Hakone, Japan
We decided to visit Hakone, a volcanic area near to Mt Fuiji, after Tokyo. We bought the Hakone Free Pass which gave us unlimited access to the cable cars, boats, trains and buses around the area. As we arrived around 1pm, we were too late to take the cruise and so we headed to the cable car. The views from the top were disappointing to say the least. Just like our experience with the hand bridge in Vietnam, we were unable to see anything but clouds. Talk about being gutted! Especially as we knew that Mt Fuiji was hiding just behind the fog. We hoped that our second day would be better! After our disappointing cable car ride, we made our way to our hotel. The walk there was soooo cold.
Due to all of the volcanic activity in the area, there are a lot of natural hot springs in Hakone. We managed to find a traditional style Japanese room (ryokan) on airB&B which was part of a fairly fancy hotel. The hotel came equipped with a proper an indoor and outdoor onsen. This was a perfect way to relax after we made our way to the hotel (despite it being absolutely freezing outside).
During our stay here we had the experience of eating a traditional Japanese meal. We had 12 appetisers as well as shabu shabu. This dish consists of thin slices of meat along with veg that you cook in a pot of broth for around 3 minutes. Despite still having a dodgy stomach at this point, I had given up on my BRAT diet by this point and so decided to try some. It was delicious! This experience did cost us though; it was ¥3,800 per person which is around £26 each! This was by far the most expensive meal we'd had in a long time but it was a good experience.
Luckily, by the following day it was clear enough to see Mt Fuiji which was amazing; although, it wasnt long before the clouds made an appearance again. Still, we were glad to have seen it even if it was only briefly.
We had some black eggs at one of the cable car shops before we headed towards Lake Ashi. The black eggs are actually ordinary eggs that turn black once cooked in one of the region's hot springs. The people of Hakone are still unsure as to why this happens.
Once we reached Lake Ashi, we dropped off our bags and headed on a boat. It was a fancy boat with a golden statue on the front. It was a pleasant journey around the lake.
We stopped at a few stops along the way and caught the bus to the train station before departing for Kyoto on the bullet train!
The train was so expensive: we paid around £80 each for our tickets (ouch). To be fair, it did get us to our destination 380km away in just over 2 hours.
We had a nice time in Hakone even though it did break our budget. It was a nice change from the cityscapes we had gotten used to after Tokyo and Taipei.
