I had no idea what I wanted to do on Friday - my only firm plan was to go to the bus terminal at 5PM to catch a bus to Lake Kawaguchiko at the foot of Mount Fuji.
Before walking blindly in the Tokyo heat I went upstairs for some green tea. Jack and John, another American from Ohio, were both up as well and talking about where to eat lunch. I suggested Yokohama, as you can get there fairly quickly by train and for less than $10. They have a big Chinatown there and I was up for trying it out.
In Chinatown we were overwhelmed with the number and apparent quality of the restaurants there. It didn't help we were all hungry. In an impulse purchase I bought a steamed pork bun as an appetizer of sorts. We finally chose a restaurant based on the massive plate sizes in the pictures outside as well as the great price. The food was delicious, but not nearly as big as advertised. I had a big plate of gyoza dumplings though, and with the pork bun I was completely satisfied.
After leaving Chinatown we headed over to Yokohama proper to see what we could find. The station was like a big mall, sitting under Queen's Square. There were Pokémon ads everywhere, and Pikachu everything. Apparently a new movie is coming out and the advertising is just out of control.
We walked outside and down near the harbor, then around the corner and down a street up to the big tower I believe called Queen's Tower.
There was another amusement park and ferris wheel, but it looked miserable in the summer heat and humidity. There was a Hard Rock Café, some random shops, but not much else interesting.
On the way out my eyes caught the words "Beer Museum" so I convinced Jack and John we should check it out even though they were ready to go. It was a bust - an expensive restaurant in disguise - but they had a fridge with lots of beers. Interesting to see beers like Corona and Budweiser on an around-the-world shelf!
We went back to Tokyo and because I had limited time we grabbed some drinks and hung out upstairs in the hostel for a half an hour. Then I said cheers, packed up and headed down to the bus terminal.
I grabbed a bus to Kawaguchiko and started dozing off, but flashes of light woke me up. My heart sank when I realized it was a big thunderstorm moving in. I like storms, but not when I'm trying to climb an 11,000ft mountain. My brain started trying to sort out the futile logistics of climbing in the rain - can you climb a bald mountain if there is lightning? - but I eventually decided I was going to be waiting out the storm before climbing. Where and when would come later.
The bus took nearly 3 hours to get to the station, so when I got there it was pretty late in the evening. The lightning was gone and the rain reduced to a moderate drizzle, so I mustered up some Alaska willpower, pulled out my rain coat and got ready for a wet climb.
A second obstacle - because the bus was so late I missed the last bus up to the mountain. Now I started to worry. I asked if it was possible to walk up to Fuji and climb, but the lady all but laughed at me (in a concerned "wait, are you serious?" kind of way) and told me I should look for a hotel. She recommended a place nearby and so I faced the fact I wasn't climbing Fuji that night and set off into the rain completely thrown off guard.
I spent about an hour knocking on hotel doors, but all of them were booked. At one hotel I asked the (very pretty) girl who helped me how to say something in Japanese, but she told me she only knows Chinese. Hey, finally someone I can talk to! I replied in Chinese and she was blown away that a white guy was speaking Chinese to her. We had a very short conversation (I'm by no means fluent) and then I went back out into the city. At least the rain was mostly done by now, and I felt like I was having an adventure.
I stumbled across a hostel and some girls were talking in the entry way. I came in and scared the crap out of them (man in all black, drenched, emerging from the darkness late at night) but they helped me find the lady working reception. First she told me she was booked, then that I would have to reserve a 6-bed private dorm at the total cost of the room, but after thinking about it let me rent a single bed in the room. She was from Indonesia and we had a really nice conversation about the country. Like most people from Polynesia, when I told her I wasn't going there on my trip she told me, "Well that's not a very nice trip then, is it?"
When I got to my room I sat down on the bed, ate some of the sandwiches I was supposed to eat on Fuji and thought about how rapidly my plans fell apart. I decided I would take the first bus in the morning and climb during the day, refreshed and clean. I laid back on the bed and opened the window, let the cool mountain breeze waft in, and fell asleep listening to the sound of rain on the shingles.
Perfect ending to a totally unpredictable day.
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