Push Factors

My decision to leave was sudden, and my initial investigation of the flight WAS directly due to an aspect of Japan that I hate, which I experienced last weekend.

There are so many things that I love about Japan. But of the things I hate, everything surrounding the holiday-making habits of the Japanese ranks pretty highly. The reasoning behind the horrific tourist phenomenon that I experienced last weekend goes roughly like this, I think:

In every Japanese workplace there is a strong work ethic. It looks bad if you take lots holiday (meaning take more than half of your yearly holiday allowance, or, take that half holiday allowance all at once – rather than odd days here an there). – The only time when it is legitimately acceptable to take holiday is on the specified national holiday days. (as a side point Japan does have a lot of national holidays – possibly relating to the prevention of national insanity by making people take time off).

Another significant point relevant to the analysis of my bad weekend is the Japanese national enthusiasm for their four seasons. The number of times I have conversations about the beautiful autumn leaves, or the incredible spring cherry blossom, is some absolute astronomical figure. Continuously, I am recommended to go to places at this time, because the autumn leaves will be at their most magnificent, or at this time because of the ultimate cherry blossom. TV channels make predictions of where the best blossom flowers will be as the weeks roll by, and the weather changes from north to south. Autumn leaves viewing, and cherry blossom viewing is a very popular pastime for many Japanese people, so naturally most people know which weekend is the best time to visit particular places to enjoy the beauty.

And therein lies the problem. Hakone is a popular tourist site. I knew that, - a great view of Mt. Fuji, a nice lake, nice nature, (and beautiful autumn leaves at this time of year of course). The weekend we chose to travel to Hakone was a national holiday weekend, in autumn. Error, ERROR. Everyone knows Hakone has beautiful autumn leaves now. Everyone is set free from work because it is a national holiday weekend. So they all go to the SAME beautiful places, at the SAME time.

Tourism on bank holidays is always going to be busy, whichever country you are in, but it is so much more extreme in Japan.
Problem 1 – there was a problem with our hotel booking, and it turned out we didn`t have one. Therefore, the activities we had planned for 3 days originally had to be packed into 1 day. Before, I came to Hakone this already didn`t sound like my idea of a relaxing weekend because I like to have to time to explore, stop and enjoy. And not be a standard tourist following the set route, taking the obligatory photos as and when.

But that was only the tip of the preverbial iceberg. After finally arriving in Hakone at 12 o`clock, after waiting for everyone not turning up on time, and losing people, waiting for smokers to have their cigarettes in the designated smoking squares on the street (you can`t smoke in the street in Japan). (I`m never traveling in a group of 14 again by the way), we stepped off the train.

We stepped off the train into a swarm of human bodies. There were crowds and crowds of people EVERYWHERE. Turned out we had to join the hour long queue of people going out of the station to come back into the station to get on the cram packed train which was taking people up the mountain.

In places like Hakone, where there are set sites to see there are free pass tickets you can by. To do the route of sight-seeing that gets all the important sights in. It is how I hate to be a tourist. No chance to be independent. No chance to explore on your own. Just join the queue, join the crowds of commuters who are moving around the sites like zombies. Horrific. I saw no beauty in Hakone that day. I was in a queue for the whole day. It was fantastic weather outside. And I`m sure the autumn leaves were beautiful if I could have seen them, beyond all the human heads and bodies crushed next to me, beyond the concrete walls and barriers of the building I was standing inside on this beautiful day.

After 2 more hours in queues, by 2 o`clock we had been on the train and got some distance up the mountain, but we were getting really hungry. I wanted a good meal not just some rice ball or newsagent snack.
Unbelievably to me, there was only on restaurant in this people swarmed place. So, guess what – we stepped out of our place in the set route queue – and joined another one! – to get into the restaurant! It was nearing 4 o`clock by the time we were done in the restaurant.

And the sun was on it`s way down – oh yes. I kid you not. We would finally reach the destination of one of the sights in Hakone and we wouldn`t bloody be able to see it because it would be dark!

As it goes, we did have a stroke of luck (which was rather overdue this weekend). We did travel on the ropeway at the time of the sunset, giving us a fabulous view of Mt. Fuji with the sun setting around it. Stunning. Of course, everybody was viewing this through the LCD screens of their cameras (will they remember actually being there??? Another problem of tourists everywhere). My camera was broken. But I hope I will remember that view for a long time because it was amazing.

That was the one highlight of a bad trip. We had to skip other aspects of our free pass due to lack of time to complete everything (no chance to fry an egg on the hot volcanic ground!). So quickly back in the queue for us. The view from the lake of Fuji is also said be be incredible, but by the time we made the last boat of the day Hakone was in darkness.

The whole trip was just ridiculous. I wonder how many Japanese enjoy their holiday time like that.
SO, all in all, in returning from Hakone to think about my Christmas plans, I came back thinking, there is NO WAY I want to be near any tourist site in Japan during a period of national holiday time. That`s why I decided to go home! The best place to have a relaxing holiday. Because, a holiday like Hakone, or even a milder version of – would not be relaxing.