All about Hakone

Other than sumo, R.'s utmost objective on this trip was to see Mt. Fuji, and from Hakone in particular. Fuji's a bit of a recluse, frequently if not usually hidden by clouds, especially as the day drags on. We were very lucky though to have very clear skies, though R. was a bit disappointed that there wasn't any snow on the mountain yet.


Having come up from Nara, now waiting for the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Odawara. From there, we took a bus around the lake to Moto-Hakone.


It wasn't particularly late by the time we got to our hotel, maybe 7:30 or so, but Moto-Hakone's a small town, with only a couple of restaurants, which close early. The hotel rang their preferred choice to let them know we were coming. Now, I didn't have high expectations for vegetarian food (my dinner was very good though, fresh eel - very fresh... pulled live from the aquarium and carried wriggling across the dining room, much to R.'s dismay, on display here.) Fortunately for me, the 7-11 in town was both still open and had 3 delightful bottles of jizake.


So why Hakone? One of R.'s favorite Japanese woodblock prints is from Hiroshige's Tokaido no Gojyusan Tsugi - The 55 Stations of the Tokaido. The 11th station is a view from Hakone, and the trail of the Old Tokaido Highway passed right through the town.


Well, we walked a good length of the Hakone section and did not find the vantage point depicted in the print, so R. set to making interpretive demonstrations of troop movement on the O.T. Highly amusing, and she didn't fall.


Pirate ships on Lake Ashinoko? No, this would be our transport across the lake to Owakudani.


Owakudani - Great Boiling Valley. Volcanic activity below, jets of sulphured water on the surface. Plenty stinky.


A local specialty is hard-boiled eggs, which turn black in the waters. Eating one is supposed to give you an additional 7 years of life, two gives you 14, and three gives you heartburn. Well, no, I made that last one up, but they say you shouldn't eat more than 2 anyways. Another local specialty failed to capture R.'s affection - wasabi-flavoured soft serve ice-cream. I thought it wasn't too bad.


From Owakudani, we took the Hakone Ropeway (cable car) and then the toy train (miniature gauge rail) back to Odawara, and from there, on to Tokyo.


N. and A. met us at our hotel in Asakusa, and we went out for dinner at a nearby izakaya, where we recapped our adventures so far, and N. and A. finally got to meet R. Here, N. is saying, "Whaddya mean, chickens have testicles?!?!?"