Japan, Tokyo trip! 9 March – 15 March 2011

*Super boring long post of my bad experience in Japan! Please do not read on if you have no time, wahaha… super detailed experience which i would to jot it down…

Our 1st to Tokyo… my parents came along for this holiday… It was really an experience I wouldnt want to have it again… Yes, it’s that bad! Can you imagined being stranded up in the mountain, encounter earthquake… gosh I have lotsa stuffs to yak manz…

It’s an F&E trip we had plan for 6d5n…. well before our trip, hubby and I were so excited as we have never been there and we are bringing Cleo to Tokyo Disneyland… much raves about it when people talk about Japan right, well we have only been to the one in Hong Kong…so small and boring… but sadly we didnt had any chance to go there… so sad right? … only see brochure

So what happened was, on our 2nd day of our trip, we went for a 1 day Mount Fuji & Hakone tour… left the hotel early and transfer to a coach which took us to Mount Fuji… and at around 1+pm after our sumptuous lunch, our tour includes a cablecar ride up to Mount Komagatake in Hakone… Shortly after we arrived at the top of the mountain, the building started to shake a little… We thought its was the cablecar ride that made us a little giddy but NO… we were all wrong, just mins later, it shooked again and it was getting stronger… cablecar personnel started to run out of the office looking panic… Gosh, scary rite, we have not encounter this before! …. So it was confirmed that there’s a sudden magnitude of 9.0 earthquake that hit Japan!  During the frightful few minutes, the stress and fear that we had, was unexplainable… At that very moment, I was worry for Cleo… and gosh I am in my 13weeks… well these are my first thoughts… There were around 80 tourists at the cablecar point… every faces shows “worries”, “lost”…  We were asked to vacate the building, as we told that this 4 storey high building that we were in is a very old building and building structure might not be safe… Well, after listening to these, made us even more worry right? The only place for us to hold us temporary is the open mountain filled with snow out there… GOSH! its freaking cold out there, many were not prepared with proper clothing… though we had our bubbled, warm cold wear… it’s seriously not enough… the workers started bringing out some jackets for those people with little ones… the japanese are very caring and thoughtful hor … 

So after the long wait of an hour (which felt like hours)… they finally came to a conclusion that all of us are required to vacate this place and the only way was to walk down the freaking cold, scary, high, tall, huge mountain by FOOT! yes, u r right! to walk down by your FOOT! I seriously thought I was going to faint!!!! They had to turned off the main cablecar power as it’s not safe to take the ride down… So no way they gonna turn it on! There were so much of commotions… so there were tour guides around that assisted with breaking all into groups… and this will make sure going down the freaking mountain will be easier… BUT i can tell you its not gonna be easy… I am not a mountain treaker, am sure many do not have the experience as well. BUT in order to be alive and be safe… just go down… its like you have doesn’t have a choice? …. Frankly, we were the last batch and we tried, we went down a few (10 over) steps without any proper track, no rope etc… and its so damn slippery cos normal footwear do not have proper gripping… We gave up at the point where we seriously saw the scary steps down, those kind that once you missed it, that’s it and there you go kind!!… Hubby says: Lets turn back… He went up carrying Cleo who was sleeping soundly… me following behind and my parents behind me… We were the only “clowns” who went back to the building… oh no… the main building has a shutter and its down… the last personnel who came down had already locked it.  We were standing for a few seconds in the open area and its freaking cold with the wind blowing! …. Tadah!!! an old man… the worker came back for us… He doesn’t speaks english, we had a hard time communicating, only after some time, he contacted the control room, managed to get the shutter on… we went into the control room office building, the place we were held before walking the mountain. I think he kept wanting to tell us that its not safe to stay but we had no choice… I am not gonna risk my life down the mountain… with a baby!

Our hearts were all together, we are just gonna stay and see what we can do to get help. Thank god, the phone are working in the office as all out mobiles had no reception. I tried calling my hotel thinking I could get people to assist in translation but they are bums! …. 2nd thought, called the Spore embassy in Tokyo… Like Oh finally, i got someone who can speak the same language… fluent english… Firstly they got all names in detailed of everyone there, 5 of us including Cleo… and I explained what happened, where am I now.. etc… He spoke to the Japanese guy, and back to me… told me there are people coming up from the cablecar office, and we were asked to update whenever possible. time passes fast, and 2 guys walked up from the bottom of the mountain, to them is easy peasy as they are trained! Again, cannot communicate… try and error, and finally they told us firemen coming up to pick us?!! We were like huh?! Daylight was short in Japan, 5pm looks like 8pm darkness… 4 superheros firemen in their hero attire came up by FOOT… after much discussion… 1-2hours had passed… They mentioned something like to get down via cable “ropeway”.. It’s actually to get a hook and to make use of the cablecar cableway to get us down… I think like “tarzan” in the jungle… you have to swing down… my eyes were watery when I heard that, heart pumping x 100… cannot imagine I have to ”swing down”… with the help of experienced firemen doesn’t help to calm me… On 2nd thought, 1 guy who can speak a little half past 10 english, asked me how many months pregnant, I signal 3months, and all 4 of them, shows a little worry look… Well.. I guessed no ones wanna take such risk and huge responsibilities right… What if something happened while going down etc… Few mins passed, finally, they says you guys are gonna stay here for a night, and my colleagues will be here to assist tomorrow, as they also received an message from I think the cablecar control that there are people who got stucked at the mid-way of the mountain… And there people were those who went down by foot earlier, can you imagined being stucked at the bottom of the mountain, cold, wet, hungry, darkness… damn scary!  And so, just us, 3 cablecar personnel all 8 of us to spend a night in the office, these kind Japanese got us some tatami laid in their workers rest area… old and “dirty”, but its just a night and place to rest I tell myself… At around 10+pm… we were all lying down in the room, and all of a sudden, the room shake for a second… my heart pumping x100 again… really damn scary! And my dear Cleo can asked me, Mummy: who knocked the door (she heard sounds made by the cupboard’s door which sounds like someone knocking on our door)… I can only tell her in a calm chirppy tone: there’s no one darling… rest and watch your tubbies (we brought our portable DVD player along)… so glad we had that with us…

The next morning came and We were all excited to know what’s the outcome, managed to wash up abit, went down to the office… urghh… was told we had to get down by FOOT again but this time round they will be using another route which is longer but easier.. OH well… how easier can it be… straight road… cannot be right? I was actually been asking for a Helicopter since the night before you know… so naive right… thought I could easily asked for a heli   …. and so I had no choice, but to asked so many questions to prepare myself… The guy are getting 20 over workers to clear the snow to create a better walk way for us to go down… cannot imagined but I just listen… Cool after 10mins… I can slowly see people coming up with their shover.. damn cool but they are perpiring in cold icy weather can u imagine how tiring… BUT BUT.. Hooray! I don’t know what happened and within mins… they changed their mind and the guy who was communicating with us happily came over to asked and say: The helicopter is arriving in around 15mins so please get ready! And yesh, finally there is really a helicopter!!! muahaha… hubby was guided what to expect, where the heli is gonna drop us, whose picking us up and where we are heading to etc… The people there were all excited when heli arrived, snapping of pics through their handphones… really super drama… We like majiam superstars… Cleo was crying cos she doesn’t want to sit heli… haha… it was so loud!  All well… We board the heli by the police… 15mins ride… arrived, picked up by the cablecar people, my local guide etc… asking if I needed to go to the hospital etc… In my mind, I just wanna go back to my hotel… We asked if we can go back Tokyo, and my local guide gladly send us back to the train station.

We experienced many times of aftershock when we were back in Tokyo hotel and it was no fun at all for the rest of the days… We did not venture out to many many popular places that was on my lists… We just basically roamed around our hotel everyday… Finally the day for us to leave Japan arrived and we were so anxious to get home (unlike usual holidays where we dread to go home)… Can u imagined, on the last day early morning at 4+am, you still have to encounter a “shake” on your bed while you were sleeping… i can’t explained but its damn scary! ….. What an experience we had! Glad we are safe back home!