Hey there, Joel
Did you know they sky is blue? Well, it is! After a week of gray cloud cover the skies cleared and we saw sunshine and blue skies. It was a welcome change. A lot of mugginess of the past week also faded away. Now, I'm not saying it was cool and comfortable, just a little less moist.
Today we fled the city towards the edge of the Tokyo Metropolitan area and visited Mt. Takao, a 599M tall mountain. How many feet is 599 Meters? I don't know. But the way the locals were dressed for hiking you'd think it was Everest! There are many ways to ascend Mt Takao - you can hike the whole of it, or take a cable car up half of it, or a chair lift up half of it from the base. On the way up we opted for the cable car - which was insane! The journey started off at a decent angle but you quickly glance up the line and the whole thing just seems to go straight up. The whole time we're climbing a conductor is just talking and talking and talking ever so calmly and I caught absolutely none of it. At the top there's a sign that says we climbed at 31º! The steepest cable car in all of Japan.
Now that we're ... I don't know, 300 meters up the weather was noticeably cooler and more pleasant in the shade. Not comfortable mind you, just a little more bearable. And it felt so good! Also, there was a *lot* fewer tourists which meant a nice break from big crowds to. In summary, Mt. Takao was an excellent choice for today's adventure.
The hiking and walking was pretty simple except for a few places, one of which was a rather long flight of stairs. The view from the halfway point was quite spectacular and worth the effort.
The path was well taken care of, paved, and very clean. Parks and public places are so very well taken care of here, there's always someone around to do the job. It's very admirable. Eventually all paths lead to a stunning viewpoint.
It's hard to see in this email, but that gray expanse in the distance is Tokyo and it's so big! So so big. You just have to see it to believe it - both from a distance and up close.
Now, we discovered something amazing on this journey. Imagine if you will a juice pouch, like the kind you give to kids and it's filled with apple sauce. Only replace the apple sauce with soft serve ice cream.
Dramatic Pause. I hope you're catching this delicious vision.
Because Japan has revolutionized food yet again with Coolish, a fantastically delicious and portable soft serve pouch and it's AMAZING. Here I am finishing off mine and becoming sad. The tree is also quite impressive.
Throughout this entire trip Jethro has been giving away stickers that his daughter designed, it's been fun to watch him do it. On our way down the mountain we passed a pole covered in stickers and Jethro needed to add to it.
It's the cute pink heart there. Now, back to our descent. Mt. Takao offers two ways to go up and down, and we already discussed the 31º cable car. For our trip down we opted for the 12 minute ride in a chair lift. It was incredible!
We reached the bottom, caught the next train back to Tokyo and decided it was time for Conveyor Belt Sushi - it was so good! And so affordable. Eating out here is quite cheap compared to the US, and so much better.
Tuna. Blowfish. Squid. The first two were amazing. I didn't dare eat the Squid - that was Jethro. And when he bit it he let some tentacle hang out on his lips. Absolutely disgusting.
After dinner Jamie and I did a little stroll around Shinjuku to do some shopping. Shinjuku at night is just crazy. So many people, so many lights and sounds. It's a sensory overload. Also, Godzilla.
Until tomorrow!
J, J, & J