Hidamarino Oka Ito

... here they call it a ropeway) from Togendai to Souzan with a brief stop at Owakudani to see the volcanic sulphuric steam. Again, this was supposedly a fantastic vantage point to see Mt. Fuji - but not today.

On reaching Sounzan we took a cable car down to Gora, from which we jumped on a local train heading back to Hakone-Yumoto. From there another hour spent on a different train heading back to Tokyo ...

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 ...

... has very friendly staff and lots of visitors from all over the world. After a short rest and a much needed shower, we found our way to a curry house and enjoyed the kind hospitality of the owner (and some yummy Japanese style curries). Our beds beckoned and we rested our travel weary bodies.

Tomorrow we check out some sights in Kyoto and are looking forward to the wealth of historic sites that Kyoto is home to.

Sayonara.

... system, we had no trouble making our way to Tokyo station and got our first taste of the bullet train. It is smooth, sleek, and fast; and like every train we have been on in Japan it is clean and efficient to the max. When the timetable says it is leaving at 12:06, it leaves exactly on 12:06 to the second.

It seemed that Tokyo stretched on forever, and it is just one huge megalopolis beyond Yokohama to the south. As suburb after suburb whizzed by we ...

Hakone wreszcie pozwoliło nam odpocząć od świątyń i uciec od betonowego Tokio. Jest to popularny górski kurort położony dość blisko stolicy. Cały teren to wnętrze wielkiego, starego 40 km krateru wulkanicznego. Główną atrakcją oprócz samych gór są onseny – japoński gorące źródła i ryokany -tradycyjne japońskie hotele, zajazdy, których początki datuje się na XVII wiek ...

... scree switchbacks that go all the way back down to the bottom – stopping only to spend 45 minutes in line for the bathrooms since we hadn’t peed in nearly 12 hours. The clouds had lowered on the mountain so it took a while to break free but when they did, we got a sense of what we had done. The valley stretched far far below us and the brightly colored bobbing heads continued down the mountain for a long long way.

We stepped off the mountain ...

... the day’s adventures we just chilled out in the evening.


Rising early the next day, we were able to see the stunning Hakone in day light. After a breakfast of croissants, we caught the local train up the zigzag railway, which took us past the breath-taking scenery of the national park and up into the huge mountains. We then caught a cable-car over the serene Lake Ashi, the part of the journey where, if you are lucky you can see mount Fuji. Unfortunately ...

... felt like I was a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.

The Ichinoyu Honkan:-



My room:-





The private outdoor hot spring bath:-



I was met by a very friendly host and left my bags for safe keeping as it ...

... it is very popular but often prohibitively expensive. This place has live music every night for 1000 yen per person so we decided to check it out. It was a very nice setup and the meals were very reasonable as well at about 1500 yen. We walked home from there, stopped by to see our favorite Japanese lounge proprietor lady at Bar Kaneko for a few minutes, and went home!

We had breakfast at the hotel and were then picked up for our tour to Mt.Fuji. The first stop was at a service station on the way down to Mount Fuji to allow people to get a drink and stretch their legs. As it was such a clear day you could see the peak of Mt.Fuji from the service station.

A few minutes later we were on our way to the viewing area on Mt.Fuji. Due to snow we went to the second level from the bottom but it still had ...