Nagashima, Nagoya, & Fujiyoshida, Japan – Monday, June 20th, 2011
The rain finally caught up to me.
I knew one of the risks of visiting Japan in June was the risk of rain, and while the skies had been almost uniformly overcast with occasional bouts of drizzles for virtually every day after I first arrived, so far I had gotten lucky that it hadn’t impacted my plans.
As the bus pulled into Nagashima Spaland and the scarlet curves of Steel Dragon 2000 came into view through the dense rain and fog, it was clear that my luck with the weather had finally run out.
I approached the entrance and sure enough, the list of rides was filled a continuous row of yellow bars indicating “closed for weather,” with one row of green suggesting that the Corkscrew was inexplicably still making a go of it. Not exactly worth the full price of admission.
With nothing else to do this day and, with limited internet connectivity due to it still being the year 2011, no way to research other travel options, I decided to stick it out for an hour on the chance that conditions might improve. The rain let up enough at times that I was able to wander and get a few pictures of Steel Dragon 2000 without getting soaked, but the solid overcast skies showed no indication of the rain breaking anytime soon. Even if it did, with seemingly all the other guests kept away by the weather, what were the chances that they would even make the effort to fully reopen all of the attractions?
Eventually the weather began to take a turn for the worse. Water flowed everywhere.
It was time to call it quits and move on. I boarded the bus, several hours before I was scheduled to do so, and made my way to Nagoya.
Thanks to my JR Rail Pass, I was able to get an earlier Shinkansen high-speed rail ticket heading north towards Tokyo. Still with a bit of time to spare, I was able to find an observation platform near the Nagoya Station to get a better view of the city.
There’s Nagoya Castle in the distance.
It was finally time to board my train. Shinkansen are so amazing.
Instead of taking it all the way to Tokyo, I got off early to take a short route to Fujiyoshida near the base of Mount Fuji. The quiet, vintage station amid the crisp mountain air was certainly a welcome change from the soggy cityscapes I spent most of the day around.
My next destination was already in view. I could only hope for better luck tomorrow.
Checking into the Kawaguchi-ko Station Inn, I was met with a surprise: I was their ONLY guest on the books that evening. Thus, instead of having me in the hostel dorm that I booked, they offered a free upgrade to their traditional Japanese-style guest room. Gladly accepted!
Sleeping at floor-level was certainly a unique experience from any other hotel or hostel I’d ever stayed at, an experience I’m glad I got to try while in Japan. Plus, I was enjoy a more relaxed evening than I had since I began this travel journey three weeks ago, finalizing my plans for my last week in Toyko (and researching the feasibility of a return to Nagashima) and catching up with news from the rest of the world. I still had my apprehensions about tomorrow, but for now I could sleep easy.
Your credit list gave the game away, we know you made it in the end.
Oh yeah, plus there’s also my Flickr albums that pretty much give away everything else to come. And the fact that, if I really did miss an entire park of the size and importance of Nagashima, I’d try to wring at least a little more drama out of it.