Under the shadow of Mt. Fuji
We have been staying with friends under the shadow of Mt. Fuji since we left Omiya last week - with the exception of a great dance party over the weekend. A very peaceful place here and quite a contrast to Omiya. This area backs onto a golf course and the houses here - in Japanese known as besso (別荘) (second houses) were originally built on land given to members of the golf club. Such was life in bubble Japan.
This house is huge by Japanese standards and reminds me of places back in New Zealand. The previous occupant was Miss Japan sometime in the fifties if I heard correctly. There is a backyard with lots of well grown birch trees and some of the butterflies are truly beautiful. I think our friends are really lucky to have found a place like this.
The party over the weekend was really cool. Great to hear crazy Finnish / Suomi trance again. One thing I noticed compared to the parties we went to in Eastern Europe was how well organised the party was, how smoothly the whole shebang went down. The only problem over the weekend was with the so-called Japanese Self Defense Force. They were having exercises in the area - they have a base on Mt. Fuji and it seems that the poor dears were being kept awake by the music. One wonders how they would deal with a military attack on Japan!
Tomorrow we will say goodbye to Mt. Fuji and travel to Yamagata. Yamagata Prefecture is on the Japan Sea Coast of Japan just below our final destination of Akita. We will be using what is called Seishin 18-kippu to make this journey. This is a set of 5 day passes that one can use on all Japan Rail normal trains throughout Japan. The ticket costs 15,000 yen - 3000 yen per day - and is a great way to travel around Japan on the cheap. The only tricky thing about traveling around Japan this way is planning ones route - we will change trains 8 or 9 times during our 9 and half hours on the train.
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