Japan 2024 Part 3: Mountains, Blossoms, and Adventures to Come
Friday
Our day started early, since we had to meet our tour guide and group for the trip out to Mt. Fuji (or Fujisan, as the locals call it), and nearby Hakone. But it ended up being a gorgeous day for our trip—because the sky was clear and no clouds covered any part of the mountain. A very rare thing, this held almost all day, with only a few clouds beginning to gather and obscure the peak as the day came to a close.
We had a lovely bus ride, driving through gorgeously forested mountains to get there. As someone who grew up around mountains and moved to the Midwest, where there aren’t many, I miss them. Which means I was in my happy place. 😁 We stopped at a rest stop and discovered they had a stamp! So in our quick time to get off the bus and such, we managed to grab the stamp. (Victory!)
When we made it to the base of Mt. Fuji, we found out we could drive up to the 4th Station on the North side of the mountain. The highest you can get by vehicle is the 5th station, but snow and ice prevented us from getting that far. (Big props to the national park rangers for clearing away all the snow and ice so we could make it up to the 4th station. 💙) At 2,020 meters (6,627 feet), the views were absolutely incredible. We didn’t have a lot of time for pictures and souvenir-buying, but by dividing and conquering a bit, we managed. And we even got a stamp!
After stopping a couple of times on the way down the mountain for more pictures, we headed over to our lunch spot—Shinobi no Sato, a ninja facility & village. It was so cool to see the space, and lunch was delicious. I got to try some new things, and we enjoyed a gorgeous view of Mt. Fuji. We didn’t have a whole lot of time for lunch, so it was a quick eat and grab the stamp we saw (yay!), but no chance for souvenirs, which I was a little disappointed in.
After lunch, we drove over to Hakone, once again traveling through gorgeously forested mountains and quaint towns. We climbed up another mountain to Owakudani, where the sulfur springs and vents are a good reminder of all of the under-the-surface magma activity. We picked up a few souvenirs and Black Eggs, one of the main attractions of the area. Eggs are boiled in the sulfurous hot springs on the mountain, and they’re supposed to taste better than a typical boiled egg. We did find a few stamps along this part of the trip (by this point, we had pretty good ideas of where to find them/who to ask to find them 😂).
We headed down the mountain via the Ropeway on a gondola, and the views were stunning. It was my first time on a gondola like this (enclosed), and I really enjoyed it! We got a gorgeous look at Lake Ashi and the ships you can sail upon out there. When we reached the end of the Ropeway, we headed over to get on one of the pirate ships! It was such a fun trip, and honestly I loved the ship. Photo ops, amazing views, and everything. It was so cool to explore and enjoy the trip. We spent a little time on the deck, but the winds were quite cold coming off the lake, so we spent the rest of the trip exploring belowdecks.
When we reached our stop where the bus waited for us, we managed to catch the employees at the ship’s ticket station just as they were closing up, and they allowed us inside to get the stamp. Everyone we met was so kind and helpful, and we really appreciated the chance to get more free souvenirs and memories. (Really, the stamp-collecting itself was a huge highlight of the entire trip!)
On the way back to Tokyo, we stopped at another rest stop. With a little more time to explore, we grabbed some snacks at the convenience store, the stamp (of course), and used the vending machines to get drinks (a bucket list item for both Sydney and I!). We finished the day at Shinjuku Station, where we managed to find the stamp (the second time around; we were determined 🤣). It was a fairly long day, with a lot of high energy and quick moving to get to the things we wanted in the time we had, but it was definitely a lot of fun.
Saturday
We took it a bit easy on Saturday, but we did have an appointment for kimono rentals. It was fascinating how quickly they were able to get us into our kimonos and such, and though it was a colder, drizzly day, I’m glad we went ahead and rented them, which included getting our hair done. It was fun to choose the patterns of the kimono, the obi (sash), the zori (shoes), and purse. I was amazed at how quickly they got us through into our kimonos and got our hair done and looking so nice. Since it was rainy and we wanted to keep our kimonos nice, we also got umbrellas to carry with us. I really love all of the pictures we took, and we were able to find a few blooming trees (a small selection are below—we took so many!), and I’m glad we ended up with the umbrellas. (The blossoms are either late-blooming plum blossoms or early-blooming cherry blossoms—they’re very similar in look.)
After changing out of our kimonos, we went to a sushi place for lunch. I tried it for the first time, and while sushi isn’t really my thing (even the steamed kind), it was a lot of fun to try. Then we headed over to Toshimaen in Nerima City for the Harry Potter Studio Tour! This is one of the things I was excited about, but not over-the-moon about—until we stepped inside. I’ve only been able to include a few pictures from the tour, but I took tons. It’s entirely possible I’ll do something fun with them over on Instagram at some point.
It was mind-blowing. The entire tour was amazing, and with our ticket purchase, we also got the English version of the follow-along audio—which was actually even more information about each area of the tour. We started out by hitting the souvenir shop first, and it was huge. I was amazed at how many rooms full of stuff there were, and I probably bought way too much, but I regret nothing. 😂 There were at least five separate sections of merchandise, and none of them were small. They even had some exclusive Tokyo Tour merch, and of course I had to get some of that to commemorate my time (pics of merch in the gallery below).
Then we started the tour, and you guys. I want to go back and explore more, even though I’ve already seen it all. There was so much information to take in about the movies—the making of them, how they pulled off so many amazing things, which parts were green-screen and which were built sets—and seeing all of this reminded me why I love the movies so much, (even if I prefer the books for many reasons). The tiny details they were sure to include in the scenes and sets and characters made all of the difference in my enjoyment of the movies.
We stepped onto so many replicas of the sets they used for the movies, too! It was like I was stepping into the movies themselves, and the many interactive elements they included made it that much more fun. We became a moving portrait in the Hogwarts halls, and even got to see the moving staircase! We participated in cheering on our team during a Quidditch game, and arrived at the Ministry of Magic via Floo Powder. In many ways, just stepping onto the sets and seeing so many of the props up close was a treat. They even included information, props, and costumes from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, which was also amazing.
Probably my absolute favorite part, though, was at the end—and seeing the Hogwarts castle replica. I’ve been playing through the new-ish Hogwarts Legacy video game, and seeing the castle was just like seeing and exploring it in that game. The level of detail and care taken for inter-world consistency throughout these different games and movies just blows me away. The other very awe-inspiring moment was stepping into Ollivander’s Shop—leading right into the souvenir shop—and realizing that every single wand box had a name attached to it. And each of those names represents someone who worked on the Harry Potter films—stagehands, stunt doubles, set builders, etc. I always knew a lot of people had to come together to make those movies possible, but there’s something about seeing it in a physical form like that to make you realize just how many people brought the magic of those movies to life.
Sunday
Sunday was spent packing up for the trip home and figuring out what we could do with our afternoon—since our flight didn’t leave until that evening. So we headed over to the Shinjuku-Gyoen National Garden, a prime spot for cherry blossom viewing. We stopped in at the visitor center and cafe (for a stamp, obviously), and ended up grabbing some ice cream as well—Sydney got the melon flavor, Alecia got Ramune (a popular Japanese soda), and I tried the black sesame. All of them were delicious, and I’d really like to know how they got the effect of carbonation into the Ramune ice cream (without actual carbonation).
After eating, we headed into the gardens and found a few flowering trees—possibly early-blooming cherry blossoms. We missed the peak of the beginning, which was delayed by the couple of colder days we had during the week. Even so, we did find some gorgeous blooms to take pictures with, and even toured the greenhouse.
After spending a few hours at the park, we went to a K-pop cafe in Korea Street. I got a bubble tea (always a good choice), and we enjoyed a honey bread dessert together. It was delicious and a great way to cap our time in Tokyo—even though we were so sad to leave.
We took a taxi to the airport, got a few last stamps, and said goodbye to Alecia. The trip home was uneventful, and overall it was an amazingly wonderful trip.
