All things Japan: Mount Fuji, and a hairy day out during the Spring Equinox!

Let me start this off with a small, true story about India. Back in 1875, the British in India were ecstatic, as they heard the news of Queen Victoria’s visit to India. As most of you know, India was ruled by the British at that period, and so it was monumental, and pivotal in many ways. But during the time of the visit, she was late by 2 hours, and the puzzled Indian folk, who had arrived an hour before the scheduled time were told that it is a norm in the United Kingdom to arrive at least 30 minutes after the scheduled time. Indians have since then been groomed with that philosophy, and we still practice it today.

My Canadian friend was oblivious to that fact, as is the rest of the world. So anyway, we were supposed to leave by 7:45 AM yesterday, but we left at around 8 AM as I was just following our long, followed tradition. Fine, everything written above is completely false. Of course, Alexander ran from time to time trying to get rid of me, but I was calm and composed, simply tracing his steps as I walked to the bus stop. Needless to say, we weren’t late and we met Yamamoto – san and Yuka – san, Alex’s colleagues who were kind enough to let me tag along for their trip to Hakone. We first had to drive for an hour to what looked like a resort/holiday spa, and I was given harsh looks when I bought a huge soft drink bottle for our journey. I had to exchange it with a small can. That was my first “That’s way too big” look in Japan. I wish I had more *Cough*.

So after a long trip, we finally reached our first destination, which was amazing! All the flowers, the small streams, cottages, old – style Japanese environment and more made it pretty fascinating. We tasted Japanese tea as Alex and I couldn’t sit in Japanese style for long (I was the first to fold. Literally). We then had lunch, and I had coke and breakfast. I’m not complaining – The pumpkin soup was pretty delicious!

Sakura flowers! So amazing.

Yamamoto - san and Yuka - san

More Sakura flowers!

And that's Alex "The 'Murican" Peace

I took a lot of pictures yesterday, as I’ve decided to do so from now to capture all the bright moments during my trip. I’ve noticed that the days have been passing by way too soon, and I plan to cherish these memories and take them back with me. Anyway, so I might have made fun of Alex’s balding head, and he might have actually had a hair cut today and I might have felt awful about it afterwards. Don’t give me that, “How could you do that?” look! I then took the walk of shame, as written in the bro – code.

Anyways, getting back to yesterday, we then drove to the hot springs, and it was a breathtaking sight! We could see Mount Fuji pretty clearly, and the rest of the mountains/scenery made it all the more amazing. We had to climb a long way to reach the spot where the hot springs were (And they were pretty hot. I mean the hot springs). We then went to visit some other place, but it was already closed. So we headed back to Chigasaki – shi to have out dinner and call it a night.

We went to the Indian restaurant that I’ve fallen in love with (Vegetarian food is a rarity in Japan), and apparently, I had pissed them off during my last visit with “Not enough spice” complaints. I was breathing fire and Alex teased me, saying he didn’t think it was spicy at all. Anyway, Yuka – san and Yamamoto – san bid us farewell and we came back to our dorm rooms. I fell asleep almost immediately as I was too tired. I have to work on my presentation for tomorrow, and I haven’t even started it yet. If you don’t hear from me again, I’d probably be sacrificed. So I’ll you with some memories!