hey all,
This weekend's fare was a trip to Hakone. It is actually quite close to Tokyo, and even closer to Yokohama. The best comparison I can give for Hakone is imagine if all the Swiss people in Switzerland were replaced by Japanese people, and the mountains were formed by volcanic activity, not by glacial. Hakone is like that. Lots of green mountains, steep slopes and sudden valleys, lakes nestled between the mountains, switchback mountain trains, cable cars, and rope-way ski-lift like contraptions that carry you hundreds of feet off the ground and sway in the wind.
As it happened, the weather on Saturday was atrocious. We knew this, and went anyway. We arrived late on purpose, and had lunch at Owakudani, which is this hellacious valley with sulfuric hot springs (you can see the yellow sulfur deposits), clouds of egg-smelling vapor, etc. After that, we went to the hotel and thanks to the earthquake last month (and also the bad weather), we could enjoy the hot springs all to ourselves. I was treated to the interesting sensation of chilling rain coming down on my head and shoulders, and being immersed in hot water from the neck down. Both the inside and outside hot springs were wonderful. The water, unlike the water at Owakudani, didn't have that egg smell to it, and there was not a single person there. The men's hot spring also had a Gantz-like black ball from which the water was pumped into the pools. Very cool.
Dinner was delicious. A little too much fish for my taste, and they had raw ika, which are whole squid about as long as a thumb and chewy. But the chicken and everything else was good.
The rain didn't let up until quite late, but miraculously, Sunday morning was bright, warm, and sunny, and stayed that way throughout the day. We rode a sightseeing boat called the "Pirate Line" across Lake Ashi, and walked around the Hakone Checkpoint Museum. From there, we hopped back on the boat and rode that to a different spot on the lakeside, and then started the 9km hike along the old Tokaido down to Hakone-Yumoto station. We made it most of the way there but ended up taking a bus for the last section because instead of a historical cedar-lined path paved with rocks that Miyamoto Musashi, Sakamoto Ryoma and the like traveled, it became a normal concrete and asphalt affair.
Next weekend is supposed to be our second rock climbing trip to Ogawayama. We haven't been there since I first asked her on a date about 1.5 years ago. I'm hoping that the weather will be good. It looks decent, but at the moment there is a 30% chance of rain for the 3-day weekend. We'll be taking the easy way this time and staying in the lodge.
Cheers,
P.S. Hakone pics coming soon! It is late and I don't feel like waiting for them to upload.
