Day 5: Hakone

Lake Ashi- Hakone

Breakfast

Waffle places don't open before 10-11am, this is one lesson we learnt, so despite Aaron's desire for waffles we ended up finding a station cafe in Shinjuku and getting a toastie and an egg and bacon muffin. Another thing we had noticed was to look at the edges of stairs- some tell you how many calories you're burning as you go up! (So far spotted at Tokyu Hands and Shinjuku station.) Aannyway...

Hakone

We managed to successfully get the romance car to Odawara, which had lovely views once you got outside Tokyo. I did sleep a bit though but still appreciated the mountains! At Odawara we got the Hakone Free Pass and started the Hakone Loop! It worked out cheaper to do it that way as we weren't returning to Shinjuku after doing the loop but instead starting our 7 day JR passes at Odawara the next day and heading on to Kyoto.

View from the Romance Car across the countryside to the mountains

We walked down the old stone path that travellers used to use from Tokyo or Edo as it was then, and to the checkpoint where it had all been restored and there was a museum.

It wasn't all that clear where to join and leave the path but we seemed to have worked it out ok, and it was nice to walk in the shade of the trees.

We got through the museum pretty quickly but the restored checkpoint was really good, there was a lot of information and friendly people pointing us in the right direction to ensure we didn't miss bits.

There were dummies at the checkpoint replicating what would have happened at the time in each of the areas, which made it much easier to visualise.

Aaron joining the guards

We also stopped off at the detached palace gardens where we got an awesome view of Lake Ashi. We didn't spend long here, we could have spent hours if we had longer, but with less than 24hrs in Hakone it was highlights only. Sadly Fuji was hiding but we think we could just make out an outline in the clouds.



Walking to get the boat

Next we got on the pirate ship cruise across Ashi, the surrounding scenary was stunning and the half an hour flew!

Then it was a coach to the next stop as the ropeway was closed due to higher levels of volcanic activity on Mt Hakone, and then a cable car to Gora. We didn't really find anything in Gora, it seemed a bit deserted possibly due to it being midweek, so after a very quick walk around we headed off to Hakone Open Air Museum which was better than I expected not being into sculptures! There was a star maze, and a hotspring footbath, and it was a pretty place to walk around.

The Open Air museum

On our travels round the loop we had many opportunities to grab some new snacks and drinks to try which was one of our favourite hobbies in Japan...



The Ryokan

Then we headed to our ryokan for about 5pm. It was faaancy and I didn't want to leave! Our room was more like a suite with an entrance area to remove our shoes, toilet, sink area, minibar area with its own sink, glasses etc, then the dining/sleeping area, living room area (with an awesome view of Hakone Yumoto) then another sink area leading to the shower, which then leads to the balcony with the hot spring bath! It may have been bigger than my house..

We had a kaiseki dinner in our room (far more food than we got a picture of as it just kept coming!) And then they came and removed the dinner stuff and made up our beds which were actually quite comfy. Once our dinner had gone down we went out into the onsen which was gorgeous at night and just lay in there listening to the river and looking out at the view. Eventually I got too hot and grabbed my kindle and sat reading on the edge just dangling my legs in.

Aaron wearing the yukata

Kaiseki dinner

View from our private onsen

        





Next post: Day 6: Hakone and Kyoto