Hakone

(Sunday, February 22)

Today, we headed to the Hakone region which is very outdoorsy with views of Mt. Fuji, mountains, lakes, hot springs, etc. It is located about 2 hour train ride southwest of Yokosuka. The train ride down there was nice since the weather was nice. Once you get to Odawara, you switch trains, then you switch trains again at Hakone-Yumoto. The train ride from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora is a winding train ride that goes up the sides of the mountains. The cool part was that the train actually switch-backed along the way at a couple locations. It would be going right to left, then switch and start going left to right up the mountain side.

Once we got to Gora, we got onto a cable car that goes straight up the side of the mountain to Sounzan. The train was angled with steps to move throughout the train car. Onboard the train we met some nice Japanese ladies that we shared our pictures of Disneyland and Denise’s kimono class. They were laughing and having a good time. One of the ladies ended up giving Denise a collar pin of a hat after we got off the train.

Once we got to Sounzan we realized that the weather was starting to change for the worse. It was windy at Sounzan, so the gondola that goes to Owakudani at the top of the mountain was not running. We got in a long line to wait to take a bus. We finally got on the bus and headed to Owakudani. At Owakudani, they had some steaming sulfur pits and great views of Mt. Fuji. The problem was it was extremely windy and cold at the top that we only stayed the minimum amount of time to catch the bus to go to the other side of the mountain. Mt. Fuji was starting to get covered in clouds, so the view was nice, but not as amazing as it could have been. Owakudani is famous for the black eggs you can get which are eggs that are hard boiled in hot sulfur water.

We took the bus down the other side of the mountain to Lake Ashi. From Lake Ashi, you can take a boat ride to Hakone Machi on the other side of the lake. Along the way you are supposed to get great views of Mt. Fuji, but it was clouded in by this point. There was a ferry you can take across the lake or a pirate ship. We made the mistake of taking the ferry because we did not realize where the pirate ships took off from until after we were on the ferry boat. The funny part was there were only 6 people on a ferry that held 750 people.

We definitely choice the wrong day to go to Hakone. We should have gone on Saturday, but we were both tired and wanted to sleep in. We did make it back in time to have dinner with my coworkers. It was a birthday party dinner for my friend Trevor. We had some tasty chili which took the days chills right out.