The Long and Winding Road (Driving to Mt. Fuji)

August 17, 2013 marked Day One of our family adventure to Mt. Fuji.  We traveled with another family in our separate rental cars from Sasebo to Camp Fuji (located near Tokyo).  I highly recommend renting a car from the Navy base because they give you toll passes to use throughout your cross country trek.  We literally saved hundreds of dollars in tolls round trip.  We left Sasebo at 4:30am and maneuvered our way through countless mountain tunnels and winding roads toward Fuji-san with the help of our Google Maps app.  After a couple of missed exits and u-turns, I finally got the hang of navigating my husband down the expressway. Trying to match the Kanji symbols on the the app with the Kanji on the road signs was tricky.  The drive was smooth and uneventful until about 1pm when we encountered a traffic jam due to homeward bound families who had participated in Obon Week festivities.  What was originally expected to be a 13 hour drive had just increased by 3 hours.

Despite the traffic issues, I enjoyed the fact that all of the rest areas in Japan are ON the highway.  They are big, clean, and resemble mini-malls.  There is no shortage of food, and the hi-tech Western toilets are always fun to use.

By nightfall we were still on the road getting closer and closer to what we thought was going to be Camp Fuji Marine Base.  When I plugged in our destination into Google Maps, I chose the Japanese Defense base that was supposed to be right across the street from Camp Fuji since I couldn't find Camp Fuji itself in the app.  It turns out I chose the wrong Japanese base.  It was already after 9pm and we were all so tired from traveling.  One of the Japanese guards tried to talk to us, but he could tell by the look on my face that I wasn't understanding anything he was saying.  He called over another guard who had minimal English skills, so we tried comparing our iPhone maps to find Camp Fuji.  It turns out we had turned away from Camp Fuji when we got off the expressway, so we started driving back the way we came.  Another 30-45 mins went by and we finally saw the small Torii gate marking the base.

Now, if you know anything about the Marines, they are not known for luxurious accommodations.  We had reservations at the Mountain View Inn on the base and the desk clerk was not there when we arrived.  Our rooms had been left unlocked so we could get in to sleep and check in the next morning.  When we walked in we discovered the room had no air conditioning.  At that point, I just wanted to go to sleep. So we dropped our bags and crashed next to the basic fan oscillating on top of the side table.