Nov. 26, 2009
Track the Commodores in Japan and Hong Kong
Daniel Harris is in his second year serving in Baseball Operations for the Vanderbilt Baseball team. Daniel will provide updates during the team’s trip to Japan this week.
View Day 5 Photo Gallery
We spent our last day in Japan on a whirlwind site seeing tour. At 8:30 a.m. we boarded the bus for Mt. Fuji. After a two-hour bus ride we arrived at 5th station on the mountain. The mountain was unreal… covered in snow and beautiful. Our tour guide, a Japanese women named Miko, said that it was the clearest day she’d seen all year. The players and staff got in a little shopping, highlighted by Joe Loftus and Jack Armstrong purchasing black and gold samurai bandannas to use for future weightlifting sessions.
After Mt. Fuji we boarded the bus for Hakone. Hakone was set in mountain town about two hours away from Mt. Fuji. The drive through the hills looked a little like fall in Tennessee. The leaves were changing and the sun was shining. We ate a so called “Western Style” buffet lunch lakeside at Hakone Sakura Hotel. The buffet was all you can eat, and it quickly became apparent that restaurant had no idea how capable our players were at crushing the food. After lunch, we got back on the bus and drove up the mountain to “Black Egg Hill”. The hill is famous for the black hard boiled eggs cooked in the hot springs. From here we rode a Gondola down to the lake and boarded a Viking style ship. We rode the ship to the other side of the lake and got back on the bus headed towards the bullet train station. The bullet train was like nothing the team had ever seen. The train travels at 130 MPH and took us back to Tokyo in about 30 minutes.
The team celebrated Thanksgiving at the Hilton Hotel a few blocks away from our hotel. The meal was a full buffet style dinner with just about every type of meat you can imagine. The dessert table was unreal, 10 types of pie and cake, 6 flavors of ice cream, and a chocolate fondeau fountain. Sitting down at dinner gave the team a chance to reflect on how blessed we are to have this opportunity. This is truly a once in a lifetime type trip and we are very fortunate to be able to travel to the Far East.
Tomorrow we board the bus at 6:00AM for a 4 hour flight to Hong Kong. Although everyone is tired from today’s travel, the energy level is high to see what Hong Kong has in store for us.
Happy Thanksgiving folks! Remember to count your blessing and enjoy your family and friends.
