Nagisaen Ito

... town, we got off and walked through the picturesque cedar avenue to the next town, Hakone-Machi. From here we got on the sightseeing boat to cros the lake (Ashino-Ko) - a pirate ship nonetheless. I kid you not! We also managed to not get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji all this time (the whole reason for coming this way) because of the poor visibility and low cloud. At the other side of the lake we caught the ...

Today we had a great day exploring outside of Tokyo at the Hakone National Park. It is about 80 km outside of Tokyo. We took a bus to the park where we took the ropeway (gondola) up to the area where there are sulfur springs due to the volcanic activity in the area. We had beautiful views of Mt. Fuji, who had had her first snow the night before. Once we got to the area of the springs, our guide told ...

... first stop on the bus – still going up the mountain – was Gora where we boarded the cable car which took us up at a very steep angle to the top of the mountain (or so we thought...). We then jumped on the first of two ropeways (a gondola hanging from a cable strung up to hundreds of feet above the ground). The views over the foothills, countryside and mountain peaks were just breathtaking. We caught our first glimpse of ...

... yet to come.

Arriving at a small place called Sengukara, so glad to off that bus, we had a minutes’ walk to the Fuji Hakone Youth Hostel. This place is wonderful. Greeted by a charming family we felt welcome and comfortable straight away. The same family run an equally charming guest house in the same location and the dear lady who runs the place gave us a quick guided tour of our lodgings and an introduction to the famous Hakone tourist loop. We ...

... 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 ...

... and they assured us we would be off the mountain by then so took them. It turned out later that the return reservation was more of a "suggestion" than anything else.

Meera and I arrived in Shinjuku, Tokyo to pick up our tickets and got on our full buses to Fuji 5th station at 7:30p on Saturday night. Along the way, I got to see fireworks and this mysterious line of lights going up into the sky that I later learned was the huts and climbers already on the ...

... 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.

Ahhhh Fuji-san

I pre-booked the Romance Car Train prior to arriving in Tokyo, and managed to reserve the Observation Carriage – which really is a fancy name for the front carriage. The Romance Car commences at Shinjuku station and arrives into Hakone-Yamato. I had ...

... 16 hours for us. Personally I would confirm the saying that "you're a fool if you've never climbed Mt. Fuji; also that you're twice the fool if you climb it more than once." Mt. Fuji was probably the most difficult mountain I have ever climbed...pretty extreme actually. We were lucky, though, because there was no snow on the top yet, so it wasn't too slippery. The couple that we met was also nice enough to give us a lift back to Kawaguchiko ...

... 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!