Vaucluse Dreamer

Having decided to stay at the beach near Shima again, we were both woken in the middle of the night by the roar of the sea, which seemed to have been whipped up by a wind.

We had been watching the weather forecasts closely, as strong winds, and heavy rain & seas were predicted for today, and we were a little worried that it had arrived earlier than we expected.

We had decided, when we saw the incoming storm, to spend today driving back to Hakone, and the lake where we’d stayed for our first 2 nights in the van. It felt that it was a perfect way to complete the circle of this wonderful adventure, and would also put us within a relatively short drive of the hire company, where we have to drop the van back, on Monday.

The only worry was that we had planned today’s route, with a little ferry trip across Ise Bay from Toba to Irago, and the sooner we could cross, the less bumpy it would be.

When we opened the blinds at just before 6, the sea was choppier than it had been, but seemed to have calmed a bit from what we had heard in the middle of the night, and by 6.45, we were on our way to Toba, to see if we could catch the first ferry of the day, which left at 8.10.

After taking the ferry from Shikoku to Wakayama, we felt more confident with what we needed to do, so arrived at the port in good time, were waved into a lane to board, and went straight to the office to buy our ticket. At least we knew that we needed to take the vehicle’s certificates with us, which are part of the booking process.

At just before 8, we were boarded and went out on deck to enjoy the short 1 hour crossing. We left, perfectly on time at 8.10, and started to head out into the bay.

At first, it was all very gentle, as we set out into the bay, between the islands, passing pearl rafts and fishing boats. But once we had cleared the headland, it all got a bit ‘bouncy’ for a while, before we fell into the protected waters of Irago port.

But we were across, and another step closer to Hakone, and tonight’s stop.

Driving away from Irago, it felt as if we were in a different country, as it was the first, really flat area of Japan that we had seen. Here, there is a vast beach to one side of the road, which continues for miles, and the land is covered with greenhouses and huge market-gardens, for almost as far as the eye can see.

We passed fields of beautifully formed cabbages, which looked almost as if they had been modelled by hand and pefectly placed in the fields, as well as hectares of lettuces and potted plants too.

It was certainly very different to any area we have been through, so far. In some ways the landscape reminded us of the land between Carcassonne and Beziers, with a backdrop of distant hills and flat-lands in front, yet with the agricultural intensity of Brittany, around Roscoff too.

Eventually, we left it behind and joined the Expressway, deciding to take the quickest route today, as it was going to be the longest drive we have done, since we arrived. We soon left the market gardens behind, and started passing through bamboo forests again, with the cedar forests of the Kii Peninsula, now very far behind.

We stopped in Shizuoka for an onsen, having broken the back of the journey, but whilst we were there, the predicted storm caught up with us, and when we set off again, the roads were awash with water, and the wind was buffeting the side of the van.

They weren’t wrong about the rain, and over the next hour it went from heavy to torrential, and has remained like that ever since.

But, we have arrived in Hakone, and have parked in the same place as we did, on those first 2 nights, five weeks ago. It almost felt like a home-coming, and even in the rain, we can see that autumn has really arrived, since we left.

You can Watch a little video postcard from today here

It just feels right, ending the campervan part of our adventure here (all bar one last night on Sunday, about an hour from the hire centre).

When we arrived here, 5 weeks ago, we had no idea how we would get on. We had so many questions.

Would we like Japan?

Would we like the campervan?

Was 6 weeks going to be too long?

How would we manage without speaking Japanese?

Would we be able to find enough places to stay?

Had we found enough places to visit?

How on earth would we get on with onsens?

Our questions and list of little worries was almost endless.

Yet, here we are, back in the same place, having had the best of times. We loved Japan, we really loved the campervan (although one with a toilet and shower would be better). 6 weeks definitely wasn’t anywhere near long enough, and we hardly visited any of the places on our list, yet found so many other wonderful spots that we hadn’t heard of before.

So we’ll hunker down tonight, cosy inside the van, listening to the rain on the roof, and hope that it will blow over enough for us to have a nice day tomorrow, doing a few things that we didn’t do when we were here before.

And hopefully Mount Fuji may make an appearance before we leave too.