I took a short trip for 3 days, from Thursday, January 19^th,2012 till Saturday, the 21^st.  I enjoyed making detailed trip plans, gathering information by searching a lot of websites.

  I went through timetables of trains and highway buses so that I might come back home by the planned time while achieve my aims because my free time is limited.

  It makes me really excited when I think of where I should stay, in what restaurants I should eat and so on.  I made bookings of highway buses and business hotels via internet, and all set for departure.

  In the very early morning of the 19^th, right after the night shift job, I prayed at the place I ordinary worship, and got onboard a highway bus for Kobe-Sannomiya.  On this day, my plan was to visit three museums in Sannomiya and Kyoto, take a night highway bus bound for Shinjuku from Kyoto, leaving at 23:50.  A new finding!  A cafe restaurant “Le Temps” located on the second floor of Hotel Granvia Kyoto, just at the side of the lobby, is open from 6:30 to 24:00.  (The last order is at 23:30.)  I think I do not have worry about finding places to kill time next time.

  The bus arrived at Shinjuku in the very early time on the 20^th.  My plan was to visit Tokyo National Museum for the special exhibit “200 Selected Masterpieces from the Palace Museum, Beijing,” and to visit The National Museum of Western Art for another special exhibit “Goya: Luces y sombras.”  Before these two visits, I also planned a worship in Tokyo branch, the first time in 17? Years.  It was not early enough for 7 o’clock worship which started at 7.  So, I moved to Tokyo Station where I would take another bus on that evening.  I put my baggage in a locker at the Yaesu South gate of the station and made sure where the bus gate was.  I realized that the bus from Kyoto Station which I boarded would go to Tokyo Station after I got on the bus.  However, I did not ask for changing the destination as I thought it a not bad idea to walk in Shinjuku Station and take JR Chuo-Line.

  For the precaution not to get the fully packed trains, I searched the peak hours and there should be no problems at all.  However, something unpredictable was happening.  An accident, involving injury or death, occurred at Miyamaedaira Station at around 6:14, which caused a disorder in train schedules.  I boarded a train somehow.  Many others pushed me strongly from behind, while I could not move in further because there was a baby buggy right in front of me.  I almost fell down.  But it was not too crowded.

  Sakura-Shinmachi did not seem to change greatly for me.  A new Tokyo Branch building was under construction right next to the old building, and I could do the worships at the brand-new huge altar.  How lucky I was!  I was back at Sakura-Shinmachi Station at around 9 o’clock.

  I realized that I was too optimistic that the trains would not be too crowded at this time.  I was wrong!  The train which I just missed was not too bad.  It looked to me “OK, that’s fine.”  However, the next one was too terrible.  “No way!”  I could not get onboard, afraid.  I waited for the next one with the hope that it should be something like the one I had just missed.  Well, the next one, against my hope, was awfully crowded, too.  This time, I made up my mind, forced myself to squeeze in a train car just like anybody else was doing.  I needed to reach the National Museum as early as possible, or I would have to wait for hours to go see the exhibit.

  Most of the time, I stand and lean on the door when the train is crowded.  But, at this time, the door-side place has no extra space and tons of people just gave me pressure from one side.  I felt “Oh my goodness.  I might break my bones.”  So, when the train stopped at the next station, I moved toward inside of the train car.  I could not stand straight, and I felt the force of gravity whenever the train made turns.  Anyway, I did survive.  However, the train made too many unnecessary stops, other than stopping at stations, and it took more than twice time than usual.  I have many experiences of onboarding the trains at peak hours, but it was one of three worst fully crowded trains as long as I may recall.

  It was snowing from the morning time on the 20^th.  I started to worry about the next highway bus.  I arrived at the National Museum at around 10:15. I only waited for 60 minutes before entering the Museum, maybe because of the snow.  Well, another 4 hours seemed to be necessary for me to see “Qingming Shanghe Tu.”  It was not impossible to wait to see that painting because the exhibit of Goya at the National Museum of Western Art was open till 8 PM.  But I gave up the idea of seeing this painting because I was worried about the snow my plan on the next day.  I only saw a panel of this painting and it was just great.  Every single exhibit from the Palace Museum, Beijing was in high grade and I enjoyed the luxurious atmosphere.

  I could enter the exhibit of Goya with no waiting time.  Many of his drawings and engravings were relatively dark and my emotion went down.  But I did not have as much impact as I did when I was a teenager, the first time I encountered his works.

  In my original idea, I was planning to have a somewhat rich dinner after enjoying the arts.  But I changed the bus reservation for daytime because of the snow.  So I was back in Tokyo Station building at 2 o’clock and had pasta pescatore and vanilla ice cream in a restaurant there.  The icecream was yellowish red, but it tasted good.

  Now I was on my way to Fuji-City, onboard a bus called Kaguyahime Express, departed at 14:50.  The snow had already turned into rain when the bus departed, as the weather got a little milder.  It was somehow astonishing to me that it only took two hours or so by bus from Tokyo to Fuji-City.

  I wandered about, looking for a place to eat after I had arrived at the business hotel.  I popped in a Chinese restaurant nearby, not knowing well if there were some other good restaurants or not.  Then I noticed that I was not hungry at all.  I just could not go out soon, so I ordered a set menu of something like chop suey.

  The ramen in that set menu was OK and I could eat, but I had difficulties eating rice and chop suey.  The restaurant man said “You can take them out with you.”  I packed them and took it with me to the hotel room.  Some smell went out of the shopping bag, so I put the bag into a refrigerator in the room, without switching it on.

  The business hotel, Kuretake Inn Fuji-san, was a new one and very comfortable.

  The hotel had two baths; one was smaller and the other was bigger with open-air bathtub.  Men and women use respective bath in different times.  Luckily, the big bath was for women in that evening and for men in the next morning.  I went to take a bath in early hours.  There was nobody else, and it was like my private bathtubs including the open-air tub.  I felt so gorgeous.  The air at the open-air bathtub was a bit chilly, and it was good, too.  One could see Mt. Fuji from that bathtub in the morning time.

  On Saturday, the 21^st, my plan was to visit 5 lakes in Fuji area.  I had asked my colleagues to switch the off day for this.  It came to my mind strongly that I would like to walk around Kirara walkways while looking at tourism guide in the internet.

  I went back in my room of the hotel, took a look at the guidebook in the desk, I found some information about restaurants and a map which locates the places to eat.  What a pity why I could not notice this earlier.

  I found a pasta and pizza restaurant on the list, with an introduction that said “We pride ourselves on Naples style pizza baked in a stone oven with firewood.  We are open till 23:00.”  I remembered that I originally planned to eat delicious pizza in an Italian pizza restaurant in Ueno.

  I set an alarm at just before 22:00 on my cell phone and took a nap.  I fell asleep so soon as I had not had much sleep for the last two days.

  I woke up with the alarm, went out for the pizza restaurant.  I arrived there at 22:22. However, I was told that the last order was at 22:20. “Why so early?  40 minutes ago?” was my impression.  But the staff member of the restaurant was pleasing and I was not too hungry, and I just thought that I would be able to eat pizza somewhere sometime.  I dropped in a McDonald’s near the hotel, bought a small sized vanilla shake, took it back to the hotel room.  I watched a variety show on TV for a while and fell asleep again.

  I woke up at 2 AM.  I noticed that I had read the scriptures only for 30 minutes, so I read them some more.  Then, I checked and changed my plans of the trip a little bit, looking at the copies of timetables of local buses and the map, which I brought with me.  After Comparing the timetables of clockwise and the other way round Lake Yamanako, I decided to visit Kitaguchihongu Fuji Sengenjinja (a shrine) to worship, as it seemed that I would have enough time.  Starting from Shin Fuji Station, I would take a local bus to Fujisan Station, viewing Mt. Fuji and lakes on the way.  Putting my baggage in a locker at Fujisan Station, I would take another local bus to the shrine, by way of Lake Yamanako, then return to Mishima by a train, and, finally go back home by a bullet train.  I had the rice and the chop suey, which I had brought back in the afternoon.  I had another snooze until the morning.  I was eager to wake up in the morning because my room was supposed to have a view of Mt. Fuji.

  I woke up at around 6 o’clock, filled the bathtub of my room with hot water and took a bath.  It is nice and relaxing to take a bath in a bathtub of a business hotel room because I can wash my body with a towel with body soap.  And I also like its narrowness.  It is also nice that nobody bothers me and I can spend my time in my own way.

  I opened the paper sliding window as it began to be dawning.  I was disappointed.  “Oh, no. No way!!”  No view of the mountain because it was cloudy.  The weather forecast of that day was rain.  I recalled that I could not tell which mountain was Mt. Fuji on my way here by the highway bus “Kaguyahime.”  It was foggy.

  I left the hotel after I had my buffet style breakfast.  I started walking toward Shinfuji Station because there were no local buses in the morning time of Saturdays and Sundays.  It was farther than I thought, and I took the wrong way somewhere.  Probably, I wouldn’t catch my bus to Fujisan Station.  Above all, I could not see Mt. Fuji at all.  Then I started to feel that maybe I should go back home soon.

  I made up my mind:  If I MUST visit and worship the shrine, then a vacant taxi will stop on the street, right in front of me while the traffic light is red.  If there comes no taxi, then I will go home.    And I went back home.

  I felt kind of sad that I was not welcomed by neither Mt. Fuji nor Konohanasakuya-hime, the goddess of Mt. Fuji.

  I regretted that I should have waited for 4 hours to see“Qingming Shanghe Tu.” Or, I could have go and observe “Memorial exhibition of 110^th year of Nobel Prize” at National Museum of Nature and Science, located next to the Museum.

  I noticed, looking at an internet site, “Fujisanhongu Sengentaisa was very near.” 

  A news broke that an earthquake with a seismic intensity of 5- occurred around Fuji area when I was seeing internet in the morning of the 28^th.

  I want Mt. Fuji to stay calm for a while because I am planning to climb that mountain for the first time in my life.  I should keep the usual order.  First, I should visit and worship Fujisanhongu Sengentaisha and take a touristic visit around 5 lakes.  (The photos of moss phlox festival in May attracted me to visit.  But I found out that the festival will not be held in 2012!  Bad luck!) Then, I will visit and worship Kitaguchihongu Fuji Sengenjinja.  And, I will worship at Okumiya and Kusushi Jinja at the top of Mt. Fuji when I climb up.

  I think it better to visit Fuji Five Lakes in a different time from climbing Mt. Fuji.  The purpose of the visit is different and I will not have enough time to accomplish both of them in one time.

　I am looking forward to very much!!!