Alan is blogging once again today. Sarah can make her sad contribution in pansy purple. He is so rude. If it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t even know how to get to Fujikyu! In fact, he’d still be sitting in the airport in Sydney wondering how to get on a plane.
We were up bright and early this morning as we knew we had a big day ahead of us. We left the hotel at about 8am and began the long drive to Fujikyu Highland amusement park which is very close to Mt Fuji.
We had basic directions both off the net and from the hotel staff so we were confident that we’d be able to find the place without too much of a problem. After winding our way along Route 1 through the mountains we then changed onto Route 138 and continued down the other side. A short time later we got our first glimpse of Mt Fuji for the day although it was partly obscured by low cloud. We were super excited when we first saw it.
There was an interchange that the hotel staff had advised us to take but since we didn’t know whether to go left or right we chose to stay on 138 instead just to be safe. But after driving for some distance up another mountain we both had the feeling that maybe we were going the wrong way. We turned around and went back to a 7-11 store where the guy there said that we were in fact heading the right way and we should keep going.
So back on the road again and we found ourselves around the other side of Mt Fuji, near Lake Yakanako. Another stop at a petrol station for more directions told us that we were now very close to the park and shortly thereafter we spotted a big rollercoaster ahead of us.
The signs to get into the place were a bit confusing so it took me a while to figure out how to get into the car park but I managed it eventually. Into the park and I bought my usual 1 day pass while Sarah bought the entrance pass only as she wouldn’t be going on the rides. After getting my ticket I then had to insert it into a machine which takes your photo and prints out your ride pass ticket for the day. Unfortunately the directions weren’t in English and since the Japanese are generally very short people, I was presented with a photo of my jacket. It completely missed my face altogether. A rather sheepish apology to a girl at the gate followed and she gave me another ticket and this time I managed to get the photo right. Hooray for me. Those instructions were very much in English, he just chose not to read them. The girl laughed at him and he turned to me and said “she’s laughing at me” and I was laughing at him too. I read him the instructions and that’s how he finally got it right!
It was not at all busy there today which was good. One of the big coasters wasn’t operating today due to maintenance which was a bit of a bummer though. First up I went on the Fuijyama coaster which is an absolute monster. The first hill rises to a height of 79 metres followed by a plunge of 70 metres and then lots more hills, plunges, turns, helixes and all that cool coasterish type stuff.
After that I proceeded to go on lots of other little rides while Sarah watched, took photos of me on them, took photos of Mt Fuji and read her book. The park is very close to the base of Mt Fuji. By the end of the day it was like “yawn, there’s Mt Fuji again”. Unfortunately it never was totally uncovered during the day.
One of the best things in the park was the Haunted Hospital, their version of a haunted house. It was really well done and quite spooky. Sarah would no doubt have crapped her pants if she had been in there with me. That’s why I had no intention of going in. I’d read the reviews. They have real people inside the building to scare the bejeebies out of you while you’re walking all through this place which is done up to look and feel very much as though you really are in an old abandoned mental hospital. It was done very well and is definitely the best haunted house I’ve ever been in. You’re given a lecture by a girl for a few minutes before entering, not a word of which I understood of course.
He left out the Tondemina, this spinney type thing that goes really high in the air. Also, the park has some of the strangest signage. You’ll see from our photos.
One more ride on the big Fujiyama coaster and then we decided we’d had enough for the day and left the park behind. By that time it was about 3.30pm and it was starting to get bitterly cold anyway. I think icicles formed on my nose and ears on that last coaster ride. But it was still fun. It was 10 degrees at this point and very little sun around.
Back in the car and we were keen to stop at Dennys for a late lunch/early dinner. We’ve been to Dennys plenty of times in America before but hadn’t tried it here yet. We were both feeling very hungry having hardly eaten all day so we ordered a cobb salad to start, garlic bread, a meatloaf with salad and shrimp each plus Sarah’s had a poached egg. Alan, do you even know what a poached egg looks like? The egg was fried! We didn’t know it was meatloaf when we ordered it since the menu was in Japanese and the waitress spoke no English, but the picture looked pretty good so we gave it a try. Then we still had room for desert so Sarah got something which looked like a crepe with strawberries and actually turned out to be creme brulee YUM my favourite and the second I’ve had here in Japan and I had a triple stack of pancakes with cream, ice cream and caramel syrup. What an awesome meal that was! We actually saw another Dennys a train station stop away from where we are. He seems to think that we are going back for a late dinner at 10pm. He’s dreamin’.
Then we had the long drive back to Odawara to return our rental car. We had to stop for petrol before returning it. The petrol station had no ordinary petrol bowsers. Instead the hoses hang from the ceiling and the attendants guide you in and then fill your tank for you. That’s something new for us. I guess it was to save space.
We dropped our car back and were happy that the dude didn’t notice the scratch and ding on the right front quarter panel which had happened sometime overnight. No I did not smash into something. After that we jumped on the train and made our way back to our hotel and I think we’ll be staying in for the evening now. Tomorrow we’re making our last long train trip when we travel to Kyoto. If anyone is interested, I finished my 617 page book that I started four days ago. I now have nothing to read.
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