Hanaikada Ito

... an hour on this train we switched to another bound for Hakone-Yumoto. Once we arrived we changed to a bus heading for Moto-Hakone. The further along the journey we went the colder it got. Unfortunately the bus we got on took us on the indirect (and possibly less scenic) route (about 40 mins), but it was irrelevant as the weather was so bad you couldn't see much, certainly not Mt. Fuji!

Arriving at the ...

... about the "black eggs". Supposedly if you eat a black egg which had been cooked in the sulfur springs you will have 7 years added to your life span. So Jeremy and I said that sounded great. The eggs are put into little baskets and dropped into the sulfur springs to boil. Talk about stink - the springs were awful, and the eggs made it worse. Anyway, when they come out the shells are totally black ...

... its way back down the mountain to Hakone-Yumoto. Making our way back to Odawara we had another ride on the bullet train – this time a super express over to Kyoto (an ancient capital). A kind gentleman on the train pointed out Mt Fuji again for us (they take such pride in this majestic mountain).

Finally arriving at Kyoto we had a short walk to K's House, our hostel. More like a small motel than your average hostel, this ...

... were clogged up and into it all appears a family of five from Australia with luggage enough for a month's stay. As usual though, everyone was friendly and helpful and despite waiting in line for ages with all the locals we boarded a small bus for the climb up the mountain. We twisted and turned up the winding mountain road and had had just about enough; wondering why on earth we decided to come here anyway. The stunning views were some consolation but the best ...

... 261; własne niewielkie onseny, które mogą być wykorzystane prywatnie (co jest praktycznie niemożliwe w dużych hotelach). Właśnie z takiego tradycyjnego zajazdu - ryokana skorzystaliśmy. Dzięki temu mogliśmy zakosztować kąpieli pod gwiazdami bez towarzystwa innych ludzi.

Właściciele polecili nam jedną z pobliskich knajpek. Różniła się nieco od tych, do których na co dzień chodzimy w ...

... 10:30am, having missed our bus and headed to the bus-ticket office. It was immediately clear that mayhem was ensuing because lots of people were in our same shoes and had missed or would be missing their buses because of the crowds. The line for tickets was maybe 30 ft long when we got there and had doubled within 15 minutes. A few buses came and left and then the bus company finally gave up on their nice orderly reservation system. When we heard “ ...

... to the thick mist (which is apparently very common) we couldn’t see a thing and had to settle with the picture-perfect postcard we were given on arrival. Our trip finished with a boat ride across the huge lake which was really beautiful. We caught a bus back to Hakone train station, collected our backpacks from the storage lockers we’d hired for the day and boarded the Shinkansen to the small mountain town of Takayama, where we would be spending the next few days.

... that one bathes in the NUDE! Luckily I had my own private in-room hot spring so here I come!!! But the water temperature was a bit too cool ~32degrees so I decided to gather some courage and visit the communal baths. They were of course sex separated. The whole process is ...

... apricots which Chris likes so I asked for a bag. The man then informed me that the small bag would cost $10. I looked at my professor and she said "fruit is expensive in Japan!" From here I headed back to campus for class. After class Chris wanted to go out with some friends for a bit since we are planning to go to Nikko this weekend and won't be able to celebrate with them then. We headed to the newly ...

... Lake Ashi for a boat cruise. The cruise once again had views of Mt.Fuji and also a temple by the lake complete with torii on the water's edge.

People then had the option of taking the bus back to Tokyo which could take three hours or taking the Shinkansen fast train back to Tokyo. As we had a rail pass we took the train at no extra cost and were back in Tokyo within the hour. It was exciting to take our first ride on a Shinkansen!