Happy in Hakone

Hakone Tozan Train

Hakone Tozan Cable Car

A 4 year old schnauzer
named Alzo at the top

At the top, Owakudani they cook eggs
in the sulfur and turn them black. Eating one extends you life
by 7 years. One guy ate 5.

The furthest slope is Mt Fuji, surprise!

Hakone Ropeway

With the captain? :)

Pirate ship

Cherry blossoms from the bus

Origami party on the way back

Bleary eyed and rugged up we meet to start today’s journey. Its 6:20am and we are off to visit the Hakone region about 100kms from Tokyo. Overall this was an excellent adventure that I never could have accomplished without Yuriko to guide us around. She even managed to get all of us seats on every leg of the journey.  Way too much happened to even begin to capture the day.

The summary is 7 trains, 2 buses and many other unique types of transport. Here are the stages,

• Metro, Tawaramachi to Kanda to Shinjuku
• Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto on the Romancecar, the only train in Japan with no arm rests between the seats so you can cuddle
• Hakone-Yumoto to Gora on a switchback railway we climbed 445 metres and the driver had to walk to the other end of the train 3 times for swtichbacks
• A cable car from Gora to Sounzan that rises 211 metres in a straight line for 1.2km
• Finally at the highpoint of our journey, Owakudani, the side of a volcano with sulphur springs. Its bitterly cold with an icy wind, most people huddle inside the cafes - I on the other hand run around like a mad woman to every vantage point and to my surprise discover the slope of Mt Fuji
• Now time for the descent, the first leg is 298 metres down on a gondola to Togendai-ko, to Lake Ashinoko
• We cross the lake in a pirate ship built for tourists, its impressive
• For this leg we had to use our own two feet and walk along the old Kyoto road through 350 year old cedar trees and the Kyoto checkpoint that feudal lords used to stop baddies getting into their territory (or out with their wives and children)
• The last descent back to the Romancecare train is on bus, on a crazy windy, steep road packed with people. The driver is impressive with precision and care but super fast he takes us through cherry blossoms, bamboo and big ancient trees and delivers us to the train.

I really enjoyed all the different engineering marvels to get around, up and over the mountains. I think in another life I could have been a trainspotter. Other highlights of the day included:

• lunch with local delicacies
• demo by local craftsman on wooden puzzle boxes
• making origami on the train back to Tokyo

All this was done with one ticket, the Hakone Free Pass.

Note: the Romancecar was not a bullet train as I expected, that is Sunday...can't wait.