The Quinn Family Excellent Adventure: Goodbye Tokyo 1 Japan - Hello Tokyo 2 Japan

We were packing a readying our 10 AM departure when we noted the cleaners arriving around 9:30. Bummer we had no time to cleanup ourselves. We rushed dragging out our stuff and did a quick sweep before passing off the key. The cleaners totally understood. Walking with all our stuff down the street, through the grocery store and into the station was tiring. I started planning getting rid of things. KT had for a while now been collecting gifts and clothes. She too was looking forward to letting some things go. We felt more confident with the regular trains here. 2 trains later and we were in our next Tokyo AirBnB vicinity. Being extra early we found a nice place to hang out and stash our bags. The spring air was warm and the blossoms were falling like snow. Not a bad place to chill, investigate and document. We had previously asked our AirBnB host if dropping our bags off at noon would be ok. We showed up on time but no key was present in the mailbox. After a few messages, a person walked out of the elevator and went to this same mailbox to put in a key. We were a little confused but it turned out we was the cleaner, we think. We grabbed this key and walked into the room. It was a little weird as it was not clean and had someones stuff inside. I was worried to be walking in on someone. Luckily nobody was present and we quickly found a spot to jam our bags and split. We later bounced into this same person as we were exciting. I think we were able to explain what was happening. Either way it worked out. Our stuff was still there later and the place was clean.

It was just after noon and we had 3-4 hours before check in. We had no plan and a JR Pass. What to do. I had a plan. Let's go to Akihabara the Electric Town. It's not far. Akihabara is nuts. Electronics, manga, anime and video games everywhere. Crazy selection. I soon got burned out and started to head home. KT was hooked and stayed a little more time with Michelle. We soon met at home and had officially checked into our new Tokyo place. It was the smallest place yet. A queen sized bed in the bedroom was great for Michelle and I. A sort of fold out couch was to be placed beside it. Not happening. I took one for the team and broke out my air mattress for the first time. My bed was to be in the kitchen. Plenty of blankets and comforters were around to make sleeping better. It was great. KT and Michelle were comfy in their room, I kinda lived in the kitchen. It worked out great.

I was a bit concerned about the BagBnB location. According to Google it was a 700 meter walk from the Tokyo train station. I wanted to be familiar with the route and location and confirm all was ok. Timing was everything with public transit and walking to an unknown place with so much gear. I found the place ok but it was closed for business. Not a good sign. I sent and email to the owner asking for a confirmation. No reply. Again not a good sign. I went back the next day and although it was open, a sign on the street indicated it was closed. I walked in on a private function I think. The owner indicated they were closed until I showed him my BabBnB invoice. He indicated all was ok for a drop off in a few more days. Whew. That was great. I was relaxed about that aspect. For now :-)

Michelle and KT were soon planning and trying to attend the Kanamara Matsuri aka "Penis festival"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanamara_Matsuri https://tokyocheapo.com/events/kanamara-penis-festival/ Huge crowds of people honoring the penis. Getting there meant hitting the famous Shibuya crossing. I chose a different task. I had time, I had a free go anywhere you want JR Pass. I was in Tokyo. It was time to go to Tokyo station and pick a random Shinkansen. I wanted to sit and go fast for 1.5 hours in one direction. I was hoping to hit over 300. Hyperdia searches revealed a Shinkansen to Fukushima Station. Cool, within minutes I was going 280 KM/h on a non crowded train checking my email and blogging. I chose to get off one stop south of Fukushima at Koniyama Station. I was honestly a little concerned about the radiation. Kinda silly considering it's a huge distance from the Fukushima reactor. After a short lunch break, I found myself back at the station and waited to spot a fast train blasting through the station. If you don't have your camera ready you will miss starting it in time. This happened a few times, they are that fast. It so nice to not care about which train to get on. You just wait for the next one if you want as they were probably every 20 minutes during the day.

KT had planned an "Otter Cafe" that offered time with a Hedgehog, Sugar Glider and Sea Otters. KT really enjoyed that. It was time to finally hit Mount Fuji. In planning it, we saw some insanely expensive AirBnB and Expedia based tours. It did not seem like rocket science to take the public transit. My only concern was timing. With the busy season upon us, we thought getting an AirBnB place for an overnight visit would be wise. A single bus to Lake Kawaguchi seemed simple enough
We found a well reviewed AirBnB called Yoshimura House Hotel 3 https://goo.gl/maps/mTjArB7UYnNhygBo8
We had a Google Map idea of how to get to the train station. We hoped getting an early morning ticket would get us to the area around 11:00 AM. Let's do it.

Found a nice place to hang near the station

It was snowing blossoms