Hotel Okuyumoto Hakone

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 ...

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 ...

... around the globe!

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The first night I had the place to myself! Kyoko was very trusting. She gave me the key to her place, a guidebook she had made herself, and a nice little computer to use, then headed off for an overnight trip to Tokyo. How cool was that!

I got showered, got groceries, fixed a great home-cooked meal, then did some computer stuff, and counted my blessings. I must have been a very good little ...

... 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 ...

... on the right bus. The spa was up in the mountains so the bus went up a winding road, Chrystal & I both agreed that we wouldn't want to drive that tiny road daily!

Once we were there we managed to find the front desk and get the information and get in. So you don't have to carry your wallet around with you they gave us these wristbands that were scanned when we needed ...

... 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 ...

Going the summit of Mt. Fuji:

Here is the itinerary of how we did it.

7 am : Took a train from "fujiyoshida" to "kawaguchiko" station to pick up a rental car
10am: Had a breakfast at skylark, a local family restaurant near the hotel.
11am: Fredrik drove on the fuji Subaru line (a 18 mile long toll (2,300 yen) road) to the fuji 5th station.
12:00pm: Arriving the 5th station, stayed there for 1 hr for ...

... arrived at "Resort Inn Fuyo". We rested shortly at the restaurants attached to the hotel and then went to see the Himatsuri, the Fire Festival.

The first day of two days festival called Yoshida-no-Himatsuri (the Fire Festival of Yoshida) at the base of Mt. Fuji. The first day at night of Chinkasai (the calming ...

... we stopped at small tea house serving Japanese sweets.

After dark, we travel to "Kita-Kamakura" station to visit "Enkaku" Temple but the gate was closed at 6.

At night, we moved to "minato mirai" (futuristic town) of YOKOHAMA, we went to the top floor (69th) of the Japan's highest building, the landmark tower ...

Thurs 12 April Forgot to mention we had a school party from Adelaide in the ryokan! Typical teenagers and my lack of tolerance, understanding, patience etc was sorely tested! Once S n A had arrived we left for Togendai and then the shuttle bus to the ropeway - part of the ropeway was closed for repair. The bus took us up the mountain to a volcanic area, not quite on the same scale as the NZ areas we had seen. The place was full of Japanese on bus tours; they are so disciplined it is ...