Fuji-san 🗻

Three days before the trip and Japan is already teaching me a lesson. Like I already don’t have an idea on how disciplined this country is. Just a little bit of a background, I spent a little over three years teaching English online to Japanese students. :) You see the problem is not that “critical”.  As it’s already been established that one day of our trip will be spent in Mt Fuji, the thing is we couldn’t get a JR pass in time.

The very same T minus 3 days before leaving, just when I found time to finally sit on it and plan the itinerary (because who else isn't busy these days duh), somebody introduced me to Hyderdia and I.WAS.HOOKED. I was never that obsessed in budgeting and planning transportation routes to the point of creating a spreadsheet of our departures and expenses but there I was flourishing the Google doc to my travel buddies and proving that indeed we need a JR pass to save on expenses if we are also to visit the cherry blossoms in Shizuoka Prefecture. See post here.

Agitated, I consulted my friend Glenn around midnight (haha!) and asked for some workaround. For someone who’s been familiarized with the Japanese system, he also aired his frustration about the “old-school” methods of this country. The root cause of the problem was that: a JR pass can only be delivered 3 to 5 days upon purchasing online via postal system which means that my fault was not being an “early planner” aka not being able to but it ahead of time.

But I’m sure you’d agree with me here, it doesn’t make sense for a transportation ticket to be used in another country to be delivered in a different one. Like why can’t I just purchase it online and receive it in Japan where I'm gonna use it hello? Or even better, make it available in their railways. Not letting this concern pass, I contacted their customer service and brought up this suggestion. Apparently, they are already making changes in the system and will make it available in Japan itself but sadly it will be 3 weeks after our trip. OWWWWW.

As this post is already long enough (haha!), I’ll cut it short and say that yes we did reach Mt. Fuji but it was too moody then and it didn’t show up. Boo hoo. We lingered around the very pretty Lake Kawaguchiko (one of Fuji’s five surrounding lakes) and waited for the clouds to clear up to no avail. We then proceeded to visit Fujiten Ski Resort in the afternoon only to find out that first timers like us need instructors but unfortunately they’re all booked and it’s freakin’ raining. Haha. Seriously, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a losers were we that day? Haha. Atleast the Hoto Fudo veggie ramen (a ramen specialty in Fuji) was comforting enough before we retreated back to Tokyo. 

Coat: Zara; Pants: H&M; Shoes: Chinese Laundry