Earthquake and Mt. Fuji Tour

2:23 a.m. I was lying on my stomach sleeping and Todd put his hand on my back to wake me up. I sat up on my elbows to see what he wanted and Todd was on his side looking at me. Neither one of us was moving and i realized the bed was shaking back and forth and making noise (from so much movement) for at least 30 seconds. I said "what is that?". Todd said" either the wind or an earthquake". Oh My Gosh! After it was done Todd decided to go down to the lobby to see what was going on. He went outside and talked to a couple guys and they said they didn't feel anything. He came back in the room and said "we didn't image that did we?". Absolutely not. A few minutes later we heard sirens. Luckily they just drove by but we were a little paranoid for a second. Weird. Back to sleep.

Met Sharla and Will at 7:00 for breakfast. First thing out of Sharla's mouth was "did you guys feel shaking last night?" this made us feel better. At least we knew something went on. She was on the 8th floor and we were on the 10th.

We ate at the buffet at the hotel and it was good. We had some time so we walked around outside the hotel a little bit.  A tour bus picked us up at 8:15. It drove us to a bus station where we had to get on another bus. We were suppose to leave at 9 but some American guys from a 60 and over soccer team were late. We finally pulled out at 9:15. We drove for a long time and then got into a traffic jam. The whole time our guide, Harry, talked about who knows what. He kept saying "not so serious" (it was funny just because of his accent) after everything he said. He spoke in broken English and I think he just liked listening to himself talk. He tried to throw in some funny things every now and again but they weren't funny.

Cameron and Todd following the directions on the sign.

Our first bus.

Comfy and ready to go.

Harry and one of his many props.

Harry put Sharla and Will right to sleep.

One of the many cemetery's we passed.

 Finally arrived at the base of Mt. Fuji. We found some food and drinks for lunch. The wind picked up and some rain rolled through. 50 minutes later we were back on the bus. We were chatting with the Americans and I asked if they felt the earthquake. They all answered yes. They were in a different part of Tokyo too so at least we know we weren't crazy and something definitely happened. 

The look on Harry's face is hilarious.

Harry thought we were nuts I'm pretty sure.

30 minutes later we were at gate 5 which was the stopping point of Mt. Fuji. We had 20 minutes to explore. It was drizzling, cool, and foggy when we got off the bus. We looked around in the shops. Got a drink and took some pictures. We could not see one tiny bit of Mt. Fuji. Pretty disappointing. Long trip on a bus to look in shops. Oh well. Our company was good.

Look at the clowns on the bus.

The ride was pretty exciting.

At Mt. Fuji and all the shops.

The Japanese sure like vending machines. 
This one is nothing but beer. 

I wasn't suppose to take a picture in here.  Oops.

The wonderful view of Mt. Fuji is behind us.   

Great friends.

Cameron was a little too short.

Another awesome view of Mt. Fuji. 
You may need to use your imagination to see it.

Todd bought Mt. Fuji cakes.

Luckily we had beer to wash down the bite of cake.  It was terrible.

Back on the bus. Drove around 45 minutes to the cable car ride. We finally got to see some of Mt. Fuji from the bus.  All the foreigners were taking pictures.  The Asians barely looked out the windows.  Harry came back to me to tell me people had to sit down because it was dangerous.  If there was an accident the bus driver would lose his job.  Hmmm, how does standing up cause an accident?  And I have a group of 5 and am not in charge of all the foreigners.

Mt. Fuji.

A better picture of Mt. Fuji.

Cameron was reading the Wall Street Journal.

The over 60 soccer team from America.

We saw a ton of rice fields.

At the cable car place Harry lost his temper for a moment. We rode the 8 minute cable car ride which was less than exciting and got off. Harry kept doing a head count and wasn't getting the right number. He shouted at a lady and we all were shocked. He was mad because people were missing and we were wasting time again. But he was mad at the people who were not missing which didn't make sense. He gave us 20 minutes to look through the shops here too and then we had to get back on the bus. Once on the bus Harry apologized and realized a group went on the cable car before him. So that is why he wasn't getting the correct number. He thought he was in the first car. We couldn't blame Harry for being upset...we had already waited 3 times because of late American soccer players. He had just had enough. Poor Harry.

Sulfur mine.  It stunk.

At the top of the cable car ride.

You're smokin'.

Cameron laid a black egg.

Hello Kitty is big in Japan too.

Back on the bus for another 20 minutes and we arrived at Lake Ashi. We boarded a pretty cool looking pirate boat. It was suppose to be a 30 minute ride but it seemed shorter than that. It was nice and relaxing with pretty scenery. We chatted more with some of the soccer men. After we got off the boat we were back on the bus...again. We had had it with the bus.

Cameron being a goofball.

This would have been good if Cameron acted normal.

Pretty.

Getting on our boat.

Sharla, Cameron, and Johnny Depp.

Cute group photo.

Hanging out on the front of the boat.

Cameron pretending to be one of the boys. 
Don't worry, he didn't have any sips.

Aren't we cute?

Cool.

Our next stop was the high speed train back to Tokyo thank God. We stood on the train platform for about 20 minutes waiting for our train. 3 different times two high speed trains roared through the station. The first time it took everyone by surprise and scared us briefly. The other two times we were ready so we could focus on just now fast they we're going. It was cool.

The fast train going by.

Harry telling the leaders where to go.

Finally time for us to get on our train. We found seats and settled in for the 35 minute ride. The soccer men cozied up to a Japanese man who started sharing Sake, the Japanese liquor, with them. He even had a bunch of little cups. One of the soccer guys was next to us so he went and got a cup of Sake and shared it with Sharla. I took one tiny sip and it was horrific. Sharla did her best to choke it down but it didn't work. Every time she took a small sip she made the worst face. When we got off the train she left it on a tray.

First taste of Sake.

That is not a look of approval.

We were all starving. We wanted a burger or something like that. We wandered the streets but couldn't find anything. We decided to just go into an Italian joint. We ordered pizza, spaghetti, cheese toast, and chicken. It was ok but it just wasn't what we wanted.

Another view at night.

After a very long day we headed back to the hotel. It was around 9:30. We got ready for bed and called it a night. We were getting up very early on Saturday. The Mt. Fuji tour wasn't the best but at least we still had a lot of laughs through out the day.