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.

Banff

Day 217 – Chasing squirrels

This being the first day in a while where we weren’t on a tight schedule we all (except Jeff of course) took the opportunity to sleep in.  While everyone was deciding what we were going to do with our day I went for a run around nearby Table Mountain.  Half of me was hoping to spot a bear as I ran through the woods, the other half was hoping not to!  In the end, I only spotted some birds and a few ground squirrels.

Around about lunchtime we headed out to explore the town.  It’s quite a scenic place, if perhaps a little imitation Swiss mountain village. 

  
Everywhere you look there is a mountain backdrop.

In the afternoon we took advantage of the hot pools at the resort, sampling both the warm and cool pools before having a sauna. 

On our way back from picking up Ben from his hotel (he was in Banff with work) we spotted some caribou wandering along the street as well as a field full of ground squirrels.  When we got back and told Marg and Erin about this they got quite excited so we went for a walk to do some wildlife spotting (which mostly consisted of Erin and Marg chasing small mammals around an open grassy area!).

There’s that backdrop again.

 
Elliott and Kat had a hankering for a BBQ, so they cooked us one up for dinner, then we hit the bar at the nearby backpackers hostel (though Erin and I were a bit over the backpacker scene!):

And now for the silly faces part of the night:

    

Day 218 – Bare bear bums

Today we headed to Lake Louise, an excursion that Marg had been eagerly anticipating.  On the way there we avoided the Trans-Canadian and instead went along the Bow Valley Parkway, hoping we might catch a glimpse of some wildlife.  We were rewarded not far into the drive when we spotted a caribou with a nice big rack (of antlers!) grazing by the side of the road.

About halfway to Lake Louise we made a stop at Johnson Canyon for a bit of exercise and some more waterfall viewing.  Unfortunately we’d been spoiled by the offerings at Wells Gray and today’s waterfalls looked a little tame.  We were also a little put off by the huge numbers of people on the walking trail, many of whom looked equipped for multi-day adventures, despite the trail being basically wheelchair accessible!  In fact the highlight of the walk was probably watching the tiny ground squirrels.

At Lake Louise we ummed and ahhed about whether to pick up some lunch in the pricey hotel, eventually settling on a snack from the hotel bar overlooking the lake.

It was difficult to capture it in photos, but the lake was quite a brilliant blue colour which was supposed to be even brighter about a month from now.

This photo probably would have been better looking the other direction with the lake in the background , rather than a wall, oh well…

Our next stop was Moraine Lake, a bit nicer in my opinion because it doesn’t have a monstrous hotel perched on its edge.

After a big night out last night, this evening was rather more sedate - we played Pictionary.  Elliott and I got away to an early lead, which looked unassailable.  Alas this was not the case, Kat and Erin overtook us at the final hurdle.  Ben and Marg on the other hand, lets just say they had fun.

Day 219 – The day Tom Tom and I became friends

This morning we had to tick off our last Banff tourist item, the Banff Gondola,  before heading toward Calgary to drop off Marg and Jeff for their flight to New York.  The entry price was steeper than the line of gondola towers up the mountain, but it also included entry to their small network of trails and interpretative signs at the top of the mountain.

We asked Tom Tom (Elliott’s GPS gizmo) where to stop for lunch on the way to Calgary.  I’ve had the wineries and breweries option turned on all week, but so far Tom Tom has only taken us to fruit wineries (boo) and a vacant factory in Kamloops that was once a microbrewery.  So when Tom Tom pointed us to ‘Grizzly Paw Brewery’ in Canmore I was sceptical.  But this time he was on the money, and sure enough he delivered us to a microbrewery that not only served tasting platters of it’s brews, but also lunch.

Late afternoon we checked into our little hotel suite near Calgary Airport.  Although we hadn’t realised when we booked it, the hotel not only had a pool, but also a waterslide.  Our excitement only mounted after the first go when we realised that the waterslide wasn’t even lame, on the contrary it spat you out into the pool like a cannonball (with some nice friction burns if you weren’t careful).

Before dinner we did a quick drive around downtown Calgary so that we could say we’d seen it, and then settled on a pretty ordinary (but cheap at least) Vietnamese restaurant for dinner.