March 28, 2009
We plan to go a little further this time, 43.5 kms. A few friends wanted to join Jenny and me this time. Since it's going to be a long day, we decided to leave Tokyo early by Shinkansen. (2,200 yen more so we can trade for an hour sleep) 6.15 a.m. I arrived at Shinagawa Station. I met Xia who was waiting for me outside of the Shinkansen Central Gate. Xia was so nice that she got me a shinkansen ticket. Unfortunately, I bought mine the day before as I didn't want to waste any minutes in the morning (just in case I'm late). Then, Xia and I went to the platform to meet with Jenny and Yukiko. After we boarded the train, I just realized that Xia bought me a ticket. When we arrived at Odawara, we decided to get a refund for the ticket. Result, we got the refund but we missed the bus by a couple of seconds. Based on Oxfam info, I thought we can catch 7.15 a.m. bus if we miss the 7.10 a.m. bus. So we asked several bus drivers and tried to convince them that we should be able to get on their buses. We (mostly I) didn't want to waste 20 mins waiting for the next bus. All bus drivers looked at us like we are crazy that we can't even wait for 15-20 mins. They all so firm to tell us the same thing. "Go and wait for the bus at bus stop#4." No choice, we have to wait. Not too long, the bus arrived. We were so happy to jump in and the bus left in no time. We ride on the bus for 40 mins. 5-10 mins before we reached our destination, I feel that my legs are cold and just realized what I did. I forget to close spout of my Camelbak. I held my Camelbak (hydration integrated backpack full of Amino Vital drink) so tight that I squeezed water out and wet my pants. Look like I just did something on my pants. After we arrived, we headed towards today's starting point, CP4. No time to be wasted at Tougendai as everything was still closed. It was very chilly although the weather forecast said that it will be sunny today. We started our walk towards CP5. About 2 hours after, it started to snow. SNOW. That got us by surprise. We took out our jacket and kept walking. Nothing we can't do. No turning back for us. An hour later we were at the turning point to Saijoji, CP5. Snow subsided. Maybe because we were behind or at the other side of the mountain. When we arrived at CP5, it was bright and sunny. No sign of snow at all. We had a quick lunch and left for CP6.
CP5 to CP6 is the most boring part for the whole trail as we hike most of the time on forestry road (paved road). So we tried to come up with several topics to discuss. Mostly just to entertain ourselves so we won't fall asleep after lunch. When we reached CP6, Xia decided to leave us at 3.06 p.m. I hope it's because of the paved road, not us.
Yukiko, Jenny and I continued our journey to CP7. This was the section where I couldn't complete it two weeks ago as we lost the map. (please read details from our training#5) I really look forwards to complete this section. Nothing was so special until we reached picture#17-18 on the instruction. The instruction says to follow a tree with white paint. Easy, right? Not really. We found a lot of trees with white paint but since we were so sure that there are no other ways to go, we kept going and going. Then, we felt that there were no trails at all. Looking at the map again, we should reach the next point in the instruction by now. It’s getting late. And we want Yukiko to make it back to Tokyo in time for her boyfriend’s birthday party. She is so dedicated herself to the training. Way to go, Yukiko. We didn’t want to go further and got lost so I called Phil, again. Phil didn’t recall any trees with white paint. Now we panicked. Thanks to Jenny. She told us to climb a little hill up to other parallel trail, which has some pink ribbons. In Japan, you will find a lot of ribbons as markers for events. We hope pink ribbons will lead us out of the forest. And yes, we found the wooden bridge. So we are back on track. We had no problems after that following the instruction until we reached Suruga Oyama (almost CP7). We found out that we missed the 6 p.m. something train and next train was almost 45 mins away. Yukiko won’t reach Tokyo until 9.30 p.m. Determined to have Yukiko go to her BF’s party, we called for a cab. It will take a cab 30 mins or so to be there. That’s it, Yukiko decided. We are going for dinner at a café across the street. I think this is the only place in town that still opened at 6.30 p.m. We went in and found a few people there. I’m afraid that I can’t eat so fast and then we will miss the train again so I asked for take-out. People in the café are very nice. They recognize that we are training for Oxfam and started to have conversation with us in Japanese. Of course, it was short (since it’s in Japanese). We will be back again.
After we got our yakisoba (Japanese fried noodle), we went back to the train station and got a ride back safely to Tokyo. FYI, I was the first one who finished yakisoba. It was so delicious. Until next time, Suruga Oyama Café (I hope that is the name), I will be back and order yakisoba, this time for 2.
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