Today we had one objective - to paraglide to a view of Mount Fuji.
We faced the biggest problem here, which led to be entirely sleepless the night before. I only slept at 5am, after intermittently dozing off and jerking awake whenever I freaked out about the paragliding issues at hand.
But moving on, the primary reason for my worries is that Sky Asagiri, the name of our paragliding place, allows only flights booked in advance. It was very fair, all they asked for was a phone reservation 48 hours before.
Both Dorisa and Siewsia's phone had no call time. So we bought a phone card for 1000 yen. But nobody picked up because our bus was 8.35am and the place didn't open till 9am. We had five full days to call at any point, but we only remembered minutes before midnight yesterday.
Siewsia and Dorisa had opposing views. Siewsia believed that Japanese folks are efficient to a T and will not accept last minute tardy reservations. Dorisa believed that its off-peak period for everyone and that they would go out on a limb for our business. But we bought the bus tickets anyway.
Sky Asagiri had no dedicated bus stop. It all becomes a mystery after a bus from Shinjuku Bus Terminal to the nearest pit stop, Kawaguchiko. It had a a journey time of 1h40min at a cost of 1750 yen per trip.
The bus came and we boarded with mixed emotions.
I mean I was worried still, but I still looked good for a photo, so why not right?
Eventually, I managed to dig up a Whatsapp conversation where I was telling Siewsia that I booked two flights already. I then sent her a photo of the booking, THANK GOD FOR MY EFFICIENCY, and then I prepared to wield this as my very sorry excuse.
My intended speech:
I book yes I book! But I don't know how use Tokyo phone! I sorry! Please give us come in!
Oh my god I am a racist little thing.
We reached Kawaguchiko Station.
I went straight into my bull doze mode again here. The girls needed a toilet break but I was impatient and charged to the information desk, where I tried to tell them I wanted to jump off a cliff without dying. And they got it!
The very nice man at the counter phoned the place and asked about us going over. And as it turned out, Sky Asagiri did get my booking and accepted it even though I didn't confirm via phone, and said it was fine that I now needed three flights instead of two. He welcomed me over!
AND FINALLY I COULD BREATHE.
The past 12 hours had been such a grueling time, worrying over whether or not have I royally fucked up the crux of this entire trip, simply because all three of us forgot to make the call. But thank god it all worked out.
So since our minds were finally at peace, we went back to photo mode!
I am starting to like this leggings and sleeves look very much.
Tokyo is fucking hot in August, far surpassing Singapore in terms of temperature. My outfit is entirely insensible for Tokyo, but I thought as we traveled up towards Mount Fuji, the air might get colder and thinner.
But no leh I was still burn burn burning.
Turned out that wasn't Mount Fuji so we switched views hahaha.
Here it is!
My Sanrio store purchase hehe, now its a keychain for Gabriel's house keys.
Wore our couple ring on my neck! Lost the necklace shortly after this lol.
The slightly confusing part was here.
We thought we would be getting a free shuttle but apparently that ceased a while ago. Instead, we were told to find a Kawaguchiko to Fujisan bus that will drop us directly outside Sky Asagiri. The tickets were 1450 yen one way.
I took a map of the bus stops and boarded!
The pasta was fucking amazing. Even the frozen food is magic here.
I had no way of telling which stop is which,
Dorisa was perfectly calm and took three minutes to figure out the updating bus board. According to her, the bus board will show you the fare for each stop. We started with 200 yen, 220 yen, so on and forth. So her reasoning was that we just had to get off at the 1550 yen stop.
But me being me, I worried that we would miss a stop and miss our flight timing (12pm) and hence couldn't relax the entire trip. I kept referring to the map and the stations and figured Dorisa's theory proved right so I calmed down.
Look at the extraordinary view from our bus.
Now look at my bunny.
Now look at the majestic view again!
I could just die here. I could.
In the end, we told the bus driver that we wanted to alight at Michinoeki Asagirikougen. He did not really understand us, but recognized the word sky. He did not drop us at the intended stop, but drove on to where he thought was correct and told us to alight.
And he was right!
View of Sky Asagiri from the bus stop!
Not the proudest of my handwriting but nyeah.
Taken by the friendly counter guy!
He was an absolute charm. He saw me charging my phone with my portable charger and insisted I used his outlets. He saw Dorisa's half empty bottle and insisted he filled it up for her. He saw Siewsia looking under the weather and got us all the freshest, chilled green tea.
So touched to be greeted by this warm hospitality after a nightmare of transportation woes! Apologized about my booking error, that I wanted three flights instead of one, but he waved me off and said okay happily.
A speedy 8000 yen payment later, he drove us up to the landing area!
As you can tell, I went crazy with the view.
We had to wait for the batch before us to land before we could go up.
Dorisa got bored sitting around and went to explore. She found a little handmade swing and me and Siewsia photo whored it to death hahah. There were more things to do, towards the left of my photo. But then we got called back.
And it was time to drive up the mountain!
God, was the view phenomenal.
What the fuck was I doing in the last shot fml.
The instructors were joking and playing around with us throughout the entire trip up. The most talkative one kept making fun of everything, from my sjcam to Dorisa's name. The other two instructors just smiled a lot.
In fact, everyone here was really warm and friendly! They made us feel perfectly at home. Home being 990 feet up a mountain facing Mount Fuji hahah. So anyway, photos later, we got directed to different lanes.
And finally, it was time to gear up!
I was the first to take off. The harness latched loosely around me and I was told to keep running and not sit down till my feet leaves the ground. I barely had a minute to comprehend that before the wind came and swept me up.
Hello Fuji.
The view was breathtaking.
I soaked in the glorious landscape.
My instructor happened to be the really chatty one I mentioned, and he explained that he has been doing this for 15 years and that he is 40 years old now. Then he pointed to Mount Fuji and said that he was gonna climb it tomorrow, then paraglide down from there. I better be this fun at 40.
Ten minutes later, I heard a scream and saw Siewsia doing spins with her instructor. My instructor casually asked if I wanted acrobatics too. God knew what that was, but I said yes happily anyway and holy shit it started.
Acrobatics apparently was him tugging at one side of the paraglider, forcing us to take a sharp left turn, bumping me against my harness, making me feel like I was gonna fall straight out of it. Left, right, left, right.
I stopped screaming and started laughing happily heh heh.
We were landing and he kept saying ball. I didn't understand till I saw a football in the middle of the landing field. He guided me towards it but my legs were too short to reach it fml it would've been a kickass landing! Fuck!
I really must be as fun as him at 40.
We didn't know where to wait for the bus but the kind folks at Sky directed us over, even waiting with us for the bus. It is risky, because the buses here come once every three hours (2.57pm in this case) so you cannot miss it.
So we boarded, took separate seats, and all knocked out.
We woke up slightly disorientated but thankfully at the correct bus terminal. Waited a while for our highway bus back to Shinjuku and Dorisa knocked out again within minutes. I was pretty awake and taking in the views.
This little town is so separated from the rest of civilisation! I mean, you could see the towns below it yes, but it is elevated and a downhill ride away from them. The first thing I thought of was Palette Town. Too much Pokemon.
A baby girl sitting in front of us was awake and tugging on my finger. We started to play and I gave her my My Melody plushie, which she proceeded to hug into for dear life and I almost lost it forever lol 6800 yen on the line.
I have a video of it somewhere, I'll upload.
Alighted at Shinjuku and Siewsia split to head to Ameyoko, while me and Dorisa decided to grab dinner together before we went our own ways too.
And as usual, I ordered way out of my stomach league. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the food but noooo I had to challenge myself to take not only my plate of delicious curry rice, but also the sinful tempura.
In the end I finished neither. NEITHER!
Dorisa parted in a bit to head home while I continued my passionate search for Garage Land. I can't believe I was that convinced it existed. An hour of fruitless searching later, I gave up and went to meet Siewsia at Shibuya.
The only tattoo store I saw in Shibuya!
Dorisa met an Italian man the day before and she invited him out for drinks. But Siewsia was anti-alcohol and I really wanted to go home after another night of wasted searching so I ended up leaving after a round of darts.
Headed down to wind down and pack and finished up Rise of the Guardians. I remember thinking, "Man, this is my last night in Tokyo, I should do something exciting. I want to do something I'll remember."
Then baby texted me telling me about his day, about how he wants Nicole flavoured snacks, and how he wants me to come back home soon, and suddenly, nothing was as important as flying back to him anymore :)
You make everything better even when you're not physically here.
I love you my hunky sailor.
In summary:
Kawaguchiko highway bus round tickets: 3500 yen
Pointless phone card: 333 yen
Sky Asagiri bus round tickets: 3900 yen
Frozen pasta: 350 yen
Sky Asagiri paraglide: 8000 yen
Shinjuku dinner: 925 yen
Total: 17008 yen // SGD$190
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