The hunt for the cherry blossom

At 5:30 a.m., we were all wide awake! Thanks to jet lag, we were able to make the most of the day at this time! So we set off and got some coffee from 7 Eleven.

Afterwards, Heike started looking for the best spots to fully enjoy the cherry blossom. After extensive research, the plan for today was set. So we set off, or rather Heike set off. Everyone was a bit tense because it was her first time driving a motorhome. Occasionally, Christian had to tell her to stop because the traffic light was red. She was so focused on staying in the lane. But you can't pay attention to everything.

In order to make faster progress, we decided to drive on the highway. This is a combination of tunnels and bridges that goes all the way through Tokyo Bay. The sight of such a huge construction was impressive. We usually rarely take the highway because the tolls in Japan are very high.

We quickly and safely arrived at our first park. It was a cute, dreamy park with small bridges, a small selection of food trucks, and a beautiful viewpoint. The cherry blossom was very beautiful to see there.

Then we went to the second park. We had to pay for parking there. The parking meters were protected by small roofs. Unfortunately, the roofs were not high enough for us to drive our motorhome under, so we just had to stay a bit to the left and drive past the roof to park. Our motorhome is less than 5 meters long and is therefore considered a regular car, but there are occasionally problems with parking. We found only one empty space in this parking lot. In order to leave later, Heike wanted to park in reverse. The emphasis is on wanted. With great patience, Christian instructed Heike on how to park in the quite large parking space, or rather, he tried to. However, Heike often ignored his instructions as she often does. As a result, it took a while. By now, there was already a line of cars forming that wanted to leave the parking lot but couldn't. But Heike was not impressed at all. Calmly, she maneuvered back and forth, ignoring all of Christian's instructions. Then, very uncharacteristically for Japanese people, two drivers started honking their horns. This finally convinced Heike to let Christian park. This second park was even larger than the first one. There were several ponds. On the roof of the restaurant, you could play badminton and families and students were frolicking on the meadows. There was a long slide on the playground. However, it was only for children between the ages of six and twelve. And so, we watched as some mothers accompanied their children to the slide. The children would then slide down and the parents would race down the stairs next to the slide. But the slide was so long that the children had to wait about 1 minute until the parents, completely out of breath, reached the bottom. The slide was very tempting because it was really long and you went really fast. This is quite unusual for Japan, as slides here are usually slow to prevent accidents. They are also extremely secure. At the end of this slide, there was a warning cone with a small blinking light on it that would turn on when the person sliding reached the bottom and the next person could slide. The Japanese people just can't resist it completely.

All in all, this slide was very tempting for Heike and Christian. So, we first did what the other parents did: we accompanied our children to the entrance of the slide. First, the children slid down. Then, Heike and Christian looked around to see if there was a park ranger or an overly attentive parent watching us. We saw some mothers, but they seemed uninterested. Heike and Christian took advantage of this moment. They quickly swung themselves onto the slide and raced down into the abyss at a breathtaking speed. Christian arrived at the bottom first. He quickly got off the slide and looked around to see if anyone would scold him now. In the meantime, Heike slid down. But the slide was too fast for her. So she shouted, "Christian, Christian, catch me!" Of course, this drew the attention of the onlookers. Christian also looked curiously at the slide and left Heike to her fate. At the end of the slide, there was still so much momentum that you had to use your feet on the soft mat at the end of the slide to brake and prevent yourself from getting hurt if you fell off. If you were lucky, you could land on both feet and continue running and come to a stop after a few meters. Both Christian and Heike (partially) succeeded in this elegant movement.

After this scare, we went to a water dispenser to drink from it. Also very unusual for Japan, this water dispenser shot a fountain about 50 cm into the air. So initially, Heike's face was wet because she wanted to drink first. However, in the meantime, Christian was still looking after the children. That's why Heike said, "Christian, come here, you can drink well here." Oblivious and carefree, Christian pressed the button to drink. The rest can be imagined. Not only was Christian's face and sweater completely wet, but his pants also looked soiled.

After so much attention, we thought it would be a good idea to leave the park. So we got into our motorhome to leave the parking lot.

When we arrived at the barrier and the covered parking meter to pay, we realized that the covering at the exit was much longer than at the entrance, i.e. we couldn't avoid the roof. Heike was behind the wheel again and Christian directed. Because the situation was delicate and we could damage the motorhome, Heike, quite uncharacteristically for her, decided to listen to Christian. She drove as slowly as possible, getting as close to the barrier as possible. Initially, the motorhome still fit under the roof. But it seemed to be built slightly unevenly, so that at the rear end, the motorhome no longer wanted to fit through. Apparently, this situation was so unusual for the surrounding Japanese people that many of them pulled out their phones and started filming. Of course, the Japanese people also got out of their cars, blocking the exit for ourselves again. A helpful Japanese person came to us to help us with the maneuver. He even climbed onto the barrier to look from above how much space we still had. When he also concluded that we wouldn't fit under the roof, he had the idea to use the phone next to the parking meter to call for help.

Shortly afterwards, an approximately 18-year-old boy in the park ranger uniform arrived and was amazed. The five Japanese people standing around him all told him at the same time what the problem was. Since we had already paid but didn't drive through the barrier, it was now locked. To solve this problem, he brought a bicycle and used it to simulate a car by riding over the contact loop. However, he didn't succeed on the first try. Only after another attempt and a very daring maneuver, in which he narrowly avoided the descending barrier, did he manage to close the barrier again. Then he directed us to another end of the parking lot. There, the exit from the paid parking lot was only blocked by a pylon. He pushed it aside and instructed us to follow him. The only way out of this situation was to drive through the entire park. So the park ranger walked ahead and we drove the motorhome along the pedestrian paths through the park. The people around us were amazed. But they already knew us. In the end, we were able to leave the park and continue our journey to our next park.

After this incident, however, we decided that we had seen enough parks for today and wanted to look at cherry blossoms again the following day. So we looked for a new destination for the day and set off. But the weather got worse, so we decided to take the highway again and make some progress. After five hours of driving, we were just before our rest area, which was supposed to be near Mount Fuji. A little uncertain because we hadn't seen Mount Fuji yet, we already wondered if we were in the right place. But suddenly, out of nowhere, the huge mountain rose in front of us in all its glory. We only turned around a small bend. It was an absolute wow effect. We missed that wow in Hawaii.

In Japan, driving on country roads in the dark is rather difficult because they are narrow and not illuminated. That's why we decided to drive to the next rest area. There, Flora cooked a delicious ramen soup and we played a few rounds of Uno. After the tasty soup, we went to sleep.