Japan Honeymoon Adventure: Hakone, Odawara
(as written on the Shinkansen between Odawara and Kyoto)
We have spent the last day and a half in Hakone, which is a mountain retreat just outside Tokyo. We rode on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Odawara, where we switched for a train to Hakone-Yumoto. Our hotel was just a bus away from there.
We stayed at a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) that boasted its own onsen (hot springs). The hosts there spoke very little English, and as we speak even less Japanese, this was an adventure. However, we made it work!
One of the specialties of the hotel we stayed at was its food. They actually bring your breakfast and dinner into your room for your enjoyment. It was gourmet traditional Japanese food, which is a far cry from the teriyaki, ramen and gyoza that we think of in Australia or the US. We had some amazing things, like rare-cooked pheasant (a local specialty), pickled lily root, ikura (salmon roe) and heaps more things I don't even know the name for. And they brought us so much! Honestly, we probably would have eaten like kings on just one portion between the two of us. (There was even a little drama when they thought we didn't like our breakfast because we didn't finish it. We wanted to try a bit of everything, and by the time we were through tasting it all, there was no room left! Really! We promise! ^_^;)
By the way, the young man who spoke the best English of everybody told us to tell our friends that Japan is not dangerous. So there you go. NOT DANGEROUS. (Unless you're on Mitake-san, but that's another story...)
There were some things I liked a lot and some things I didn't like so much, but I guess that's the same as Western cuisine...
The onsen were wonderful! I tend to overheat easily, so I wasn't able to stay in them for terribly long, but they were very relaxing. Our hotel had two types of onsen available - one traditional bath and one outdoors bath. The outdoors bath was right next to the river - superb! And because there weren't heaps of people there, we always had them to ourselves. Which is good because Desiree is shy. (I'm not. Too many years of synchro for that!)
During the day, we went sightseeing. There were many wonderful things to see! We went to Owakudani, aka "Hell Valley." Hakone is on an active volcano, and Owakudani is a valley filled with sulfurous steam vents. The water in the streams coming down the sides of the valley were murky with the various minerals in the ground. It looked like some kind of alien planet!
In Owakudani they make eggs by putting them into sulfurous hot springs. The shells turn black, and eating one of the eggs is supposed to add seven years to your life. Des and I both ate two, which I'm pretty sure means we're going to live forever.
We also met our new friend Kutama-chan in Owakudani.
We rode on a pirate ship (what a galleon is doing in the mountains of Japan, I have no idea) and saw beautiful parks and temples. We walked a lot, which was good because otherwise all the food at the hotel would have made us weigh 800 pounds!
Today after breakfast, we had one last soak in the onsen before heading back to Odawara to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto, our next stop. We had an hour and a half between trains, so we decided to walk to a local castle. That turned out to be a repeat of Mitake-san, but this time with no ugly ponchos and only one umbrella! I am still damp from that. ^_^
More on Kyoto later!
(as always, more photos can be found here)
Next entry!
We have spent the last day and a half in Hakone, which is a mountain retreat just outside Tokyo. We rode on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Odawara, where we switched for a train to Hakone-Yumoto. Our hotel was just a bus away from there.
We stayed at a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) that boasted its own onsen (hot springs). The hosts there spoke very little English, and as we speak even less Japanese, this was an adventure. However, we made it work!
One of the specialties of the hotel we stayed at was its food. They actually bring your breakfast and dinner into your room for your enjoyment. It was gourmet traditional Japanese food, which is a far cry from the teriyaki, ramen and gyoza that we think of in Australia or the US. We had some amazing things, like rare-cooked pheasant (a local specialty), pickled lily root, ikura (salmon roe) and heaps more things I don't even know the name for. And they brought us so much! Honestly, we probably would have eaten like kings on just one portion between the two of us. (There was even a little drama when they thought we didn't like our breakfast because we didn't finish it. We wanted to try a bit of everything, and by the time we were through tasting it all, there was no room left! Really! We promise! ^_^;)
By the way, the young man who spoke the best English of everybody told us to tell our friends that Japan is not dangerous. So there you go. NOT DANGEROUS. (Unless you're on Mitake-san, but that's another story...)
There were some things I liked a lot and some things I didn't like so much, but I guess that's the same as Western cuisine...
The onsen were wonderful! I tend to overheat easily, so I wasn't able to stay in them for terribly long, but they were very relaxing. Our hotel had two types of onsen available - one traditional bath and one outdoors bath. The outdoors bath was right next to the river - superb! And because there weren't heaps of people there, we always had them to ourselves. Which is good because Desiree is shy. (I'm not. Too many years of synchro for that!)
During the day, we went sightseeing. There were many wonderful things to see! We went to Owakudani, aka "Hell Valley." Hakone is on an active volcano, and Owakudani is a valley filled with sulfurous steam vents. The water in the streams coming down the sides of the valley were murky with the various minerals in the ground. It looked like some kind of alien planet!
In Owakudani they make eggs by putting them into sulfurous hot springs. The shells turn black, and eating one of the eggs is supposed to add seven years to your life. Des and I both ate two, which I'm pretty sure means we're going to live forever.
We also met our new friend Kutama-chan in Owakudani.
We rode on a pirate ship (what a galleon is doing in the mountains of Japan, I have no idea) and saw beautiful parks and temples. We walked a lot, which was good because otherwise all the food at the hotel would have made us weigh 800 pounds!
Today after breakfast, we had one last soak in the onsen before heading back to Odawara to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto, our next stop. We had an hour and a half between trains, so we decided to walk to a local castle. That turned out to be a repeat of Mitake-san, but this time with no ugly ponchos and only one umbrella! I am still damp from that. ^_^
More on Kyoto later!
(as always, more photos can be found here)
Next entry!