Sunday 24th April

Today is Easter Sunday. We aren't home to give the grandchildren or Noah and Kennedy Easter eggs. I'm sure they will get heaps anyway.
Sent a text to Jack and Ty, Hannah & Sophie, John & Marilyn and my sister and Jeff.

We had to have our breakfast and be on the bus by 8. We are off to Hakone and view Mt. Fuji today.

We saw (from the bus) Mt. Fuji and it was just beautiful. It had snow on the top and was a panorama view to die for. Hakone has been famous for hot springs since 1590. We stopped at Hakone Valley and had a look around. There were heaps of steps and we went to the top and boy, did it smell (sulphur). It had hot springs bubbling and needless to say we didn't stay too long. The sulphur got into your throat and clothes.

From Hakone Valley, While the others went down the bottom in the bus, Lee & Lien, Marcelle and Graham, Wally & Helen, Anna & Vlad and us went by cable car (they call it a rope ride) and, to say the least, it was absolutely magnificent. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the bottom and 1020Y each, was worth every penny of it.

We had our lunch at Hakone Kojiri Terminal before we went on our cruise. Lunch wasn't too bad but I wasn't hungry and ate a little.

After lunch we went on the Ashinoko's Pirate Ship cruise. We sat behind the captain's Room where he steered the 'boat' from. It was very cold outside and windy. The scenery was beautiful and it lasted about 35 minutes. We left the boat and got our bus as we were off to Tokyo. We saw about 30 motor bikes on our trip up to the top to get on the freeway. The motor bikes were going down to the pier. I think they might be going on the cruise ship also.

Back on the bus we stopped for a "pit stop" before arriving in Tokyo. It was a long way but we made it. We then headed for Tokyo.

We had another River Cruise for about 40 minutes. It was called Sumida River Cruise from Hinode Pier on Tokyo Pier to Asakusa. The river was the most important waterway for the development of Tokyo. We got off the River Cruise and saw the Asakusa Kannon Temple and walked through Nakamise Shopping Street. It you bought an ice-cream there, you had to eat it at the shop and you weren't allowed to walk along and eat. There are 400 cherry blossom trees planted on both sides of the river too.

We saw a Korean pop group who had "idols" watching them. They didn't mean anything to us but we couldn't work out what was the attraction. They looked like another Asian to us.

We met at 4 and back on the bus to go to our hotel. The Grand Prince Hotel in New Takanawa. We had a little "pit stop" on our way and then stopped at the Sea Deck Shopping Mall. We were going to have our tea there later.

We had a look through the shops but there wasn't anything to buy for tourist shopping other than 'young' clothes for teenagers. It was a huge place with lots of floors.

We went to the 4th floor where we had our dinner. It was buffet style and help yourself. They had pizza, pasta, and salads etc for everyone. It was just delightful. I even had 3 helpings of the main meal then there were desserts and a chocolate fountain where you could cover any fruit in chocolate.

On to our hotel and there isn't the Internet again. I wrote 4 blogs in Word so I will cut and paste when we find an Internet. If the hotels have the Internet, they charge like wounded bulls for 24 hours and if you only have it for 1/4 hour, you still have for 24 hours. It is quite expensive. I fell into bed about 1/4 to 11 as I couldn't write any more.