Hakone

In celebration of the national holiday (I didn't even bother to find out what this one was about... ahhhh something about Verinal Equinox...) I went to Hakone...which is an hour and a half outside of Tokyo (on a rapid train... it takes a lifetime if you go on the local train). So armed with a special three day Hakone freepass we left Shinjuku for Hakone.

The train took us to Hakone-Yumoto, where we changed on to and older style train (Hakone-Tozan line), which had an average speed of a granny on a zimmer frame and due to the fact that there was only one track (expect at stations) there was a complex system of backing in and out of stations to let other trains pass...

we get off at a tiny station of Miyanoshita and walk to Fujiya Hotel (apparently the oldest in Japan) it's very posh...we even stretched to a very nice Lunch there...i had some very tasty fish (rainbow trout...if you're interested...if not. tough.) Anyway, it was all rather western...the decor on the inside, as well as the menu in the very wood-clad dining room with the nice view...

The terrace of Fujiya Hotel

After lunch, we get back on a train (after *just* missing one) so we have to wait for an entire 15mins for another..in japan this is a very long time to have to wait for a train...they usually come every 3mins...) anyway, we head to Gora, to get the Hakone-Tozan Cable Car...which heads up a nice little hill towards Sounzan...the cable car itself is on an incline so the whole thing looks like a parallelogram from the side.

The view from the inside of the slanty cable car...

Then we transfer again to the Hakone ropeway to get which takes us up even higher over the hills and back down again to the spectacular view of the Owakudani sulphur springs...

The Hakone Ropeway car

View of the Sulphur Springs

This area is famous for it's 'kurumatamago' (black eggs) which Hello Kitty is advertising below

We had a smelly little walk around the Sulphur springs before taking a replacement bus (the ropeway between Owakudani and Togendai (the north end of Lake Ashi) was under repair. We then waited to take the Hakone Sightseeing ship (which was a bit of a sight all on it's own) across to the other side, so that we could get to our bed for the night.

We board, a monster of a 'ship', which included fake sails, rigging (made of steel cable), cannons and complete with a chest of tresure. Anyway, it got us to the other side. From where we had a short walk to the Ryokan (a traditional Japanese guest house). we sign in, and settle into our room (which doesn't have a room number, but has the kanjii for autumn and moon). i'm then shown by a hostess, how to wear my Yukata (a japanese version of a dressing gown which is just one step of complexity down from a kimono...) then we sit down to a very nice and large dinner, there's everything from, sashimi to nabe and tenpura...anyway by the end of it i'm stuffed. the hostess comes back with green tea ice cream to round it all off and then provides us with tea while she clears away the dinner we have just devoured. Then, time for Onsen! which was very relaxing...and most appreciated after a day of walking. by the time i have finished my soaking, someone has already come into the room (tatami flooring) and has set up the futons for us! so that all that's left for me to do is go to bed...in my highly relaxed state.

The next morning we get up for the 8am breakfast. Japanese, of course. rice and some pickled stuff, miso soup, some egg...was a bit strange for me, but good none the less.

we then pack our stuff up and head towards the old Hakone Checkpoint...well it's a nice reconstruction with a museum. mainly lost on me because everything was in japanese.

On the other side of the checkpoint, we walked up to a mount Fuji view point...where i saw this very strangly trimmed tree.
anyway, there's mount Fuji hidden by a bit of tree...at least i think it's mount Fuji.


We then take a walk through Ancient Cedar Avenue, to get back to the other side of lake Ashi on the monsterous ship that we used to get over here.

Ancient Cedar Avenue

one of the other monstrous sightseeing ships

The Temple gate in the water.

We then tried to get a bus to the Lalique museum, we did get off a stop early, but then finally managed to get there...it was a really impressive collection of his work, from perfume bottles to furniture...and some really intricate jewellery too...to be honest, some of his sketches looked far better than the finished product. Anyway, as it was a museam, no photos were allowed.

The next three photos are from a temple near where we took the train back into Tokyo (and i can't remember the name of the station or the temple...but we did climb a rather steep path with takoyaki (light snack) to get to it...anyway it was very nice and peaceful and a lovely end to the trip.