Japan Trip – Day 5 – Hakone (箱根)

December 17, 2008

Set off early for Shinjuku station to take the train from Shinagawa (品川) station to Odawara ( (小田原), one mistake though, we didn’t take the Shinkansen!! Local train was slow, bad learning experience…

After some extra time (ok.. some is an understatement), we finally reached Odawara, where we went to purchase the Hakone 2 day free pass, allowing unlimited travel within Hakone (inclusive of certain bus services).

Odawara station

Hakone free pass

Hakone Tozan Line

Took the Tozan Line up towards Hakone Yumoto ( 箱根湯本).

Inside the train station

The train

Guess the weather?

: Rainy day = Safety First

It was raining yet again, and the weather had been so fine at Disneysea! No choice but to get 2 umbrellas. Noticed a free shuttle bus to the Hakone Begonia Garden ( 箱根ベゴニア園), which according to my little lousy map, was near the ryokan we would be staying, Ichinoyu Shinkan ( 一の湯新館)

Begonia Garden, free shuttle bus up!

Placed our luggage there, before trying to go back down. The damn shuttle bus driver won’t let us take it down, because we didn’t go in to visit the garden. But it’s raining, and makes no sense to go visit it.

Ichinoyu Shinkan

However, we did go in for a while to take a look outside the ticket area.

Inside the garden shop

Lots of flowers for sale

And Souveniers too

So we had to hike our way down, which was actually very rewarding in it’s own way. A nature trail, in the rain, on a mountain, during early winter 🙂

Walked down on foot

Peaceful trail, fresh air and no people

Great Greenery

A lamp

The trail down hill

A tea house (that's not open)

There were also some guanyin buddha statues along the way. And we came across Ichinoyu Honkan ( 一の湯本館 ), which I had initially tried to book but was full. It really looks very traditional.

Ichinoyu Honkan

There was this fast flowing river beside it, must be nice to have a room overlooking it.

The river beside

Another view of the river

The front door

I stepped in, not to ask for a room, but to ask for directions back to Hakone Yumoto, took the bus, and realized that it was not covered under our free pass, ar.. extra expense!

Hakone Yumoto

Walked about the few eating places, and decided to stop by this place for lunch. Traditional tatami sitting.

Me with the menu

My dear

The lunch place

Dipping Sauce, guess the food

Mushrooms, kinda tastes like shark fin's base

The mushroom thingy they gave first, was really interesting, it tastes great.

Both of us ordered the same dish this time around. Love soba.

Lunch soba set

Close up of the soba

It was really crowded actually

Outside of the shop

Having our lunch, we decided to do the round trip tour by cable car followed by the ferry. So we went back to the station to take the train up to Gora ( 強羅).

The Yumoto Station

Train up

There was this old couple, and the ojiisan was playing with a NDS, talk about being in touch with technology!

Old man playing DS

Each of the stations along the route had this stamping station where u could go collect them all.

Stamps to collect

There was also this minature make up of the place, with a moving train figure.

And lots of moving toys

And lots of shops selling pastries and local products, that look oishii.

Tofu pastry

More pastry

More pastries

And even more

There were also some school kids around.

Kids going to school

Souvenier shop

This region is also famous for the kuro tamago黒たまご (black eggs) which are eggs cooked in the hot springs.

The black eggs that the region is famous for

Kuro Tamago

Took the train uptowards Sounzan ( 早雲山), can’t survive without my ultimate Japan travel guide file, lol.. plan before travel 🙂

The railway up

On the train

Sounzan, 761metres

The train we took

The kuro-tamago theme is evident throughout.

They have tamago in coin machines too

Proceeded to take the Hakone Ropeway, which is their fancy name for cable cars towards Owakudani ( 大涌谷).

Hakone Ropeway

Hakone Ropeway (Cable Car)

It should have offered spectacular views, with Mt. Fuji being visible on a nice clear day, however, all we have is really moving through clouds.

Rainy = Cold air = Misty = Can't see much

Owakudani

There was this big pool like thing right outside, wonder what’s it for? Boiling eggs?

A big misty pool

That place sells lots of souveniers and egg related stuff

Lots of tourist buses at this spot as well.

Owakudani Station

The tamago place

Went inside, and we were greeted with Hello Kitty in a black egg.

Black Kitty

We could be good friends

This place has lots of little gifts (hence the tourist buses), lots of kuro-tamago related food products, & pastries. Too bad we had to journey on tomorrow, or I would have loaded up on food.

Japanese Dolls

Rows of lucky figurines

And a lot more pastries

A copy of the tamago kitty

Even Stitch was not spared

Bought a box of these, tasted like mooncake, very sweet

More egg related foodstuff

Pastry, bought the green box, green tea cake + red bean & cream = light & fluffy snack

1 Egg = 7 years, the secret to ever lasting youth

After buying some boxes of more foodstuffs, we went back and carried on the ropeway towards Togendai ( 桃源台).

Togendai

No luck, still misty

Not much luck seeing anything still. Anyway, Togendai is the spot to take the ferry across Lake Ashi, Ashino-ko( 芦ノ湖), which is a lake formed around Mt. Hakone with a supposed great view of Mt. Fuji.

Lake Ashi

It was lucky, because we arrived like 10 mins, just before the last departing ship of the day!

Lake Ashi from outside

Was a great experience (taking a ship across a lake, in a slight drizzle with strong cold wind), because, the misty lake was also very special and beautiful too. (Would need to come back one more day on clear weather in the future). The ships are full scale replica of Pirate ships. There was some guy in a pirate costume inside to take pictures with, but seeing that it requires paying, I think he was kinda out of much business.

The last ferry of the day! How lucky

Me & Pirate-san

Us with the pirate

Bow of the ship, look to the left

There was this guy paddling across the lake by himself in the rain!

Paddle Paddle!

Mountains & Mist

More views of the lake

Spotted the Hakone-Shrine Torii gate about halfway across, it’s appararently built in 757, which is a long long time ago. Must visit in future.

Hakone Shrine in the horizon

There was also this group of ladies from SG, who were having a tour together, must be real fun to go overseas with your friends at that kind of age. They just came from Hokkaido, and according to them, it’s way way more fun over there, compared to here.

This group of aunties from SG were having a great time

Across the shore

Docked over at Hakonemachi ( 箱根町 ), too bad it was already getting dark, and we couldn’t go walk through the Ancient Cedar Avenue there, Which is a row of 400 year old trees. (Picture below is taken from flickr from someone else). Going through the forest, in darkness, is something best left to NS boys to experience in Brunei 😀

400 year old trees

The other green ship docked here

Hakonemachi

Asked some Indian guy from the nearby convenience store on the directions towards Hakone-Yumoto, his Japanese was very fluent too. We then took the bus back, to take the train back to our ryokan.

Dark already back at Hakone-Yumoto

The sky was pitch dark on the way back towards our place for the night.

Darkness

The path back had this nice eerie atmosphere, coupled with just the 2 of us walking, was fun, like in those Japanese ghost movies, lol.

The dark (ghostly) trail back

10 mins later, we got back to our room for the first time, and to say the least, it was a real pleasant surprise, the room was very spacious, and felt so cozy. The modern Japanese room has a very sleek feel to it. Worth the price for the stay, considering the size, luxury, and private outdoor hotspring bath.

Our room entrance

The toilet

2 futons side by side, makes me wanna get a futon for my self

The sitting area

And the outdoor hotspring bath, Reads 40 degrees C

The whole room

Heated electronic toilet bowl

A nice tea set was also present, so we had some tea before our dinner.

Tea set

Yukata and towels are also provided.

Yukata and towels

And digging around the file, I came across the menu. 🙂

Menu for dinner

I had signed up for the Plan B, which includes sashimi.

Tea ceremony?

We went down at dinner time, but were chased out because we were like 10 mins early. Kinda shocking, so we went out to the lobby to laze around, and went bcak exactly at dinner time. (Moral of story, be on time, not early) The food spread was really sumptious. The food was fully prepared and laid out right at the stipulated time, which was why we were chased out when we went there early because it would not look like they were prepared for us. Excellent service + 1.

The lady who served us was really friendly, explaining each dish in simple english, and how to eat etc. Gives a real homely feel to the place. One of the most memorable dinner and food I’ve had. The sashimi was really fresh, with the fish still staring at us. We also each had a bowl of miso, which we were supposed to fill up with the water from the shabu-shabu pot after finishing, so it gives the soup a great taste and texture.

Step 1: Put in the vegetables, mushrooms, and other plants into the soup to soften them, and provide the soup with the stock taste

Step 2: Eat your other dishes while you wait

Step 3: Swirl the meat, shabu-shabu, take out and enjoy with rice

Step 4: おかわり! Ask for a second helping

Shabu Shabu

Sashimi Boat

The 2 appetizer dishes

Closer view of the fish

Fried fish starter

Appetizer 1 - Sliced beef sashimi, chewy, just nice and firm

Appetizer 2 - Tastes like egg tofu, slightly salty, works up the appetite

All these food requires sake, so ordered a flask.

Complete the meal with some hot sake

There were 2 other kinds of sashimi on the boat which I have not tasted before, prawns and little ikan-bili like fish fry. The small prawns taste like crunchy (due to the heads) ama-ebi, while the fish fry are well, a little pasty because they stick together.

Mini prawn sashimi

Mini fish too with ginger

We next had some grilled gindara (Japanese silver cod), which is my fav fish. Learnt that that preserved spring onion stick could also be eaten. (Crunchy, and a little sour)

Rice, free flow

The rice had bits of mushrooms and other things in it, had seconds for it. Kinda reminds me of mum’s 菜豆饭.

Finished off with the yuzu sorbet. Satisfying dinner.

Yuzu Sorbet, cool & refreshing

The friendly lady who works here

Went back, and had a nice relaxing bath, water was hot at first, but really soothing once you get used and sit down in it. Makes skin feel very soft after it. Changed into the yukata and haori after, and went to get some drinks before retiring for the night.