Hakone and Mt Fuji
Hakone & Mt Fuji PhotosAfter days running around Tokyo, it was time to get out. An Aussie guy I met at the hostel suggested going to the Hakone area 90km west of the city to get a closer view of Mt Fuji. We turned out to make a good sightseeing team: Alvin appreciated my sense of direction and I appreciated him generously sharing his camera because I'd left my battery in its charger (d'oh).
According to the guidebook, the standard daytrip runs thus: take train from Tokyo; take switchback railway up hill; take funicular; take cable car; board pirate ship; take bus back to train station to return to Tokyo. It would involve little thinking and lots of sitting down. Perfect. The only difference was that we did the route in the opposite direction to avoid the crowd.
The train from Tokyo to Hakone rounded a corner and Alvin prodded me to look out the window. There was Mt Fuji already! It's one of those landmarks that has appeared thousands of times in photos and movies but is no less breathtaking for that. Definitely a top moment in my trip.
We did do a bit of walking when we stopped at Owakudani, one of the cable car stations, to look at the bubbly pools. I made Alvin walk up bunches of stairs to get some of the eggs that were boiled black in the thermal pools. They're expensive, but it's the done thing. :-)
On the cable car, we met a couple from Paris. There seemed to be quite a few French visitors in the hostel as well, guess the admiration is mutual. Anyway, it was so nice to speak French again -- fortunately Alvin didn't mind only getting the occasional translation.
Marianna suggested that we go to the onsen (Japanese baths) because they were fed from thermal springs in the area, unlike the ones in Tokyo. It turned out to be an excellent idea, but more about foreigners' bathtime in the next post.