Hotel Harvest Hikone Koshien Hakone

... 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 ...

Konichiwa.

We rose early to the stream babbling and the early birds chirping just outside our tatami room and had one last soak in the hot spring tub – wow what a way to start our day. The lovely hosts in our guest house prepared a breakfast for us and the other guests which fuelled us for the big day ahead. Forwarding our luggage to the train station we jumped on an early bus and headed for the hills around Hakone.

Hakone (and Kyoto), Kanagawa, Japan campbellot

... 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 ...

So yea! To summarize:
Walked about 10.2km downhill (which isn't so easy on rocky surface n stuff) from Station 5 of Mount Fuji to the bottom. Took about 5/6 hours but YAY! I used my hiking boots again (count so far: 3 times!) and it didn't feel too bad so I'm pretty glad, good chance to work off all the pocky!

Stayed in an epic Hotel Ohike which not ...

... szczególnie dla Japończyków, gdyż skorupka jajka wrzucona do gorącej siarkowej wody, barwi się na czarno. Myślę, że jest to jedna z niewielu miejsc na świecie, w którym odbywa się masowa konsumpcja jajek na twardo.

Onseny – gorące źródła wykorzystywane są w basenach gdzie nago kąpią się Japończycy (oddzielnie kobiety i mężczyźni). Na szczęście małe ryokany ...

... fish:
"Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese Cuisine" edited and published by Eat-Japan.

Eat-Japan:
http:// www.eat-japan.com/
Dashi and Umami book:
http://www.amazon.com/Dashi-Umami-Heart -Japanese-Cuisine/dp/1897701934/ref=sr_ 1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252377 445&sr=8-1

Thailand and Japan have a wonderful selection of pre-made take home food available in supermarkets. Japan ...

... 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 ...

... hut was safe and wise indeed. I got really scared while I was trying to sleep on the thin and damp futon mattress of mountain hut, bothered by the noise of strong winds swirling outside. Prior to clmbing, we also discussed about the weather and we knew that it would be raining the next day. As soon as we left the top, it drizzled as we were heading toward hevy mist. The rain was getting harder as we were descending ...

... or so was pleasant as we were passing thorough the dense forests of many mountains.

From the "Fujiyoshida" station, we walked on the main street (where the fire festival will be held), passing through the north end big Torii gate, along the big torches and food vendors, who were preparing for the festivals ...

... aire libre, así que yo, me meto también. ˇCasi me escaldo vivo y repongo los dos huevos negros que me había comido en lo alto de Owakudani! Estaba ardiendo y supongo que la utilizan para escaldar todo microbio viviente que te haya podido quedar tras el meticuloso lavado a mano. Salgo de allí pitando y me voy para afuera. Hay varios pozos, unos para relajarte tumbado, otros con burbujas, cascadas, chorros de agua... pero para mi todo está ardiendo. De repente, en una esquina veo que hay ...