Peacoock Hill 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 ...

... 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

... write more about this tomorrow after we travel on the mountain cable car, the ropeways and the boats on Lake Ashi with views of Mount Fuji (weather pending of course).

Our room is the traditional Japanese room with tatami straw mats on the floor, futon beds rolled up in the corner, rice paper panels covering the windows and a central table low to the floor with cushions around it. We have a beautiful view out our huge window overlooking scenic bushland and a ...

... 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 ...

... We made decent time until we turned onto the mountain road to the station – red lights as far as the eye could see. The car park at the station was full and it took about 20 minutes to get the buses maneuvered around the line of cars and up to the station. We stepped off the buses around 10:15pm amid a throng of people with the same goal as us – climb overnight to reach the top at dawn.

Some background – there are a number of ...

... to the thick mist (which is apparently very common) we couldn’t see a thing and had to settle with the picture-perfect postcard we were given on arrival. Our trip finished with a boat ride across the huge lake which was really beautiful. We caught a bus back to Hakone train station, collected our backpacks from the storage lockers we’d hired for the day and boarded the Shinkansen to the small mountain town of Takayama, where we would be spending the next few days.

... of money! But the rate was comparable to other similar ryokans in the area and I guess at the end of the day I can say I now have experienced a traditional Japanese style guest house and enjoyed the therapeutic hot spring baths.


Next:- Fast forward and I am going back to Tokyo.

... The hostess took our drink order- drinks were rather pricey. We decided that we would order the four drink wine pairing with the Tapas courses since it was a pretty good deal as opposed to ordering individual glasses of wine or drinks. Chris decided to dry a pre-dinner tropical mojito as well which was yummy. The waitress brought me my first drink course, some nice champagne, while we waited for the seating to begin. We were seated with the there other lucky couples who had ...

... views of the mountain peak.

We then drove on to Hakone and took the cable car across to the Owakaduni Valley volcanic area with its steam vents and boiling water pools. Being a volcanic area it had the customary smell of rotten eggs. You could also buy "black eggs" which were eggs boiled in the sulphur-rich water which turned the egg shells black.

After taking the cable car back we got back in the bus and drove on to our final ...