Japan baby! Part 2 of tour: Tokyo, Fuji-Hakone

Okay, so before i begin, let me just warn you that this blog does contain nudity, although bad language is kept at a minimum and violence is non-existent.

You have been warned.

So we'll start our little adventure in Japan in the capital, where Cath and I spent one night before heading off to climb Mt Fuji.

The onething you have to say about Tokyo is that it is big and busy - as everyone knows. How big and busy, well, you really can't believe until you see for yourself.

We decided to head for Shinjuku - the sight of the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world - and boy was it busy!
This is Cath standing at it while the throngs move about her. When the lights go green for pedestrians every few minutes, the four hundred or so people that have accumulated make their way across, only for another few hundred to be there again in three minutes time.
And again, and again - it's crazy!

We didn't do much sight-seeing in Tokyo until we returned to the capital at the end of our trip so the other photos will be in another blog entry.

Then we headed to Fuji Hakone national park, which is blog entry number 1, before returning down the volcano to our guest house....



This is us once we'd climbed Fuji-san and headed for our first sleep in a few days. The kimonos were a nice touch we thought, and the place was pretty cool. we had a great supper, Japanese style of course, at a local restaraunt and then returned to the guest house to onsen.

This is Cath and I at our first Onsen (hot spa). Normally you'd have to share the Onsen with others - male only or female only - but this one was different. We'd researched a bit beforehand so we knew what to expect and how to proceed. However, the instructions that they had up on the wall confused us a bit - especially number four on the list.

So, listening to the instructions, off came the clothes and we cleaned ourselves Japanese style.

I warned you there was nudity. You're lucky - the reflection in the mirror there could have shown a lot more! But I'm modest - so you only get to see my sexy ass!


This is Cath outside the guest house - it was pretty wet that day - hence the brolly.
Aint my baby cute?
This was the morning we left Fuji-Hakone National Park and headed for Madz.

Before we left though, we did a bit of touring and this was a typical Japanese sign - showing us clearly which way we had to go... hmmm

To get to Madz, we took our first real bullet train. They sure are fast. Look at that sreamlined machine, built for speed with a hot nose and a body made for moving - and the train is good looking too!

And so we caught up with Madz - our beautiful Scottish friend who was over in Japan teaching English (or was that Engrish) for a year. She was due to return home shortly after we got there so we had to move fast if we wanted to see her there and get some expert advice or things to eat, see and do. She was good enough to put us up for three nights, drive us around and take us to karaoke baby! This photie was at a restaraunt near Iiyama, where she lived and within throwing distance of the 1990 winter Olympic ski-jump. It was a bit too warm for snow while we were in Japan though, alas - another reason to go back sometime. Madz really is a STUNNING person - and her and Cath can go without seeing each other for like, two years, and then just pick up as if they were chatting yesterday...

The decor in some of the restaraunts was... interesting. As this wood sculpture indicates. There, sitting above the tables in the dining area, in the corner just below the roof, sat this particularly intimidating piece. They say the Japanese have an interesting approach to sex and sexuality - but a penis staring at me as I ate my rice and fish was something else.

And so to suchi - which i had never had before. Cath and I gamely got down everything that came our way - including the fleshy, slimy ones, crab, eel, squid, etc. The dishes come round on a conveyer belt and you help yourself as they come along. Desserts also come along though so I had to wrestle with Cath every time chocolate cake came along inbetween the squid, etc.

Then on the way home we came across Budha, and so we had to rub his belly for some luck. And kiss his belly for even more luck.

Madz also took us to see the snow monkeys. Now as i said before, there was no snow and it was actually pretty humid so the monkeys were more prone to lying around on their backs than swimming in the hot springs but they were still well worth viewing...
Cath took this little beaut of a photo of this lazy bugger lying in the shade.

we also took this one just to show how close we got to them. The monkeys are actually behind me though - not to the right of the picture as it would appear.