Japan - Yokohama

Yokohama is the 2nd largest city in Japan, but it is really part of Tokyo. The trip to Tokyo is only some 30 minutes.  Yokohama has the tallest building in Japan.  You may have noticed that the last two pictures in the Kobe post are not where they are supposed to be.  That is because due to the lack of good capacity on the ship that the pictures bounce around and are VERY hard to move back to their correct position within the text.  Sorry about that.  The same is the case with the Yokohama pictures.



View from the Landmark Tower




Grace and Corinne Law in front of Tall Ship at base of the Landmark Tower

  The 2nd day we went to Mt Fuji and Hakone.  Mt Fuji is the national symbol of Japan.  It is the highest peak in Japan at 12,388 feet with a near-perfect stratovolcano shape and has been dormant since 1707.  One arrives at the visitor station which is known as Step 1.  There are many levels as one drives up to the top step with is Step 5.  There is a temple at this last step.  From the temple hikers climb to the summit, which is said to be a five-hour climb.  Then it is 3 and a half hours back down.  As one can see the top has a large layer of snow around it. There is a Japanese proverb warning which says, "He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool."  We are neither wise nor foolish.  After seeing Mount Fuji we went to the Hakone National Park and from Hakone we rode the famous Komagatake Ropeway up for a big view of Lake Hakone.  

Rainbow on way to Mount Fuji



Mt Fuji through the Clouds

 

The Landmark Tower



Ken and Donna below Mt Fuji at Visitor Center - Step 1



Overlooking the Valley at Step 5



Corinne and Jim Law with Grace at Step 5




Grace and Ken at Step 5




Overlooking the valley from Step 5



Grace in the Red Maples on Lake Hakone

Grace with Duck paddle boats on Dock at Lake Hakone

Corinne and Jim Law with Grace on Ferry on Lake Hakone

Our next stop is back on U. S. soil in Honolulu.