Mt. Hakone (The Most Amazing View of Mt. Fuji in Japan)

        The journey to the top of this mountin, to see this amazing view was a LONG one! We left the house before 8 a.m to head to the train. We went from one train, to another train, and bought our Hakone Free Pass for just over 4000 yen each (Ben was free) at that station. This pass is worth the cost as it is valid for 2 days and allows you discounted fare and easy passage from each different type of transportation that you need to take to complete the round trip. Why valid for 2 days...well it's set up that way for a reason...Japan lesson of the day...if the pass is set up for 2 or 3 days, take your time and allow 2 or 3 days to do the sightseeing!

This is the map we followed. It shows the various transportation lines you must take to see the area. Mind you this is all a very thickly forested mountainous region.


     
     Our initial and ambitious plan was to take the Railway from the city of Odawara to the Open Air Museum, where they have a large collection of sculptures (including many Picasso's), then we would continue on to Gora to hop the cable car to the Ropeway to Owakudani where we could take a nice walk among hotsprings and have something to eat. After which we were going to continue down the ropeway to Lake Ashinoko and board the passenger boat to Moto-Hakone where we could visit the Hakone Shrine ( #4 of 143 major sights to see in Japan on www.japan-guide.com). After a walk through the shrine we would board a bus back to Odawara and take the train home...ambitious, but do-able...so we thought.


Train platform where we detoured for a few minutes after
not getting off to transfer.

      When we arrived at Odawara station we followed the crowd to the platform for the Hakone Railway. We ran into a couple that we knew so we sat with them and chatted during the ride. Aside from a minor set back of not getting off at the Hakone-Yumoto to transfer and having to go back a stop and get on the next train going the right way, we were pretty much on track.
Once we got to Hakone-Yumoto there were people holding signs directing people to the line for Tozan Railway towards Gora...this is where we realized we forgot an important detail. It was still Golden Week. Golden week is when almost all Japanese are on vacations to visit family and go sightseeing...like the previous weekend when we were at the zoo with about 2 million other people.We stood in line for about an hour at this first train station and while we were on the slow and zig-zagging ride up the mountain side, we realized that it was already after noon. We were going to have to cut the Museum out of our agenda.

Small town nestled in the mountainside, Gora.

       We stopped in Gora to take a little walk and find a place to eat with our friends. After lunch at the only place with an English menu, we got in line for the Cablecar. This was the shortest line, but still a mass of people crowded us in. As we went through the ticket gate, our friends were told to go back because they didn't have the right tickets. We were separated and they told us to go on ahead. So we did. The cablecar is a short ride at about a 45 degree angle going straight up the mountain side.
When we got off at the Ropway station, we were greeted by yet another super long line...at least there was a nice view this time.

Ben near the line for the Ropeway.

The end of the line is out side...the rest of it wraps around inside the entire building.

    Finally it was our turn!

   The ride was nice and smooth and relatively quick, and the views were amazing!


View of ropeway from Owakudani. I can't believe I actually rode on that thing...

Geothermal vents in the hillside at Owakudani.

       Once we arrived at Owakudani, it was our first chance to relax a bit and actually see some sights. The views from up there on a clear day were just breathtaking. My amateur pictures hardly give them justice. We took our time up here browsing a few of the many gift shops and snack stands. The traditional snack to eat while you're here is an egg hard-boiled in the sulfur springs. It's is said that eating these eggs adds 7 years to your life. So, we bought some fresh ripe strawberries and of course, the eggs for a snack. Re-energized we took a short hike up the path to the geothermal vents and location where they cook the eggs.

A Hard-boiled egg, boiled in the geothermal pools is the traditional snack. The sulfuric water turns the
 shell black, but despite the shell's color they are fresh and delicious.

The eggs even have a little electric ropeway of their own. They cart the piping hot eggs straight
 to and from the boiling waters up the hill.

and there it is....the killer view of Fuji-san (Hoo-ji sahn)...

    


1030m or 3380 ft.

        

There were two tables completely covered in egg shells.

       Once we walked back down the trail we decided we might as well get in line for the ropeway down to Togendai and Lake Ashi since it would probably take a while. After about an hour we arrived at the terminal to hop on a ferry boat down the lake where we could go to the shrine or board a bus back to Odawara. Little did we know how beautiful the passenger boats are! After another line, we got on the Cruiser at 5:15, it was too late to see the shrine. But it was okay, because we were so tired and ready to make the long trip home.


Royale

Victory

   We rode Victory across Lake Ashi. There were so many people that there was no where to sit, so we decided to fork out an extra 400 yen ($5) for first class passage. It was worth it as first class was close to empty. We were all exhausted and hungry at this point, so after a small snack and a family photo with the ships "pirate" we headed up to the deck to look outside.

Yaargh!

The deck was practically a playground!

 

       We arrived at Moto-Hakone  around 6:15 p.m. and pretty much ran straight to the bus ahead of the major portion of the crowd. A 45 minute bus ride turned into almost 2 hours due to stopped traffic all the way to Hakone-Yumoto (yet another perk of Golden week). As we rode on the bus our inherent American impatience started to really test us, especially because Marcus had to pee really badly. I spent much of my time during the day observing the Japanese and how they cope with delayed trips or lengthy lines. The straight up fact is, it seems for most of them that there is nothing to "cope" with. Lines and waiting is just a part of life. You'll get there when you get there. I saw no one become agitated, or say anything disgruntled. Not one complaint. I really admire that about certain cultures, and I am consciously trying to adopt and embody that kind of mindset myself. I mean, what's the point in letting your impatience stress you out or upset you? What's the point of being in such a hurry, or being so easily upset over that which you have no control of?

      We arrived in Odawara around 8 p.m. nearly starving as we had only had a small snack here and there besides lunch. None of the Japanese food choices were appealing to us at that point in the evening. I couldn't stomach a massive bowl of noodles, or anything fried. We found a small bagel sandwich shop and I gladly ordered a ham and cheese with mustard and lettuce. We took our sandwiches outside to sit and enjoy the Super Moon and city lights as we ate our dinner. Ben scarfed down his entire bagel with cream cheese in a matter of seconds! He's such a trooper. Sometimes the simplest foods that you normally take for granted can be so comforting. I played with the camera in the night time lighting for a few minutes before we headed for our ride home. After about another hour we arrived at home around 9:30 p.m. absolutely exhausted after another wonderful day on our Japanese Adventure.

Night shot in Odawara.

Enoshima Island

           This weekend we decided to get out and do some more kid-friendly trips for Benjamin. It seems like he has been pretty bored without any school, or kids he can play with besides when we're at the playground. We really wanted to go hiking in the mountains for the day, but I knew that wouldn't be fun for Ben, nor would he be able to do the hike without being carried. So fun day trips that included the nearest zoo and aquarium are what we did.
          On Saturday we took the train about 30 minutes Southeast to Enoshima. Typically we stop at a mini mart on the way to the train to grab a coffee and on the go breakfast to eat somewhere. We grabbed some portable lattes, a juice box, some rice balls (small triangular shaped rice with various flavors, like seaweed or fried rice...etc) and a small cream filled chiffon cake....i know chiffon cake in the morning?... but Marcus has it bad for these things, I usually just have a bit of his. We ate the rice balls as they are small and quick to eat while waiting at the train station, but as it's customary to not eat or drink on the train we saved the rest of  breakfast for our destination. When we arrived at the Katase-Enoshima train station we walked out and found our way towards our destination, the Aquarium. After about a five minute walk, we found the aquarium alongside the beach. We found a spot to sit along the shore and have our coffee and cake while watching the surfers do their excercises.

Views from where we sat. Enoshima Island is in the background.

So many surfers, and absolutely no waves.

        As I was taking these pictures and messing with the new camera, which I'm still really trying to figure out, Marcus opened his cake and took a bite. I noticed it had a pink filling and asked him what flavor it was. As he was trying to figure it out, he went to take another bite. I was looking at the camera when I heard a series of swooping noises, then I saw a mass of brown fly out in front of us...fast. Then I heard him yell out something like "What the F*&% just happened!?"  I don't know if that was the exact, but I'm sure it included an explicitive word of sorts. I immediately realized that a large bird of prey (actually called a Black kite ) we had previously been admiring atop a light pole had just taken half of the cake out of his hand...with his or her beak. Camera in hand, I instantly decided to start snapping photos as the bird looped back around to scope us out again. As I'm still clumsy with my camera, I was so lucky to get this shot.

You can actually see cream filling on it's beak!

       As I was assessing what had happened I just heard Marcus dramatically saying over and over, "I felt it's talon ON my finger!"  I couldn't do anything but burst out laughing. We were so caught off guard  by "the attack", so we just laughed for a good while. Mostly I was laughing at Marcus's reaction and his decision that it was "THE COOLEST thing that has ever happened to me!"... It was crazy and hilarious. He decided to throw the rest of his breakfast away and we quickly wrapped up our idea of sitting on the beachside for a bit and decided to head straight to the Aquarium. As we rounded the corner of the building, I saw this:

It's really too bad we're functionally illiterate, but I'm pretty sure that I now know approximately what this sign says..we just learned the hard way.

Japan lesson of the day: When eating at the sea side, keep your eyes on the skies!  There are no seagulls here, as we learned when we saw them in the zoo (which was weird). Sure back in the states, seagulls are kind of annoying; they pester you by hanging around hoping you'll drop a piece of food or kindly todd them a scrap. But seagulls are pretty much innocent bystanders, they don't have the proverbial kahones (or guts if you like) of a raptor. Raptors are designed to kill, they will use their amazing vision to swoop in and take the food right out of your hand. I saw this happen to a little kid back in Kamakura, but didn't really think too much of it. Now I know...now I know.

Overall the Aquarium was pretty great. We saw a ton of sea creatures we had never seen before, like this guy:

**Dork rant warning** I just had a few issues with the Aquarium, the signs inside were all in Japanese, except for the latin names of the species, which is understandable but just a bit frustrating for geeks like me who prefer to learn something about what I'm looking at. I suppose I could've looked up every species I was curious about online by their scientific name, but I  don't have that kind of time. My other beef, was the small size of the cetacean tanks. The beak-nosed dolphins barely had enough space to turn around, and for two dolpins was just terrible. I'm still hoping there was another section of tank that was hidden from vistors or something. Also the show tank held 5 Bottlenose dolphins (which are massive animals averaging at 2.5 meters long and around 500 lbs. ), and an even larger False Killer whale. Flat-out there was just not enough space for these incredibly beautiful and intelligent animals.** End rant.

mmm... how about a crunchy snack from the gift shop?

    After the Aquarium we headed over towards the popular Enoshima Island. Just a short walk over a few bridges you can arrive at the main street through the Island, or you can hop a small ferry that takes you to the back of the Island for just 400 yen, which is what we did.

After a 10 minute ride, you arrive at the ferry "dock".

You arrive to an area of rocky shore full of people picniking, fishing, and exploring sea life in the cracks.

     After we explored this area, we headed up the stairs...there were a LOT of stairs...to the main part of the Island. As you go up there are restaurants, gift shops, shrines, caves and all sorts of fun things to explore. We just walked through everything pretty quickly, just stopped for a few snacks and to buys a few souvenirs. Here are a few of the pictures we took along the way:

Iwaya Caves

Snakc time...grilled octopus and corn... the corn was pre-frozen, nuff said.

no idea who this god is...but I wouldn't mess with him.

Going down the stairs...towards front of Island.

View of the harbor side from the top of the Island.

Petting turtles at the pond. Animals seem to be so tame everywhere you go in Japan, except the birds.

While sitting on a bench resting and having an ice cream cone, the kites strted to circle us again...there was a sign that looked like it said they like ice cream cones. Apparently these birds have acquired quite the taste for sweets...

      

err...I do not like seeing captive primates like this...he was a gorgeous monkey though, very healthy.

To wash your hands before prayer, or entering temple.

An artist, making a sketch from a bridge.

So fresh...

        
       Overall, we had a great time. This was a really fun day trip. There were a ton of people as it was the start of Golden Week, a week when all Japanese are off and take trips to visit family or vacation. It's not really a recommended time to go sightseeing, as we learned the next day at the Zoo, but it's all about the experience. It's nice to have fun places like this so close to home!