Day 4, Friday, Hakone
Written in Dublin on 26th
We paid not much heed to typhoon warnings and headed to Shinjuku to buy us Hakone pass. It was the first and only time I encountered a rude, perhaps foreigner/English phobic person. In the ticket office we were pointed to a certain queue, but when our turn came, the woman who was supposed to serve us refused to talk us and just pointed to upstairs and said 'English, English'. Well, there was an English speaking info desk where the personnel sold us the tickets and directed us to where to board the train.
It took about 2 hours and after perhaps an hour or travelling we actually saw some countryside. Then we arrived Hakone and continued with a cute, small train which needed to turn around on few stations, while labouring upwards the mountain.
Oh, and for why we went to Hakone. It's famous for the scenic views and even more about the hot springs and hot spring spas. Because we had the passes that gave us free passage on most public transport in the area. Including the more exotic stuff like ropeway. We walked for a while in one small village, saw few shops selling local handicrafts and then climbed up to the next station. Continued with train till the rails ended and ate well in nice little restaurant. Udon, if I remember correct. Then we boarded a cable car and continued nearly straight upwards. It was curious way to travel and there was lots of people living there, seeing the houses. The nature was beautiful even if our day was occasionally rainy and all the time cloudy. We had some wind too, which later caused us problems.
After the cable car we boarded ropeway and had nice view, until we got high enough to enter mist/cloud. There should have been worth to see volcanic valley, but we saw it only briefly, when the now heavy wind parted the clouds for a moment. We continued with the ropeway back down only to find out that rest of our tour was in jeopardy. We had already heard, that the sail ship cruise that was part of the 'recommended Hakone tour' was not possible due the wind, but when we got there we found that there was not anymore any buses going to where we could have continued the tour. So had to take a bus straight back to the town of Hakone and we missed a historical Hakone checkpoint and cedars.
Back in town we got in the tourist information office 5 minutes before it closed and got us a recommendation of onsen - a hot spa. We took the shuttle bus there and studied the onsen etiquette (basically, wash before going into pool). I bought me a cute little towel and soon were laying in pleasantly hot water. There was few pools outside and it was really great experience to lay in hot water and watch the darkening night. Afterwards it felt like after a good sauna. Definitely worth trying!
We walked to the train station and there was a small shrine with some lights on. It looked pretty.
We were quite tired in the train back home. Just a pity we missed the lake cruise and the views on the ropeway. On a good day one can see Mt. Fuji from there!
(I didn't even notice it was Friday the 13th!)
We paid not much heed to typhoon warnings and headed to Shinjuku to buy us Hakone pass. It was the first and only time I encountered a rude, perhaps foreigner/English phobic person. In the ticket office we were pointed to a certain queue, but when our turn came, the woman who was supposed to serve us refused to talk us and just pointed to upstairs and said 'English, English'. Well, there was an English speaking info desk where the personnel sold us the tickets and directed us to where to board the train.
It took about 2 hours and after perhaps an hour or travelling we actually saw some countryside. Then we arrived Hakone and continued with a cute, small train which needed to turn around on few stations, while labouring upwards the mountain.
Oh, and for why we went to Hakone. It's famous for the scenic views and even more about the hot springs and hot spring spas. Because we had the passes that gave us free passage on most public transport in the area. Including the more exotic stuff like ropeway. We walked for a while in one small village, saw few shops selling local handicrafts and then climbed up to the next station. Continued with train till the rails ended and ate well in nice little restaurant. Udon, if I remember correct. Then we boarded a cable car and continued nearly straight upwards. It was curious way to travel and there was lots of people living there, seeing the houses. The nature was beautiful even if our day was occasionally rainy and all the time cloudy. We had some wind too, which later caused us problems.
After the cable car we boarded ropeway and had nice view, until we got high enough to enter mist/cloud. There should have been worth to see volcanic valley, but we saw it only briefly, when the now heavy wind parted the clouds for a moment. We continued with the ropeway back down only to find out that rest of our tour was in jeopardy. We had already heard, that the sail ship cruise that was part of the 'recommended Hakone tour' was not possible due the wind, but when we got there we found that there was not anymore any buses going to where we could have continued the tour. So had to take a bus straight back to the town of Hakone and we missed a historical Hakone checkpoint and cedars.
Back in town we got in the tourist information office 5 minutes before it closed and got us a recommendation of onsen - a hot spa. We took the shuttle bus there and studied the onsen etiquette (basically, wash before going into pool). I bought me a cute little towel and soon were laying in pleasantly hot water. There was few pools outside and it was really great experience to lay in hot water and watch the darkening night. Afterwards it felt like after a good sauna. Definitely worth trying!
We walked to the train station and there was a small shrine with some lights on. It looked pretty.
We were quite tired in the train back home. Just a pity we missed the lake cruise and the views on the ropeway. On a good day one can see Mt. Fuji from there!
(I didn't even notice it was Friday the 13th!)