Final day come to light, the memories never sink
The final day of the trip came to light, I bet the memories stayed deep in our hearts. We had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel as usual, and then we all walked to Hamamatsucho Station where we’d be taking a bus to see Kawazu Sakura. But there’d be a few stops before that, beautiful stops.
Walter-san said to me that it’d be a peaceful bus trip, I looked around and noticed most of the passengers were local senior citizens. I realized after this trip that this country was the most caring country for senior citizens. It’s not a rare sight to see senior citizens anywhere in the city, even if they walked so slowly, with their canes bearing their weights, they’re everywhere.
I was truly grateful we took this bus tour, which was filled mostly with local senior citizens; I could see the other side of the country, the caring for the elderly side. The bus tour didn’t come with an English guide, meant that it really was for local. Meant that these senior citizens could easily go anywhere with all these bus tour services provided. Japanese respect their elderlies.
we took the right bus tour in Japan
We travel near to Mount Fuji
The atmosphere was different, the passengers were all calm and soothing, when the bus left Tokyo and sped at the expressway then Mount Fuji-san came to sight, and the guide explained in Japanese, they even sang a local folk song about Fuji-san. That’s a rare sight for tourists like us.
After an hour and a half cruising at the expressway, the bus stopped at a rest area for 30 minutes. I liked the concept of the rest area, it had a big parking lot, and it’s an indoor style like a shopping mall. Different from ours here at Malaysia, theirs like one big building, and everything was inside. All the shops, restrooms, food vendors, and restaurants were inside. There’s rooftop too so you could go out and see a great view of Mount Fuji-san.
Lunch at Izu Fruit Park
Shortly after, we continued and arrived at Izu Fruit Park where we’d had our lunch here included in the bus tour. So that two hours journey out of Tokyo brought us to Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture. The set lunch was very delicious, I liked the way the Japanese would teach you the steps of eating their cuisine. It wouldn’t be as delicious as it should if you didn’t follow the steps.
We all bought something here; I bought myself some tomatoes because they looked like plastics, so red and good looking. Then I bought a box of strawberries because the queue for the strawberries was so long, when people queuing that must be good right.
I forgot to tell you, that the guide in the bus served everyone a cup of hot green tea; I liked it a lot since I started to get carsick as the bus made its way through the winding road. After that, we arrived at our next stop, the strawberry farm. You know the one all you can pick and eat kind of farm. They gave us each a plastic with two holes, one filled with sweetened milk, and another one was for the strawberry leftover which you didn’t eat, I meant the strawberry leaves. You couldn’t pick any to bring out, you could only pick and eat there inside the farm. I prefer to eat only the strawberries, so I exchanged my plastic thingy with Walter-san as he finished his sweetened milk already. We all ate a lot of these strawberries, I liked it that we didn’t need to wash it first and eat it immediately.
This area is also famous for the cultivation of wasabi since the spring water never dries; makes it a perfect place to cultivate wasabi. I was informed that it took 3 years until the wasabi would be harvested. That’s a long time. Remember don’t waste any wasabi yeah! You could also rent fishing rod to fish at this river if you have a lot of time. We saw someone brought up some fishes; I didn’t know what kind of fish though. The vendors near the river sell a lot of things, like fresh grilled fish which I bought one.
Kawazu Nanadaru loop bridge
Then the winding road continued as we made our way to Kawazu Sakura. My car sickness disappeared when we passed the Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge. This might be the best part of this tour after the sakura blossoms, at least for me. I didn’t know why or what’s the history of this loop bridge but it’s certainly fascinating. It’s a bridge, but in two loops, just like your child’s hotwheel set but instead of a vertical loop, this is a horizontal circular loop. So the road at the higher elevation passes through two loops to get to the lower elevation and continue on the road. There’s even a parking lot down right at the middle, so you could look up the amazing view of the loop. If you didn’t understand my explanation of the loop bridge, just google it okay.
We continued to our final destination of the final day, Kawazu Sakura. Honestly, prior to this, I always wonder why people strive to see this season. Then I knew and realized how beautiful it was. The view of the pink sakura straight along by the river, the view you could only get a few days a year, the view everyone had been waiting for. I’m so grateful we could see the snow and the Sakura in this trip. It really felt like a festival, with food vendors across the street, I could see the people smiles and laughs. It was indeed a season of love.
We went down to the river banks just to get another view of the sakura blossoms by the river. Honestly, I could stay here and stare at the flowers all day. It was indeed so wonderful.
Say goodbye to the sakura, heading back to Tokyo
We head back to the bus as we said goodbye to the sakura. It’s time to head back to Tokyo and later that night, I’d be flying back to Kuala Lumpur. What I remembered the most from this bus trip was the senior citizens. I saw one elderly couple walked together slowly at each place that we stopped that day, even the stairs at the Joren Waterfall they walked down and up slowly holding each other’s hand. They politely greeted others, smiled and enjoyed the trip. I could see their happiness in joining the bus tour. As white as the snow, as pink as the sakura, you’d never know, life is beautiful like the aurora.
We stopped once again at the rest area when heading back to Tokyo and safely arrived at Tokyo Station two hours later. Even there was a bit of traffic in the expressway, the bus managed to arrive on time. One thing I noticed, there are quite a lot of old cars on the road here in Japan, but all of them were perfectly maintained, that’s the difference between Japan and Malaysia. It’s the attitude of keeping something in shape, maintaining it until it lasted for a long time.
We went back to our hotel to collect our bags and suitcases before heading to the airport. Going to the airport was easy with the train. After checking in, we went for a last dinner together at the airport. I got myself a set of an eel meal. Once again I like how they gave you a paper printed with instructions on how to eat your meal.
I’m sad to leave everyone, but this trip was exceptionally wonderful. I met with amazing people from other countries, went to cool places across Japan, spend the time in two seasons and I’m glad. I’m glad it wasn’t just a trip to sightseeing, it wasn’t’ just a trip to capture photos, it was a trip full of new knowledge, new friends, new experience with a lesson learned, with stories to share, with a smile to be remembered. Sometimes the best moments were not photographed, but it stayed in our hearts, and we cherish it in our lives. I hope you all like my trip report. Feel free to correct me if I wrote anything wrong in these articles.
I slept through the flight, even the flight attendants had a hard time waking me up for the meal. I arrived safely the next morning and started to miss Japan already. Thank you again FUN! JAPAN for this opportunity, I won’t mind a second time too, hehe.
Top left: two big strawberries we picked at the farm. Top right: wasabi plant at Joren Waterfall. Bottom left: beautiful sakura close up. Bottom right: a view inside Tokyo Station.
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