What's on your shirt? Can you show me?

A bunch of ice cream?! We're on a mission today, huh?

Ice cream

We're going to go to the little Mount Fuji to see if we can find some ice cream.

Yea! Yeah, let's go!

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Here we go guys

Here we go!

Beautiful Momma chan behind the wheel today.

Thank you for your service.

I expect a tip.

Today we're crossing Tokyo to nearby Ibaraki prefecture to see a mountain they compare to Mt Fuji,

saying “Mt Fuji in the west and Mt Tsukuba in the East.”

Will it live up to the hype?

The highways that go through downtown Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku are so cool

Because they're elevated, so you're like 5, 6, 7 stories off the ground

Flying through the air, it's a cool way to go through Tokyo.

Do you guys know what Shibuya is?

Shibuya is one of those really big crossings where tons of people go across.

You know that's right over there, behind those buildings there.

Then up ahead of us is Ginza and a bunch of stuff like that.

This trip is perfect to do today because there is little traffic in Tokyo.

Otherwise this 2-hour drive would take at least twice as long in normal traffic.

OK we haven't started the time yet. We take turns playing the Switch, right?

Set the time for 20 minutes. Whose turn is it? Anna's?

We fly past Tokyo and head out north towards Skytree.

Along the way we'll go through 5 different prefectures: Kanagawa, Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Ibaraki.

Ah! My robot!

One of the super challenging things for foreigners driving through Tokyo is paying attention to all of the exits.

And all of the different directions you can go.

Because there's several exits sometimes at the same place

And you gotta figure out which way to go and it's all in Kanji

And so there's been times when I messed up and took the wrong exit

And literally it cost us 20, 30 minutes to recuperate from that error.

And then you also end up paying like 1,000 Yen in tolls

And it can be very bad to make a blunder with an exit.

And way off in the distance you can see Mt Tsukuba.

That's the mountain we're going to, guys. There's the mountain we're going to way up ahead.

How are you holding up?

I could use a cup of coffee.

A cup of coffee, coming up.

The rest area is a happening place today.

But we got our drinks. Hand a little rest.

And let's go.

[Audio Book]

One of our favorite pastimes on long road trips is listening to audio books while the landscape passes by.

Today we're listening to the Chronicle of Narnia, Prince Caspian.

Do you have a favorite pastime while traveling?

It sure helps time go by, and with kids that's invaluable!

Sometimes that best thing to do is be the first to spot something unusual.

Parachute-thingy over there. Oh look guys!

There's some, what do you call it? Parasailing?

Oh there's another guy! Yea yea, there's another one.

And I am never going to be a hiking family.

Sarah, you don't want to be a hiking family?

She said she would never be a hiking family.

Never going to be a hiking family, huh?

I'm going to be a hiking family. Oh you are?

Me too. We're going to be a camping family some day. Well, yeah.

You don't have to be a hiker, Sarah. She wants to be a camping family.

Oh a camping... Not hiking.

OK, ok, fair enough.

Old buildings here, man!

This is an old building area. Look at these!

It's about to get curvy.

Tiny little road weaving up the mountain side.

It drops off on either side.

Make sure you don't drop the camera.

Makes sure you don't crush the steering wheel with your hands.

Look at how steep that is!

Oh oh it is steep!

Dear Jesus... I don't like this! You're doing great, Honey.

Oh look at this! I'm really nervous.

You're doing great, honey!

You're doing perfect.

It's just not my cup of tea.

Oo there's cars!

Almost at the end of it.

Now we're back to the main road. Awesome

Good job Momma chan! That was quite the road.

We're getting to the main road, but the main road still looks like Spaghetti.

Great job Momma chan! Whoohoo!

We made it. Yea, I'm retiring.

All done. Good job.

Ok we're going to buy our tickets for the Ropeway.

Here we go!

Oooo. This is big!

Hurry hurry, gotta go in!

Whoa, cool, cool!

They're going to closet his door. The guy's going to stand right there and talk.

Here we go — going on up! Whew!

What do you think Anna?

Scary!

Wow.

Look, you can see all the rice fields down there! You see them?

All those are rice fields? Yeah!

It says it takes 6 minutes to go up!

[Announcer in Japanese]

Oh right now we're at the same height as Tokyo Skytree Tower!

Look at the plane! Do you see that?

What what what? That plane?

It's like an ultralight.

An ultraleve? Weird drone?

Look at that—that's cool!

Oh, here we are!

We're at the top!

We made it!

Whoa! Look at that! Look at that!

Whoa!

There goes the Ropeway. It's going back down.

Oh here's a cool place. Alright, squeeze in!

Oh this is going to be a good picture.

OK smile for this camera first. One two three!

Smile!

There's the Ropeway over there- the entrance.

And the other peak. We're going to head to this other peak now.

OK, we're hiking over to the other mountain peak now, right?

Is it a boy?

Yeah, this is... what do they call it?

Man mountain.

The woman peak and we're going to the man peak.

Lots and lots of people on this trail today.

People try to throw a rock up there and get it stuck up there?

Is that a bungee jump? Look at that pretty...

Is that a bun... A bungee jump? I don't think so.

What's a bungee jump? I think it's a tower.

Look- this might be halfway.

What?! Yep, halfway I think.

Did we find a magnet we want to put up on our fridge.

Oh, this is cute too, isn't it?

Very cool, that would be fun!

Just don't jump. Don't jump. Keep going, there's people behind us waiting.

Good job. Yeah hold onto that.

We could eat in that restaurant up there.

Whoa, everyone's got there ice cream, finally! And Kakigori (shaved ice)

And kakigori (shaved ice) It's sticky kakigori.

There's two ice creams and two kakigories.

Two ice creams and two kakigories, alright.

There are a lot of people here today climbing up the mountain.

While the kids are having ice cream I came up here to see the view from the very top.

You can see long, long ways. But it's kind of hazy today.

You see way off into the distance there too.

You can see all the way down to the bottom.

Well, it's not all the way down to the bottom,

Just where the tram comes up. That's where the kids are have ice cream and waiting for me.

Look at this view on the way down — whoa!

On buys days, you have a line going up and down.

Now we're heading back to the ropeway to head on down.

I like the ropeway. You like the ropeway?

For the other peak, there's a really long line.

So we're probably not going to wait in line to go to the top of this one.

Just go to the ropeway.

Did you hear that? So we're waiting in line for the ropeway...

Every 10 minutes, 45 people

10 minutes, 45 people go on.

Every 10 minutes 45 people go on. So they said about an hour.

Yeah!

Do you see the parking lot with cars in it?

That one right there? I think that's where we parked.

Right there? Yea, way down there.

Oh my! Oh my.

You guys ready to go on down now? No.

Alright. No?! Yes!

Yes?!

So cool! Here we're going to go down now!

Whew!

Wow! We're going faster.

Look at that! Are we going faster?

Oh my goodness! So beautiful, huh?

We're coming up to the support. Oh, here's the other one.

That means we're halfway.

Let's wave- bye bye everybody!

Do you like it? Yeah?

We might want to just eat here Nate. OK.

Here comes the end of the ropeway.

Here's the restaurant, let's see...

Do we want fries? No they all have fries.

Alright, feed the machine!

And 100 more yen, I might have that.

We're waiting for our numbers to be called I think it's ours.

It's Daddy's! Oh Daddy's came out first,

That is a lot. Oh my goodness, look at that!

Wow, thanks! Oh, it's mine!

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum

Good job Becca, very carefully bringing Momma's ramen.

Whoa Momma, look at your ramen—yum!

Oh man, this stuff is just...

Mommy and Daddy's food came already, whew! Let's go!

How is it Momma chan? It's good.

But isn't it so hot?

Oh! There's a lot of food on this plate!

Alright, look at that!

What is this?

Oh my goodness Sarah, can you eat all of that? Curry inside the rice.

It looks like a bear. Ah, it's a Sarah bear Curry.

It's a Kare-bear, for Sarah-bear!

So that was our trip to Mt Tsukuba.

I did not make Ruth drive on the way back, that's why there's no footage of it.

But she was so gracious to drive all the way there so I could get this footage to show all of you this adventure.

Well what did you think?

Is Mt Tsukuba like Mt Fuji?

You know they say "Mt Fuji in the West, Tsukuba in the East"

Well, it's not nearly as tall as Mt Fuji

But it does command the landscape in Ibaraki much like Fuji commands the landscape.

And what's really cool about Tsukuba san, or Mt Tsukuba, is that you can take a ropeway to go nearly all the way to the top.

And there's also a cable car that goes up there.

So for getting up and down it is much more convenient than say, Mt Fuji

Where you need to walk it and it is not an easy walk, take my word for it.

Well I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Life in Japan.

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