March 12th

The Magnificent Mountain

The sun was shining when we woke up this morning, and it looked like it was going to be a great day. We arranged for our 4 suitcases and 1 carry on bag to be sent directly to Kyoto, and we were ready to head out. We were off to see Mt Fuji!

We were not disappointed. Fuji is notoriously “shy” at this time of the year, and everyone kept on telling us that it was unlikely that we would see the mountain, but we were in luck. We had our first glimpse of the mountain from the lobby of the hotel (it helps to have a hotel lobby on the 25th floor), and we continued to have great views of the mountain as we drove to Hakone.

Our first stop of the day was at Sounzan Station where we boarded the Hakone Rope Way, which is a cable car that takes you over the sulfuric hot springs of Owakudani, which is the area around a crater created during the last eruption of Mt Hakone 3000 years ago. Now I am fine with cable cars, but somehow hovering over steaming sulfur vents, reading the warnings that people with any number of medical problems should not do this due to risk of health damage due to the volcanic gases, did make me a little nervous. However, the good news is that when you get off the Rope Way at Owakudani Station you can buy eggs, cooked in the hot volcanic water, whose shells are blackened by the sulfur. Eating them is said to add 7 years to your life, so hopefully that makes up for the damage the sulfur fumes do to your lungs.

Although the clouds were moving in, we still had great views of Mt Fuji from the Rope Way and Owakudani Station, and we stayed there for a while admiring the view, eating the eggs, and wondering what the bizarre Hello Kitty black egg was all about.

The Rope Way then takes you down to Togendai Station on Lake Ashi, and you get great views of the lake on your way down. Well, if you thought the black egg Hello Kitty was strange, things became weirder. On reaching the shores of Lake Ashi we were expecting to board a pirate ship, but it turned out to be a replica of the Victory, which came complete with an oriental looking Nelson, and motored across the lake to Hakone.

I learned all about the lake’s very own Loch Ness monster, which happens to be a 9 headed dragon, who is not as fierce as he sounds. The lake is very beautiful, and once I had got over trying to work out what the Victory was doing on Lake Ashi, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We passed by several Tori gates in the water, each leading to shrines. It was all very pleasant.

After we disembarked we walked around the lake to the Hakone Shrine, and were lucky enough to get picture perfect views of Mt Fuji along the way.

Then it was time for our first onsen experience. We had booked in to Gora Sounkaku for the night. On arrival we removed our shoes, had a cup of tea, and were shown to our room. We changed into yukatas, and sat on the floor on flat floor chairs that were the only furniture in the room apart from a low table. We were looking forward to dinner, but began obsessing about the correct way to sit on the floor when you are eating, and how on earth we were going to be able to sit on the floor for a prolonged period of time during the meal. With great difficulty we managed to get up off the floor, and headed outside to our very own private spring fed soaking bath to further contemplate the issue.

By the time we had to go to dinner, we were feeling very calm and relaxed, but the problem remained unresolved. We put on our yukatas and decided we would just have to see what happened.

We were led in to our own private dining room – and there was a regular table with proper chairs! No need to sit on the floor, all was well with the world.

The meal consisted of 10 courses of unrecognizable, but attractive looking food. Some of it tasted great, some of it was quite nasty, but with soft Japanese music playing in the background, it was a totally wonderful experience. Well I had a great experience, Brian, who is allergic to fish, had to avoid most of the food, and made do with rice and seaweed.

When we returned to our room it had magically been turned in to a bedroom, with 2 futons on the floor. It was time for another soak in the soaking bath, and off to bed. The bed was incredibly uncomfortable, and the pillows incredibly hard, but it had been such a perfect day none of this mattered at all…………..