Chapter 4

Mars Gotemba and Odawara Castle

In the morning, my uncle and my mom had to go to the Toyota rental place to rent two cars while the rest of us waited in the ryokan. They both had international drivers’ licenses. When they had gotten the cars, they picked us up at the ryokan. We put the luggage in the car and we left the ryokan at ten o’clock. It took us almost two hours to travel from Tokyo to Gotemba.

We finally arrived at Gotemba at one in the afternoon. We checked in to our hotel called Mars Gotemba. It was a spacious hotel and more modern compared to the ryokan. I like it compared to the ryokan as the hotel was very huge. There were up to fifteen floors and they had onsen, gym, spa, and restaurants in the hotel premise. There was a big garden around the hotel. My dad told us to be patient because he had to check in to the hotel first. My dad gave the workers our passports to check-in while the kids went to play around and run outside and inside the hotel.

After we went to check-in, we went to our rooms. My room was beside my cousin’s room and my grandpa’s, grandma’s room was right below us. My aunt’s room was beside my grandpa and grandma’s room. In the room, there was a king-sized bed and two tables. The bathroom was big and there was a bathtub, a shower, a sink, and of course a toilet.

To our surprise, the hotel staff prepared a snack and a birthday card as a birthday gift for me because my birthday was on 23 December. They were so thoughtful. It was a box of square biscuits, but the filling was vanilla cream. I shared it with my cousins, aunt, dad, mom, and brother. I saved the rest because it was really good and delicious. I love it and I didn’t let anyone finish the whole box.

Because we planned to go to Mount Fuji the next day, we all drove to Odawara Castle first that day. Odawara Castle was built in the year of 1400s and it is a famous landmark and tourist attraction in Kanagawa.

We parked at the parking lot and had to walk past the red bridge. There were so many cyclists and they were old people. Japanese elders were all still so healthy and tend to live a long life

On the way up to the castle, there was a bird that pooped on my grandma’s jacket and my grandpa kept on laughing at her. It seemed that he was mean but he was actually entertained by it. My grandma cleaned her jacket with some wet tissue.

We had to walk up the stairs to the castle. Nathan and I also took pictures as ninjas. My mom told us to pretend to look fierce. We look cute and funny. In the castle, there were lots of items displayed but we were not interested.

Tired after walking up and down the stairs of the castle, we returned to Mars Gotemba to rest.

After our Onsen experience in the ryokan back in Asakusa, we also wanted to have another go at the Onsen in this hotel. The Onsen for men and women were on different floors. It was a huge public bath and we saw naked women, old and young, in the room. It was different than the private small onsen room in the ryokan, where we were alone. We took a bath first and dipped into the hot jacuzzi. We spent some time there and then returned to our room. My cousins came to our room and we played together. We were so loud and noisy. My mom went out alone to buy some things while my dad looked after us kids.

Soon, it was time for dinner. We ate in the hotel restaurant and saw that the garden outside the hotel was beautiful because there were lights in the gardens and there were lots of variative plants. We happily ate dinner because all of us were hungry. We slept quickly because we all were tired.

The following day, I woke up and went to have breakfast with my parents, Nathan, grandpa, and grandma. The waiter asked, “Do you want to have Western food or Eastern food for your breakfast?” My mom asked my grandma and they decided on western food. So, I ate the western food that my mom ordered for me. My mom had the Japanese set as she chose Eastern food.

After we ate breakfast, the kids and I played with our toys in my room and my grandma told us that our room was noisy last night. She said it was a good thing it was my grandma’s room under our room because other people could be complaining. The sound that she heard was people jumping above their room.

We also had snacks that I got yesterday. Next, my mom asked us and Aunt to look around the garden. The garden had trees, plants, bridges, a pond, and more. It was too bad there was no snow even though it was so cold. It was around 3 degrees. Then we went off to see Mount Fuji.