Oshibananoyado Yukitei Ito

... br>While we were out Wendy had been in touch with JAL and Maria's luggage was finally on its way to Tokyo. We were told it had been unable to leave Beijing due to the bad weather brought on by a faux pas from the Beijing Weather Modification Office (although we discovered later it had inadvertently been sent to Kuala Lumpur - thanks Air China!). So, only two days late - it arrived by courier at around 11pm. Yay.

... taro root and soba noodles. It actually was all pretty good.
A shinkansen (bullet train) took us back to Tokyo. By this time I was just out of it, seeing as I still had not been able to sleep. Thankfully last night I got a full nights sleep so feel much better.
A reception and dinner last night wrapped it up at the hotel.
All the Japanese are so nice and polite. We are having a wonderful time!

... 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 ...

... wondered if it was going to be a built up area all the way to Hakone. Eventually though, the cityscape began to turn into green spaces, farm lands and speckles of forest; and for the first time all week we actually saw a horizon that was not buildings... The mountains here make our mountains back in Australia look like hills really.

Sooner than we anticipated we arrived in the small city of Odawara, a regional hub connecting us with the Hakone area. We ...

... sztuki na świeżym powietrzu, w którym znajduje się także niezwykle interesujący pawilon poświęcony życiu i twórczości Picasso. W drodze powrotnej zatrzymaliśmy się w Odawarze, żeby zobaczyć rekonstrukcję starego zamku. Korzystając z okazji, zdecydowaliśmy się także przejść nad brzegiem Pacyfiku, który przykuwa uwagę swoją plażą, na której znajdziecie ciemny, wulkaniczny piasek.

Meera and I successfully summitted Mt Fuji sometime around 7am this morning. We probably should have been able to see what our adventure would entail when we were trying to get tickets. To be on the safe side, we had a Japanese friend book the tickets and when she couldn't reserve them on the website, she called and found out that there were two seats left but on separate buses on the last departure from Tokyo. The returns seats seemed unavailable for anything after ...

... views of the surrounding mountains and forest. We decided to take advantage of the nearby village onsen (a communal outdoor hot spring bath, found everywhere in Japan). Upon finding slippers and a yukata (traditional Japanese gown) in our wardrobe we followed the cue of the other guests and got dressed. After receiving some confusing directions from the guesthouse manager (who spoke limited English, and in retrospect, did seem to be laughing at us) we soon became lost, dressed ...

... style bed, dinner & breakfast for the next two nights. This 300 year old building set adjacent to a small river and densely surrounded by thick bush. Walking closer to the ryokan, the building looked just like they were in the photos and it was very quaint and charming. I ...

... Before we got there though we needed to negotiate getting on the train to Ito. We'd already bought rail passes which would give us unlimited travel on all but the fastest shinkansen (bullet trains) so all we had to do was swap our vouchers and get tickets for the right train. We swapped our vouchers for the passes very easily and were soon clutching our tickets as well. It won't surprise you to know that the trains in Japan run like clockwork, literally. Our ...

... 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!