Ashigara

 Our day began on a motor coach, leaving Tokyo and heading toward Hakone and Mount Fuji. Our tour leader pushed up the time and got us up earlier, fearing that traffic would be paralyzing on this holiday. However, the traffic was light and we made good time.

Along we way, we got our first glimpse of the mountain. Views of Fuji got better as we continued.

Our bus took a break at a rest area. Walcot, Iowa claims the largest truck stop in the world. But I don't think they took this place into consideration in the competition, because there were no trucks here (or at least we saw very few). 

There were, however, hundreds of cars, and even more hundreds of people, with every conceivable type of junk food and kitch imaginable. Lots of travelers for the holiday week were taking their rest stop here -- or perhaps this was a destination! It's huge.

One of our favorites on display was a banana cream-filled "Twinkie" with an Anime face painted on it with some sort of edible dye.

After our rest stop, we continued on to the village of Ashigara for our "day in the life" cultural experience. This was one of the better "day in the life" events we've experienced on an OAT trip. There is a 300 year old traditional house here that once belonged to a local feudal official. It has been donated to the local government and operates as a non-profit historical interpretation center.

There are some exhibits here, including Samurai armor and such. But the staff and volunteers are primarily devoted to interactive experiences. It's sort of a "living history" thing. Since today's national holiday is focused on children, there were lots of kids activities going on.

We got to be kids, too, learning how rice was grown, processed, and prepared in traditional ways. There were several staff and volunteers to interact with us. One was a retired engineer who had worked for Fuji Film corporation, including three years in South Carolina. His English was excellent and he had a wonderful sense of humor. 

Another was a small woman of about our age who was very excited about the project. She and her husband still farm rice nearby. She spoke no English, but kept talking to us all in rapid Japanese, as if we understood every word.

Everyone took turns with the preparation, including washing the rice, cutting up vegetables, and digging up fresh bamboo root. The rice and miso soup were prepared over a wood fire in the kitchen area of the house, under a thatched roof. 

We had to remove our shoes to enter the dining room, and had to make our own rice balls for sushi. The meal was very good, and much more substantial than what we had received in the sumo wrestling place.

We also got a tour of the village, lead by the little woman who spoke only Japanese. She showed us her garden and the rice fields, as well as the rice sprouts that will be planted in a couple more weeks.

She also showed us the local cemetery and took us to a shop where we sampled a sort of ice cream that is actually made from a fermented rice. It was actually quite good.

Our bus struggled on some steep mountain roads, gaining elevation to an overlook where we got our picture-perfect view of Mt. Fuji.

The bus continued up Mt. Hakone to our hotel, a rather old but recently remodeled resort. This place was a bit off-putting. There was no word of welcome or expression of being glad to have us as paying guests. Instead, the first command was to take off our shoes, even before entering the lobby. This was followed by more than 20 minutes of going over "the rules" before we could check in and go to our rooms.

A couple of our fellow travelers, Peter & Betsy Snow, from Florida, getting into the Japanese cultural spirit. All of us were issued a yukata robe and slippers, but not all of us followed "the rules" about wearing them.

The area is famous for its hot sulpher springs. We were supposed to have a Japanese hot bath experience here, but there were so many rules about it, most skipped it. We went -- Mary to the women's side and Mark to the men's. But we were each all alone, so the whole communal aspect was missing. It was just a bath.

Our tour leader brought us to a conference room for some info on Japanese culture. A good deal of it was about how sake is brewed, as well as an opportunity to taste a couple different sakes and some plumb wine. But we could only have the conference room for one hour -- exactly 60 minutes -- even though there were no other groups around. It's just the rule, and our tour leader was very stressed to adhere to it.

We did enjoy a very nice evening meal at the hotel, however. And no one laid down rules about how we had to eat it.