Having completed a detour around Tokyo when coming down from Nikko, only a couple of places of personal interest remained before we essentially called “time” on our Japan travels and focused our remaining time on getting the campervan booked on a ship out. That would ultimately prove more challenging than we had initially anticipated – but I’ll leave further details on the shipping saga for the appendix at the end of this edition.

Southwest of Mt Fuji and another weekender favourite of Tokyo-ites is trendy Hakone. Sharing Nikko’s elevation ( and hence moderated climate) Hakone sits on delightful Lake Akashi and offers visitors an especially  appealing view of Fuji – a different side than we had seen previously and in this town as a backdrop to a calm, warm and picturesque lake. The bonus here was that we got to camp up for a couple of nights right by the lake with Mt Fuji as a backdrop each morning we opened the sliding door of the van.  Hakone has a couple of particularly interesting “drives” with many younger Japanese using the winding mountain routes and steep hill climbs to test out the capability of their vehicles – something difficult to do elsewhere ! Hakone was on the original route between Kyoto and Tokyo in the Edo period and elements of that historic road can be explored still – a section of cedar lined trees being especially noteworthy ( walks along which provided us some cool relief from what were becoming oppressively hot and humid days).

Leaving Hakone, but not quite ready to head into the heart of Tokyo just yet, our last few days here were spent around the pretty Izu peninsula. Another of those areas frequented by the Tokyo weekend getaway crowd, Izu offered up some unexpected surprises, unique roads, and cooler weather not the least of it. Famed for its rugged coastline among other attractions, the area around Shimoda was not just scenic but also offered up a couple of historic connections I’d not been aware of ( one with a “Shogun” connection ) – the inland parts offered refreshingly cooler elevations good for sleeping at night.

Shipping Update:

While Izu was definitely worth the detour further south, we were also simply playing somewhat of a “waiting game” while in the area. We had requested a late July shipping date out of Japan, but all reports were that getting “space” would be extremely difficult and if we did get space it would be confirmed only a few days prior to sailing. To state the blindingly obvious, that is highly unusual (but it is what it is) and puts huge pressure on us. The need to stay close to Tokyo ( specifically Yokohama ), to have the van “shipping ready” at a moment’s notice, and ( in a final cruel twist ), to ideally have the van “empty” when shipped all made this past week pretty crazy – trying to enjoy our time while working with everything half boxed up made for some cozy living in the rig. No idea why the RoRo shippers out of Japan are starting to ask that camping vehicles be empty ( really tough in a motorhome ) but we are hearing of it elsewhere, too.  Whilst one’s van “might” escape a thorough customs inspection, or shipping line examination, the risk of having your contents confiscated (and then to be charged for their disposal !) was a risk we did not want to take. As such, much time was spent tossing what we did not really need, determining that which we could take on a flight and that which would need to be sea-mailed home.  This took many days, the task being spread out over various locations where it was possible to spread things out, and on days where it was not raining- absolutely NO FUN ! We ultimately filled 6 large boxes that were sent via Japan Post, dutifully recording their exact contents for later explanation to Canada Customs. Anyone who owns any type of RV can imagine the herculean task that was – we now get to sweat it that they make it back safe and sound. Here’s a glimpse of how that exercise looked:

With the news of a firmed up shipping date looking better as the week rolled on, it now made sense to park up the van on Tokyo’s outskirts and head into the city for a good look around given we’d be leaving Japan as soon as the van was delivered to port.  More on our last days in Tokyo, the final “pack”, and the final shipping resolution in the coming blog.

Here’s a short video of our week. Enjoy.

Till next week,