Hotel Nanpu So 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 ...

... 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 ...

... which consisted of a variety of small soups, fish, sushi and rice dishes all with unique tastes, textures and colours, a great place to experience some traditional eats and relaxation.

Only there for a short time but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip and a key souvenir spot! I've never seen so many cartoon fuji-chan souvenirs! Endless!

... soy bean "delicacy" - Kyoko said, "Yes, you can be Japanese:)"), dinner with Miki chan (my friend I met and roomed with in Costa Rica last summer), a party at Kyoko's (international crowd), cooking at home, a Zushi beach outing (Mt. Fuji in the background), a solo expedition about the town, and a night of karaoke. How's that for stayin' busy!

And speaking of karaoke ("kah-lao-keh" - short 'e' at the end)...

It's very ...

... Edo).

W okolicy jest stary punkt kontrolny (checkpoint), którego zadaniem było kontrolowanie przepływu ludności przez wewnętrzną granicę w starej Japonii. Szczególnej kontroli podlegały osoby opuszczające dawne Tokio (dawniej: Edo). Dlaczego? Powód jest bardzo ciekawy. Szogun przetrzymywał żony i dzieci samurajów w Tokio, podczas gdy mężowie służyli gdzieś wewnątrz kraju, z dala od rodzin. Była ...

... shuffled (as quickly as we could) to our respective changing rooms, feeling a bit stupid. The onsen itself was amazing and soooo relaxing, and was just like a huge natural outdoor Jacuzzi, and the water felt so hot compared to the cold air. I did spend a while waiting for Sam to come out of his changing room before realising there were separate onsens for men and women.

Afterwards, and back in the changing room I reluctantly donned my outfit once more and tried to leave ...

... feel getting chill, I became worried of getting pneumonia (Luckily, we did not catch any afterall). All of us were drenched and felt so miserable when we arrived back to the 5th station.

Later at home:
There were many thunder struck near the house through the middle of night, we jumped out of our futons and were awake. It was very loud and scary. (Fortunately, we did not came across any earthquake during our stay)

... festival)is believed to be calming the eruption of Mt. Fuji by burning fire. The "Omikoshi" (the portable shrine) and "Mikage mikoshi" (literally means the great silhouette, referring the red Mt. Fuji) parades from Sengen Shrine to the city's Main Street to arrive at "Otabisho" (the goddess' temporary resting place ...

... 2F Kamakura City, 0467-25-0805 Mon-Fri 11:30 to 15:00 17:00～22:00(LO21:00) Sat, Sun and holidays 11:30 ~ 22:00 (LO21: 00)

Next, we visited "Tsurugaoka Hachiman" shrine. We then walked about 15 minutes on the hill to visit "Zeniarai benten" shrine and "Sasukeinari" shrine. On the way back to the "Kamakura ...

Hakone was beautiful. It reminded us very much of how Banff is to Calgary. Kind of a resort town. A lot greener than the rest of Japan from what we had seen. We took a loop tour of the park which consisted of a bus ride up a small mountain then a boat ride across a lake, followed by gondola and a cable car. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Mt Fuji as there was too much overcast.