Mt. Fuji

This is the second part of our blog about our trip to Japan.

Mount Fuji (12,388 feet / 3996 meters) is THE iconic sight-to-see in Japan. We were lucky and got to see it twice! 

We visited the Hakone District and stayed in a traditional Japanese inn. It had the traditional Japanese breakfast of soup, rice, fish and assorted things we couldn't identify.

We were about 19 miles from the mountain. It is still an active volcano. This is the best picture we got of Mt. Fuji. Many Japanese walk to the top of it, but we didn't ...

We were in the Hakone district as part of our tour. This is a district with many lakes where people go in the summer to escape the heat. Jim wasn't happy with the word "Ropeway" instead of "Cable Car."

We really like the view from cable cars. Jim always takes a lot of pictures.

Jim took this picture of tourists taking pictures of him taking pictures of them …  

The top of the cable car was 1327 meters above sea level. That is about 4113 feet. This would be about one fourth as high as the top of Mt Fuji.

This is us and our travelling companion Erna with Mt Fuji in the background. The sun was really bright. Notice our glasses had turned almost completely black! As you can sea, Mt Fuji was already starting to disappear into the clouds. The people on the cable car behind ours missed it completely!

The lake was very pleasant and we had a very nice lunch at the Bakery & Table Café. The signs in Japan were very clear and they understand tourism very well. Clean restrooms were everywhere. Japan is ready for the 2020 Olympics!

The scenery around the lake was beautiful.

This is part of the tourism experience. You moved around the lake by boat and three of the boats were rigged out as pirate ships for the tourists.

This was our second chance to see Mt Fuji. We were on the Bullet Train going back to Tokyo from Kyoto and noticed that the map said it was possible to see Mt Fuji. We looked for it and got lucky!

Japan Part 1 (May - June 2019)

We went to Japan for a couple of weeks with Erna, a colleague/friend of ours from Pakistan. She is retired and living in California. Here we are 350 meters (1000 feet) above Tokyo! This is a communications tower / tourist attraction in the Asakusa area in the middle of the city. They had the smoothest and quietest elevator we have ever been on.

This is the Tokyo Sky Tree from the bottom.

This is Tokyo from the top! There are about 9 million people living here. Seattle is about 750,000. 

This is "The B" hotel. It was our first hotel in Tokyo. At the end of the tour, we were in a different hotel in Tokyo. They had both Japanese and Western style breakfasts.

This is a typical shopping arcade in Asakusa. What was interesting was that there was very little car traffic and no place to park! We saw some parking lots with cars stacked 4 high, but never got a photo of it. Shopping was a pleasant experience because no one was hawking stuff at you. They would help whenever asked, but they never pushed their products in your face. No bargaining needed.

This is the Ginza shopping district. It is famous for its upscale stores and nightlife. You can see this is a street, but it has very few cars and lots of people. People get around on foot, by subway, bicycle, trains and busses. We saw taxis, too.

Our park manager remembers when she lived in Japan and told us to be sure to try the coffee from the vending machines. These are all over Japan! We saw them in streets that were strictly residential and in subways, hotels and just about everywhere.

The coffee was REALLY good. We brought back a couple of cans for our manager (about $1.30/can) and she was absolutely thrilled.

They were advertising for a street dancing festival in Asakusa. After watching them, we figured they were just doing what we would call a line-dance. Anyone in the crowd was welcome to join in.

People actually wear kimonos in Japan. We saw people shopping and dining dressed in their finest kimonos. We mostly saw kimonos on the weekends. You could go to shops and rent them and then pay for a photo shoot. We will put it on our agenda for next time …

The Japanese ladies do NOT want to get a tan. A lot of them use umbrellas whenever they are exposed to the sun. We also saw a lot of people with anti-germ masks. We were told you wear them to keep from getting other people's germs and to keep from spreading your own.

Even with so many people, there is no crowding, pushing or line-jumping. People line up politely and patiently for busses, subways and trains.

These were some rickshaw pullers near one of the tourist sites. 

Japan is handicap accessible. These yellow, raised guides are for the blind and they are everywhere in Japan. There are wheelchair lifts, elevators and directional signs everywhere. The guide told us that the Japanese believe in equal opportunity to move around in their society.

This is the bicycle park in the building by the Tokyo Sky Tree. It is an indoor, secure place to park your bicycle. Bicycles are everywhere. They are mostly on the sidewalks with the pedestrians, but they never expect the pedestrians to get out of their way. They move at the speed of the walkers. We also saw a lot of electric boost bicycles outfitted with child seats and shopping baskets.

Three of the hotels had coin-laundries. It made travel packing a lot lighter and easier. Reading the machine was no joke, but you didn't have to put soap in them. It was provided!

Japan has a lot of rules, and people obey them. We did not see or hear a drone during our entire trip. Since we visited a lot of tourist areas, we sort of expected to see them.

This is a street in downtown Tokyo. Notice two things: they drive on the left and there is no traffic! There are over 9 million people in this city ...

The famous Bullet Train. The "bullet train" was the original name of the project the Japanese started in the late 1940's. They are now officially known as "Special Trunk Line" trains. Everyone who visits Japan has to ride one of these! They ARE fast and comfortable. The conductor bows to the passengers every time when he enters a car and when he leaves a car. The best thing about trains is you get to enjoy the country side views.

Speaking of country side views … They grow a lot of rice in Japan. We met a friend who lives in Tokyo who told us the Japanese government keeps rice prices high to ensure the farmers will grow it. They also have high tariffs on imported rice to encourage the Japanese to eat Japanese rice!

This is Tokyo harbor as seen from the bus on our way to the airport. The city is unbelievably clean. We also drove past Tokyo Disneyland! We saw the Enchanted Castle!

Alonda and Jim go "native" at the Himeji Castle! 

Coming soon are our trip to Hakone and views of Mt Fuji ...

The Amazon Spheres

The Seattle Esperanto Society recommended a visit to the Amazon Spheres in downtown Seattle. They have been here for about a year, but we had never heard of them. They are three globular "structures" of glass and steel and occupy about half of a city block. Amazon uses them as part of their office work space. They are open to the public two Saturdays per month by reservation (https://www.seattlespheres.com/). You would need to get a reservation a couple weeks in advance, since they always fill up!

The interior is mostly given over to tropical plants. We visited on a cold, cloudy day in January and had to take our coats off.

This is looking straight up one of the walls on the interior. It is a 60 foot "Living Wall" of plants. It was made off-site on wall panels and assembled in the Sphere. 

This is the same "Living Wall" from another angle.

The interior was beautifully lit and arranged. This is an area called "The Forest." It is full of orchids, ferns and other beautiful plants. It is very relaxing to walk through.

This is one of the wall plant displays. There were at least a dozen of these scattered around on walls.

These are pitcher plants. They trap insects to supply them with the nitrogen they need to grow.

This is a "Green Velvet Umbrella Plant". You are not supposed to touch any of the plants, so we don't know if it feels like velvet or just looks that way.

This is looking down into "The Forest" from one of the upper levels.

The "Birds Nest" is on the "Canopy Walk" on the third level. The entrance to the Spheres is on ground level. There are a total of four levels inside the Spheres.

This is how they keep everything so green! The temperature is maintained at 72 degrees. The watering / humidity system is computer controlled and will go off whenever needed to maintain the 60% humidity. When there are a lot of people visiting, it doesn't turn on as often. Humans breathe out about 1 liter of water a day. We had a bit of luck getting this shot. There was a line to pose in front of "the spheres" but when the misters turned on, they all scattered!

This is the "cruise lounge" on the fourth (top) level. If you are an Amazon employee, you can come up here for your daily "rest" after lunching at the coffee shop or enduring a stressful business meeting.

Christmas in Oregon 2018

We enjoyed going down to the beach in Oregon for our Christmas trip. Here we are on the Candy Cane Express train that runs from Garibaldi to Rockaway in Oregon. The trip is only about 5 miles, but the train takes about half an hour each way. It was actually a lot of fun! We got cookies, hot chocolate and candy canes from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

"Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus Lane!"

Here is Alonda with Santa Claus himself!

Jim got to be with Mrs. Claus.

The train was pulled by a genuine steam engine. It wasn't one of those fake tourist engines, either. This was the engineer pulling the engine out of the engine house just outside of our hotel window.

The route went north along the coast line.

This tree was full of cormorants perching in the sunlight. They have to get up and dry their wings periodically. 

This is the beach at Rockaway. It is a long, sandy beach with a good look due west into the Pacific Ocean. The train didn't stop long here. Nobody got off and nobody got on.

On our way down to Oregon, we stopped at the mouth of the Columbia River at Astoria, Oregon. This is the bridge that goes north across the river into Washington State. Full size ships go under it to go upriver to dock near Portland, Oregon.

This is the Astoria Column. It is the last in a series of 12 historical markers along the route of Lewis & Clark from St. Paul, Minnesota to Astoria, Oregon. It was dedicated in July, 1926 and restored in 1995 and again in 2015.

The mural circles the column and celebrates the earliest moments of Northwest history. The events go from about 1792 to 1818. The Column had its Christmas lights up.  If you zoom in on the photo, you can see the details of the mural.

This the view south out of our hotel room on Christmas Day. The weather was glorious! Full sunshine and blue sky all day. The engine is part of the historical railroad collection in Garibaldi. They have a lot of rolling stock sitting around this part of Oregon. The stack is from the old sawmill which is long gone. We noticed that the top of the stack is starting to crumble and we don't want to be too close to it when it finally comes down!

This the beach at Garibaldi. It is sandy, but there was a large plus tide coming in.

This is the fishing and sport-fishing harbor at Garibaldi. They do a lot of crabbing here, too.

This is from the Bar View Jetty County Park north of Garibaldi. It is so popular with the campers that it funds all of the parks in the entire county.

This is a Christmas tree made out of crab pots. It was part of the town's Christmas decorations. It was all lit up at night.

They also had fish and crabs as part of the town decorations. The steam engine lives in the house right here.

When you are on the Oregon coast, you HAVE to visit the Tillamook Creamery (Cheese Factory). We have been here several times before, but you always have to come back. They have a self-guided tour, cheese tasting bar, gift shop and some excellent ice cream.

  This picture was taken from about 2 miles away from the largest free-standing, clear-span wooden structure in the world. It covers more than seven acres, the building is 1,072 feet long and towers more than 15 stories high. How would you like to have the job of painting "Air Museum" on something that large?

When you get closer, you realize how large the building really is. It makes a large airplane look small. This airplane was modified so it could move sections of the Saturn V booster rocket. You can see the hinges on the back. The entire rear end opens out to let them put in the booster.

We went to Kilchis Point Reserve south of Garibaldi to go hiking. This is a Pileated Woodpecker that we heard and then found. The paths through the Reserve were extensively signed with educational materials and the names of the trees and plants.

These are some of the "haystack rocks" which dominate the coast of Oregon. We were on our way to the Cape Meares State Park and Lighthouse.,

This is what most people think of when they hear the words "Oregon coast." This was Christmas Day and it was really spectacular.

Our goal of the day was to see this lighthouse. It is a small building (as you can see), but the light is quite high because it is built up on the cliff. There is a meteorological anomaly here and the light is "below the fog line" so it can be seen even on a bad night.

Happy New Year! We went to the Elks Lodge for the New Year and had a wonderful time!