketing office was already closed, so we couldn't call and reserve spot. Instead, we decided to go to the bus terminal in the morning, and hope to get on board anyway.
