Hakone

From Shin-Fuji we caught the Shinkansen to Odawara, as close as we could get to the Hakone region using our Japan Rail Passes.  From there we bought yet another pricey ticket called the Hakone Free Pass which let us ride the variety of trains, buses, gondolas, funiculars and ships that traverse the area.  As we were tired from the morning’s mountain climbing and keen to get to our hotel we opted for a relatively tame train and bus combination.

We’d had even more trouble than usual finding reasonably priced accommodation and had ended up at the Hakone Palace Hotel, an aging hulk of a hotel perched on a hilltop overlooking the main lake.  Our room was spacious but dated, to get internet access I had to go borrow a modem from the front desk!

Once we’d settled in we caught the bus a couple of stops down into the nearby town of Togendai on the lake shore.  There were a couple of restaurants but they were all a bit overpriced, so we hopped back on the bus to explore further up the road.  In Sengoku we went into a fancy bottle shop looking for a miso beer I’d seen in Nagoya, instead we came out with a chocolate beer, it was interesting but not fantastic.

Eventually we found ourselves some dinner so we could go back to the hotel and collapse exhausted.

The Hakone regions is renowned for its views of Mt Fuji, this is all we saw for three days, clouds. 

Day 252 – Finally time some Matt shopping time

This morning we caught a pirate ship across the lake to do some sightseeing and shop for a puzzle box.  You think I’m kidding:

OK, so maybe it’s a mock pirate ship, there’s a fleet of three that ferry passengers around the lake, like so many things in Japan, strange.

Ever since briefly playing with a family friend’s puzzle box many years ago I’ve wanted one of my own.  As Hakone is the home of the himitsu (Japanese puzzle box) I got to do some shopping while Erin busied herself admiring the other nice parquetry work.

We hadn’t been able to find another vending machine selling the huge Asahi tins, so I had to settle for grabbing a picture with the range in a bottle shop.  The littlest member of the family is 135ml, the largest 2L!

Mmmm, “Cookies and Cream” maybe?

The weather really hadn’t improved and it was becoming clear the Mt Fuji was not going to miraculously come into view.  So we got ourselves some noodles from 7-Eleven to cook up in our hotel room and headed back across the lake for another early night.

    

Day 253 – Norimono (modes of transport)

So this morning it was back on the bus and down to the gondola station, from where we took two gondolas over the mountain range behind the hotel.  Then it was down a funicular, onto a switchback train and eventually onto the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.  Along the way we stopped for gyoza, Erin’s “Ebi” (prawn) were especially delicious, my mouth is watering just typing this!

One last look back from the gondola at where Mt Fuji should be.

The schematic on the inside of the gondola was about as close as we came to seeing it.

The sulphur mine beneath the gondola.