Vaucluse Dreamer

After almost a year of anticipation, all our plans have fallen into place and I am typing this, sitting at the little table, in a campervan, parked by the lakeside at Hakone in Japan.

It’s been a whirlwind last couple of days and my brain is so befuddled with jet-lag that I can hardly think when this latest adventure started, but it’s been such fun, so let me try to explain what we’ve been up to.

We left East Devon yesterday morning, (UK morning) leaving Pusscat with our youngest (who is rather besotted with our one-eyed old lady). We had hopefully packed everything that we thought we would need for 6 weeks in a campervan, crossing seasons, and being fully equipped for walking and cycling too.

As ever, we were travelling as light as we could, knowing that there is only so much that we can put in a campervan, planning to find a laundrette, or handwash everything, every couple of days. But we also had to bring the bikes too.

As you’ll appreciate from our ride down through France, we love to explore areas by bike and on foot, so even though we have a campervan for 40 nights, we need to be able to cycle too, enabling us to experience a bit more of the countryside, and to visit places that we can’t easily access in the van.

With the car packed with 2 bikes and our bags, we set off for our latest effort to take our bikes on the train. We had booked the bike spaces and after the disastrous first day of our recent cycle, we were more than a little concerned that the train would be cancelled again, and we would be left trying to find a different way to get to Heathrow.

It would be fair to say that our anxiety levels were off the scale as we arrived at the station, but the train was showing as being on time, which was a good start. Then, after a lot of heaving and shoving, we managed to get our bikes in, on top of someone else’s who hadn’t booked a space and had also filled our allocated spaces with their luggage too.

But the important thing was that we and the bikes were on the train and the next stop was Paddington. After catching our breath, we were able to relax and sit back to enjoy the trip.

We arrived in London, with plenty of time to transfer onto the Heathrow Express, and load our bikes in there too, which was a lot easier.

Once at Heathrow, we were able to check-in the bags early, and stood watching the bikes disappear along the oversize baggage conveyor, wondering if they would actually arrive with us in Tokyo today.

After a glamorous evening in a nearby hotel, eating ‘pot noodles’ and drinking wine in our room, we collapsed into bed, knowing that we would both be wide awake, ages before the alarm actually went off.

And of course, we were. The nervous excitement woke us, which was lovely. We had a flight to catch and if all went as planned, we would be in Tokyo that night (or just after 7am, Japan time) – it’s all so confusing!

We don’t often travel together, so made the most of being able to chat about what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go and at the same time worrying that none of our bags would arrive with us, and that our bikes would be enjoying a little holiday in Argentina, rather than coming with us to Japan.

We took our seats on the plane, and we were on our way. The next 13 hours in the air would see us cross Europe and fly over northern Turkey, before we watched the sunset at just after 3pm, as we crossed the Caspian Sea

Then fly ‘through the night’, catching sight of the grid of lights that illuminate Beijing, before the sun started to rise again and the new day dawned (although it was still not quite midnight on the day we had left the UK). My brain struggles to keep up.

Then, before we knew it, we were on the final approach to Tokyo and the cloud that had been hanging in the valleys in the northern Japanese Alps, melted away and gave us the most perfect views of Mount Fuji, as we followed the route towards the airport.

I had hoped we would see it, but nothing prepared me for the actual moment that it came into view. It is a jaw-droppingly beautiful, iconic image, even from many thousands of feet above it.

The dramatic, almost un-natural cone with its slub nose stands proud above everything else as if it is striving to be seen and adored.

In the early-morning light it looked even more spectacular, almost a dark shadow, above the cotton-wool pleats of clouds, highlighted with a simple stroke of cloud, bright white in the rising sun, as if Mother Natrure had swept her brush across it, just to add a final flourish to her masterpiece.

It brought tears to my eyes.

We kept catching glimpses as we made the final approach into the airport, only losing sight as we touched down onto the runway.

We were in Japan, and the year of anticipation was now a reality. As we had expected, the immigration and customs process was very ordered and well-managed and after a short wait, we had our bags (and most importantly) our bikes too.

We had decided to book a car to take us to the campervan hire centre, as trying to negotiate trains or buses to get across Tokyo with bags and bikes, after a 13 hour flight, didnt really appeal to us. And we emerged from the Arrivals Hall to a driver, who whisked us and our luggage away and we settled into enjoying the drive across the city.

The drive was fascinating, and we were utterly absorbed by the sight of Tokyo sprawling out around us. The infrastructure is incredible and we watched as roads swept over, under and around us, crossing railway lines and rivers. It seemed to gleam too, no litter in the gutters, no graffiti scrawled on walls or railway carriages and even the lorries that passed us appeared to have had every millimetre of chrome polished to a mirror finish.

It was modern, gleaming and just a fascinating first sight into the country that will be home for the next 6 weeks.

By late morning, we’d familiarised ourselves with the camper (yet to be given a name) and had packed all our bits into the cupboards, stowing the bikes in the large compartment below the bed.

After a nice shower to wash away the stickiness of a day’s travelling, we couldn’t delay any longer and hopped in to start our adventure.

First stop though was the supermarket, and what an experience that proved to be. Despite our tiredness, we spent ages ambling around the shop, wandering up and down the aisles, filling our trolley with food, to pop in the fridge and fill the cupboards. We found platters of sushi, noodle dishes and so many other things to tempt us and keep us going for a few days, until we have really found our feet.

We knew to expect to pay in cash, but it does feel odd, after being in card-centric countries for so long, but we managed to get what we needed and after stowing it away, were finally off, setting a course for our first night in Hakone, to a carpark, overlooking the lake.

The only issue with the route was that it would take us right through the heart of Tokyo, not just slightly to one side, but literally through the centre of the city. It was quite a drive.

We followed the expressway in and then took a route that saw us cross ‘The Rainbow Bridge’

Before turning to pass close to the Shibuya crossing, so close that we could see many of the animated advertising panels and then passing the Tokyo Tower, a minature Eiffel Tower in red, which had been the tallest tower in Japan until 2012.

It was frantic, busy, exciting and a little bit terrifying all at the same time, (especially when we lost GPS signal in tunnels and in sections of multi-layered roads), but we kept trundling and after what felt like a lifetime, we caught the first glimpses of the distant mountains.

Then, we were out, as if the city had teased us for long enough. The high-rises gave way to more traditional Japanese houses, and the trees & fields started to add a natural colour to the landscape.

The mountains were layers of grey in the late afternoon light and Mount Fuji made another appearance, high above the others, as if watching over them to make sure they towed the line.

Once free of the city’s grip, our breath settled and we started to really appreciate the views, as we followed a road that climbed, snaking its way up into the mountains, before we arrived at Hakone and a parking area that we’d found right by the lake.

The sun had almost set by the time we arrived, but the clouds hung low on the surrounding hills, adding atmosphere to this beautiful spot.

We watched the tourist ‘pirate ship’ come back to shore and then stood, simply enjoying the peace and the chirping of the night insects, watching the day settle into the evening.

It had been quite a day. We had flown over 12000km, collected a campervan, tackled our first Japanese supermarket (and come away with bags full of goodies) and had driven through the heart of a vast, awe-inspiring city, ending the day by a lake, eating sushi and listening to the peace.

What a wonderful start to this latest adventure. We hope you stick with us for more.