April 1966: Rita Clark Trip Days 4-7

The following is a reprinting of the content taken directly from Rita Clark's Travelogue seen in the picture link below.

4th Day - Sun Apr. 17, 1966 - At 8:00 A.M. we left by private motor coach to Asakusa Station with our Fuji Tour Guide "Toshi". At 9:00 A.M. we boarded the Tobu Railway's Dream Train known as the Romance Car for Nikko.  We saw cherry blossoms along the way - about 85 miles - the Express Train took exactly 105 minutes from Tokyo to Nikko.  Here we saw the vermillion painted Sacred Bridge, hand carved Yomeiman Gate and the Inner Shrine of Toshogu.  After lunch at the Kanaya Hotel where we had trout from the waters of Lake Chuzenji 4194 ft. above sea level we visited Kegon Waterfall.  Returned to Tokyo by the Limited Express train after a very cold but pleasant day - Had Cherry Jubilee in Hilton dining room with Jeanne.

5th Day - Mon. April 18 - After breakfast at the Hilton Tokyo we checked out and by private motor coach drove to Fuji Hakone National Park via Yokohama and Kamakura.  Passed Tokyo's residential district, stopped to see the image of Buddha (Daibutsu) and towns & villages along the Pacific Ocean.  Lunch at the Kasiero Chinese Restaurant all of us sitting on tatami's in real oriental fashion for a true Chinese meal.  Arrived at the Fujiya Hotel in Miyanoshita, Hakone late afternoon to stay overnight in this large tourist hotel half Japanese and half Western.  After a trout dinner I had a massage at 9:00 P.M. 500 yen ($1.40) for 45 min.

6th Day Tues. 4/19 - Had the morning at leisure, then at 2:30 P.M. transferred by motor coach to Atami.  Largest hot spring resort, enjoying view of Lake Hakone, Ten Province Pass and Mt. Fuji on the way.  Dinner and accommodation at the New Fujiya Hotel where we donned Kimonas provided by the hotel and wore them to dinner as well as outdoors - both men and women in our party.

7th Day Wed 4/20 - Breakfast at the New Fujiya Hotel then we transferred by motor coach to Atami Station.  At 9:31 A.M. we took the "bullet" train for Kyoto which travels 130 miles per hour.  Arrived at Kyoto Sta. at 12:17 and were transferred to the Miyako Hotel - welcomed remainder of hotel afternoon to do some mending, washing, etc.  Lunch and dinner at the Miyako Hotel.

Well one of the amazing things to me about this post is that my Great Aunt Rita went to Nikko as have I and was mentioned in a previous post in this blog.  She also went to the Daibutsu in Kamakura which I also did during one of my early trips to the country (I will blog about that one day!).  She made it to Hakone which is still on my list of things to do.  I would also like to visit Atami one day as it looked cool when I saw it from the window of my Shinkansen on a past trip to Kyoto.  The most amazing thing though about this journal page?  The 500 yen equals $1.40 exchange rate!  Upon further research I learned that the yen was fixed at 360 to the dollar not long after the war.  It stayed at this rate until it was changed to 308 to the dollar in 1971 due to market pressures.  Finally it was allowed to float in 1973 with other major currencies of the world.  Wish I could get that 360 rate today!  I might move!!!

Yen to Dollar Exchange Rate

Also of interesting note, apparently the Fujiya Hotel is quite a beautiful and famous place.  It originated in 1878, and is a very popular place to this day for those heading to see Hakone's beautiful sites.  Here is an old picture of it from their web-site:

Here is a more modern look at this wonderful, historic property:

The New Fujiya hotel is still in Atami.  Lastly I would like to comment on the Shinkansen.  Japan's modern day Shinkansen was completed in 1964 in time for the Tokyo summer Olympics.  So when Rita took it in 1966, it was still a relatively new service.  There was only one line running at that time - the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka which operated the original "O Series" trains seen in this picture.

This original Shinkansen train was finally removed from service in 2008.  What a long run of incredible safety and service for this engineering marvel.  As Rita states, it traveled at 130 mph when it was introduced.  Today, there are a number of Shinkansen lines running all over Japan.  The current Tokaido Shinkansen train runs at a top speed of 186 mph.