Japan day 5

April 5 - Pouring rain! We were transferred from our hotel to our meeting point by taxi which was quite an experience. The cab drivers wear a uniform rather like an airplane pilot, complete with cap and white gloves. The cabs are absolutely immaculate with white antimacassars (something that my grandmother would have had over the backs of her chairs to protect the chairs from the hair cream that gentlemen wore back then!). I have got very good at bowing at everyone at every opportunity - people here are unfailingly polite. The tour appears to be rather fragmented - 22 of us started out, but we all seem to be going in different directions at the end of the day, some by train, some by bus and some staying here. We are quite a mixture of people and the tour guide is trying very hard to keep us all going in the same direction, but her English is heavily accented and she is easily flustered so understanding what she wants us to do is challenging! We transferred to a bus which drove us to see Mount Fuji but unfortunately he was not to be seen. The weather really is dreadful, fog and rain and wind so we couldn’t see a thing. One poor man from Finland on our tour had been to Japan 4 times to see Mount Fuji and hadn’t managed it yet. The tour company thoughtfully provided us with a postcard showing Fuji in the spring, something they do if he can’t be seen in reality! However, onwards and upwards to Lake Ashi where we went on a rather peculiar ride in a “pirate ship”. You can imagine John’s excitement at that! And of course, we couldn’t see anything because of the rain. But we met two really nice couples, one from Hawaii and one from Dallas, so the time passed quickly. Then another rather peculiar ride in a cable car (could we see anything?) and then on to our hotel. I had booked (or thought I had booked) us into a ryokan which is a traditional Japanese inn, but it turned out that we are staying in a western hotel which has some rooms in the Japanese style. So it’s a bit of a mixture. There is tatami matting on the floor, but we have a TV, hairdryer etc. and our dinner will be in the Japanese restaurant rather than being served to us in our room. Two lovely young men have just come in to make up our bed (I’m sure there is a proper name for it …..) so that will be another experience. There is a hot spring here so I have just come back from a traditional segregated soak in a lovely hot tub with a few other middle aged naked ladies! (Re-reading that, I realized I had better explain that although I had just come back from the hot tub, I WAS in a kimono-thing when the lovely young men came in!)
Later - Just came back from a wonderful 6 course Japanese meal, served by kimono-clad ladies. It was all beautifully presented (and they told us, in good English, what it all was!) Sometimes that was a good thing - sometimes not. When she put a bowl in front of me and told me it was baby squid (and I certainly would have recognized them on closer introduction), I nodded politely and passed it on to John at the first opportunity. Raw fish is fine because it doesn’t have a face, but those little guys lying there with all their tentacles drooping were just a bit much! I did eat the tofu which I normally detest, but it was OKish.