Where's Fuji?

One missionary who departed January 31st, Elder Merrell from Apple Valley, California, had one last "bucket list" request before leaving Japan.  He wanted to return to the Mt. Fuji area, where he had  been much earlier in his mission.  Since the train ride was more than he and his companion could afford, he asked if we'd mind taking them there on their final P-day.  We said we'd be glad to do so, and drove them there, surprised at having to pay over $60 in toll fees!  (The elders did offer to help pay those, 

but we told them it was our treat.)

Anyway, as luck would have it, the day was cloudy, and Mt. Fuji was not to be seen.  (This was very reminiscent of our family's 11-hour bus ride in Alaska to not see Denali [Mt. McKinley] at all due to an all-day rain storm!)  We had a very informative stop at the Visitor's Center, especially since the elders were able to translate the informative movie for us.  (It was offered in English, but not for quite a while later.)  We got a kick out of two strangely animated cartoons geared for children, 

which depicted ancient legends about the volcano.

Leaving the center, you can proceed up the mountain to five stations before having to stop driving.  From there, during July and August, you are free to hike to the top, which takes about 6-8 hours one way.  At any other time of the year, you do need to "log in" at the center so that they know who is hiking when.  Well, we didn't have to worry much as the road was closed at the end of station one!!!  Dang!  It had snowed that week, and there was 3' to 4' of snow on the ground.  Of course, we hadn't planned on hiking, but we had certainly planned on being able to drive to the fifth station so we could say we had "climbed" Mt. Fuji!

Snowy road which was closed at Station One.  Where's Fuji?

Nevertheless, the next thing I am to describe is what really made the whole missing-mountain thing just a minor glitch!  Elder Willard from Roosevelt, Elder Merrell's companion, prepared us as we headed up the road from the visitor's center to listen to "The Singing Road."  "The what?" we questioned!!!  He then told us to be quiet and just listen.  Sure enough, within a few seconds, the tires began to hum and played a tune written in honor of Mt. Fuji!  It was amazing!  It was unbelievable!  We all hooted and hollered as we heard the song played by our tires rolling over specially cut grooves in the road.  The Japanese call this "Sound Road," which is a road pavement technology where the melody can be played by driving over the "cross-ditches" that create the musical scales. 

Since we all too quickly came upon the closed gate at Station One, we decided to drive back down in the wrong lane (thus playing the tune backwards) as there was no one else dumb enough to be driving up the Mt. Fuji road on such a cloudy day!  We hooted and hollered again, turned around, and drove back up to hear it a third time!  We then noticed that the big white musical note painted on the road on the way up was also on the other lane going down, so this time we stayed in the correct lane and played the tune one final and fourth time!  It was strictly hilarious and chased away any gloom we may have had about "not finding" Mt. Fuji.  Click here and/or here to experience this for yourself!

We headed from the area where Mt. Fuji was supposed to be and drove into the nearby town to find a place for lunch.  As the elders rambled off names & menu types of restaurants--reading the Japanese signs-- they mentioned one that put an end to our search:  Dohton Bori sold Okonomiyaki, the Japanese dish I've been waiting 40 years for!!!  In a word (or two), it's kind of a vegetable pancake!  You take shredded cabbage, carrots, and onion; add a raw egg and some flour and water and meat of your choice; then stir it all up and dump it out on a hot grill, turning it once.  You drizzle a thickened, sweetened soy-type sauce over it when ready to serve.  What's even more fun is that you are the cook!  Elder Galbraith was very hesitant to try this concoction but also a good sport, so we went on in.

Elder Merrell, stirring up the 5 bowls of Okonomiyaki

Elders Willard and Merrell, stirring and cooking

Four of the five "pancakes" at different stages of being cooked

Since there were so many variations on the items that could go into the dish, the elders suggested we order five and share them all, including the bill.  They pretty much made the selections and cooked four of them; after all, I had to cook at least one of them for the experience!  One was totally vegetarian, another one had mashed potato patties filled with cheese in the mix, and the other three all had various types of meat thrown in with all the veggie stuff.  They were all excellent, and even Elder Galbraith thought they were pretty good!

As we left, we collected our shoes which we had stored upon entering in the "shoe lockers" on either side of the entry.  We had put our shoes in there, taking the wooden lock/blocks (which only fit those lockers)

with us to our table.

Elder Willard from Roosevelt retrieves his shoes

Yep!  Shoes still there for Elder Merrell!

And mine, too!

It was a fun day despite our missing mountain!