Hakone is a region in the mountains mainly famous for two things: Onsen (natural hot springs) and Spectacular views of Mt. Fuji. The forecast was for cloudy and rainy weather, so there will be no Mt. Fuji for me 🙂 I purchased something called a Hakone Free Pass which gave me unlimited access to all of the many modes of transportation available in the Hakone area: train, bus, pirate ship, gondola ropeway, and cable car.
Arrived late at Hakone Station and found the bus. It was a 40 minute bus ride of hairpin turns in the dark. I was focussed on getting to the hotel, so I didn’t eat anything around the station. When I finally arrived at the hotel I was disappointed to find out that the restaurant had already closed, nothing around was open, and there were no laundry facilities. Not the best start. The concierge did however point me in the direction of their gift shop which had an assortment of snacks and instant food. the laundry was going to be a bigger problem. I guess I would have to wait until I arrive in Kurashiki to have clean clothes.
I ate corn cup-a-soup and a chocolate croissant in a bag and an emergency cliff bar I had brought from home. I felt this qualified as an emergency 🙂 Now that I was no longer “hangry”, I could regroup and make a plan. In my hotel there was an assortment of indoor hot springs options, a karaoke room and a ping pong table. There were two public bath areas – segregated by gender – these were regular hot springs, and there were also private bathing room which were sulphur hot springs. I tried both out. Here is what the private Onsen rooms look like:
In each room you are given a yukata (lightweight robe) a cover with a pocket to carry things and a pair of slippers. While in the hotel, almost everyone wears their spa wear, not street clothes.
I went to bed late as I was catching up on the blog and making travel plans, and then still woke up at 5am. When I opened the blinds, there a lush green view at my window – not a bad way to wake up, even if it is 5am. When the front desk was open, I visited the gift shop again and had squash cup-a-soup for breakfast – I regretting not doing ordering the breakfast buffet. I also noticed the small local sweet made with charcoal mochi paste with a chestnut filling sitting on the tea tray. I ate that too 🙂
View from my room:
It was pouring, but miraculously, it started clearing up just as I was heading out for the 15 minute walk to the Togendai port where I could either take the pirate ship cruise or the cable car gondola. I had no idea which I was going to do, because that is how this trip has been – completely living in the moment. At the very last second I saw that the pirate ship was leaving, so I jumped into line at the last minute.
It was a very ornately decorated – each one on the fleet was slightly different – whomever designed these ships, went all out on the theme. The scenery was beautiful. It was fairly clear, but it was not clear enough to see Mt. Fuji. The boat ride took about 25-30 minutes and was quite pleasant.
The first thing I did when I got off the ship was to look for a convenience store to find some food. I was excited to find my favourite mung bean salad snack that I ate everyday at Japanese school. I also stocked up on some onigiri for later as I was planing on doing some hiking.
My next stop was the Hakone Shrine. It was surrounded by old growth forests. Everything was covered in moss – it was truly beautiful. It also has a Torii in the water which I loved.
At home we have a boardgames we like to play called “Tokaido” It is based on the ancient highways that connected the capital cities of the various regions of the main Island of Honshu in Japan before the Eco period. In Hakone, there is a portion of the original cobblestone road and I wanted to hike it. On the way there, I of course observe some interesting things:
The hike itself was magnificent. It felt like something out of a storybook. Huge old growth trees, moss, wispy mist, This was the Shinrin Ryoku (forest bathing) I had been looking for. In the hour or so that I walked, I only came across a handful of people, mostly it was just me and the forest and it was glorious.
I did stop for an onigiri along the way and loved listening to the birdsongs and observing various bugs and butterflies that were totally different from home.
I ended up at an ancient teahouse in Amazake. Their specialty was a sweet, fermented, non-alcoholic rice beverage which you could drink hot or cold. I had planned on ordering some mochi as well, but then I saw these Konjac balls that looked very interesting. The woman warned me about them, and asked if I have had them before and I told her I had eaten Konjac noodles and liked them. The order came with five balls and an interesting sauce. The noodles I ate before were more delicate, eating the whole ball was bit challenging – two balls was more than enough. I couldn’t finish and ended up hiding some of the chewed-up third ball in a wrapper in my bag until I could find a garbage. This is one of the many times it would have been nice not traveling alone.
Throughout the day the sky was clear, but there were wispy clouds floating around, sometimes fairly close to ground level, sometimes I found myself walking through a refreshing misty cloud.
Next stop was the Hakone Open Air Museum. Wow. Just wow. Apparently it was the first open air museum of its kind in the world. One thing that was so remarkable about it was that it wasn’t just a park full of gigantic outdoor works of art, the landscaping of the park was also a work of art in itself. There are immaculate gardens, bridges and waterfalls, ponds and meandering paths that all worked in harmony with the outdoor installations. Every time I thought I was finished I would find another area that I had not explored yet. Within the parkthere were two or three indoor pavilions that housed ceramics, indoor sculptures that could not weather the elements, as well as paintings and drawings. There was an entire pavilion dedicated to Picasso.
At one point through the trees, peeking through I could see an area with others sculptures in waiting in their collection. I suppose that there is a rotation at times, changing up the installations, but I cannot confirm that.
Many other installations were meant to be interactive, encouraging the viewers to physically climb inside, which I of course did enthusiastically at every opportunity. Two great example of this were this tower by Gabriel Loire – it is called “Symphonic Sculpture”.
Inside you realized that the enter tower is made with stained glass – it was breathtaking. the view from the top was pretty amazing too.
Here is a real life labyrinth which was super fun to walk through. When I emerged there was a very friendly Chinese tourist with her little boy who wanted to practice her English. They were really friendly. I had a short, but very pleasant chat with them. She shook my hand when she introduce herself and didn’t let go the whole time we were talking.
One installation was designed for children only. It was a gigantic wooden structure that had colourful nets inside. the nets were constructed with tunnels within them. As you approached, you could hear the delighted shrieks of children climbing inside. Spectacular.
I wanted to make picture of EVERYTHING, but I was trying to conserve battery, so I just pick some of my favourites. If anyone is interested I can show you more at home if you like, Here are just a few.
After the museum I had a few travel mishaps, but as always, often mishaps lead to interesting experiences. I was trying to get back to my hotel and walked quite awhile to get to the bus stop. When I got there I mistakenly thought that it was not for the bus company I had my free pass with, so I looked for another route through google maps. This bus stop was 15 minutes away, no problem! I kept an eye on the little blue dot representing me on the map, and more than once realized I had missed my turn. When I backtracked I realized why- the path the map wanted me to take was this really narrow, steep staircase that wound its way down the mountain. and, of course when I got down to the bottom, it seems I missed the bus.
The entrance to the path that I missed:
No problem, there was a little restaurant by the bus stop, so I had some delicious fried eggplant while I was waiting. I keep my eye on the time and made the next bus. I also chatted with the family at the next table as I overheard them laughing about the staircase. They had put “pizza” into their GPS and also ended up on this treacherous staircase – they planned to take a taxi back to their hotel.
Side note: Pizza in Japan is not quite like pizza elsewhere – they have completely different toppings to choose from, like corn and squid ink among other things. Also, In Hakone I often saw Horse meat sashimi on the menu – I did NOT try it.
I finally made my way back to the hotel and visited the private onsen again. As I hadn’t pre-reserved dinner at the hotel, I ended up eating the last of my snacks – including a weird bun filled with strawberry jam.
This is the garden outside my hotel.
All in all, a great day – I walked over 24,000 steps, took several different types of transportation, had some new cultural experiences. I am looking forward to what unfolds tomorrow.