(long post ahead!!)
It's always been a source of irritation to me that I've never got a good view of Mt Fuji. It's not through lack of trying. I've been to Hakone expressly to see Mt Fuji, only to go to the wrong place and run out of time to see it. I've been on the famous Kyoto-Tokyo shinkansen, which is supposed to have a great view of Fuji. Nothing. I even climbed the mountain, but it was so foggy and rainy that five minutes away from it, I couldn't see it at all.
Anyway, I was determined that before my time was up, I WOULD get a good view of Mt Fuji. The mountain is famously elusive; even on a slightly cloudy day, it is often completely obscured. You can be quite close to it and not see it at all. My impression of last spring, summer, and autumn, was that it seemed to be cloudy much more often than not. (That's one thing I miss about Australia. Pure sunshine...)
So I put my hopes on winter, and for the first time this weekend had a) a totally free Sunday with b) a picture of a sun on Google weather!
Woke up unnaturally early this morning and argued with myself as to whether I really wanted to make all the effort to go to Hakone... it's an hour and a half away, and then takes a *lot* of travelling to get around. Also, I wasn't sure I wanted to go by myself; Hakone was sure to be full of Tokyoites on day trips. It might be depressing travelling by myself. (When I first came to Japan, I always travelled by myself. But recently I've always done stuff with people, so I've gotten used to it.)
If I really wanted to see Mt Fuji, maybe I could go to the Five Lakes district instead. But a quick check told me that would take 2 1/2 hours to get *there*. (2 1/2 hours!! It takes less time to get to Kyoto!!) In comparison, Hakone sounded very attractive indeed, so off I went. After all, I told myself, if I stayed home watching Japanese dramas and playing DS games, it might be relaxing, but it wouldn't be a future memory.
I got a Hakone Free Pass, which gives you unlimited transport around Hakone for a set price. This saved a lot of hassles buying tickets, especially as my first mode of transport was a bus with those alarming 'creeping prices'. Some buses here - and I hate this - have fares that go up as the bus passes each stop, and your fare depends on the distance you travel. So if you get off after one stop, you pay 160 yen... after four you might pay 300... after ten, 700, etc...
The Hakone 'recommended course' goes like this:
So you can see the course offers a lot of different types of transport. A quick look at the timetables revealed that all but the first two closed ridiculously early - seems like EVERYTHING in Hakone finishes before 4:30 - so I did the whole lot in reverse.
To the lake
I went to Lake Ashi on the Tozan bus. I get the idea that most of Hakone looks pretty similar. Which isn't to say the scenery is boring - it's not. There are so many mountains, and more trees than you can poke a stick at. Seriously, I don't know if I've ever seen so many trees anywhere before. In winter, when a lot of them are bare, it's not at its best, but it's still beautiful. I saw several hawks too.
I'd never been to this side of Hakone before and I really enjoyed the ride. As Google promised, the weather was fantastic. It was a 40-minute-ish bus ride past lots of whistle stops. (I think most of them corresponded to hot springs; Hakone is hot spring heaven.) Very relaxing, and actually, there weren't that many people around.
Once I hit Lake Ashi I had the real feeling of "I'm travelling again; I'm seeing things I've never seen". The lake was beautiful in the sunshine, and as I walked along the bank, I suddenly caught sight of a familiar white shape at the top of the hill...
Could it be... could it be... it was! And what a view!
It looks great in the pictures but seeing it in reality was amazing. Until that moment I'd been slightly on edge thinking 'what if the direction of the sun makes it unviewable by the time I get to see it; what if clouds suddenly come in'. Now that I had seen a brilliant view of it, I could relax.
Then I walked down to Hakonemachi through a pathway lined with cedars. I also went through the Hakone Checkpoint, a museum reconstructing the checkpoint which used to be part of the old Tokaido highway, with armed guards at the entrance, etc. Actually, I entered this museum unintentionally; it had an entrance fee, so I thought I'd walk around it, only to soon realise that I'd unwittingly entered the museum itself. Fortunately none of the ticket inspectors seemed very interested in me. I guess checkpoint security is not what it once was, hahaha.
Across the lake
From Hakonemachi I took one of the pirate ship boats across the lake. I was lucky enough to get a seat upstairs on the deck. I think most of the Japanese people thought it was too cold up there, because people kept coming up, sitting down, saying 'samui' and leaving again.
Unfortunately, a group of 'foreigners' (sorry, I call all white people foreigners now, it's a result of living here) were unbothered by the cold and acted like a bunch of 12-year-olds, dancing around (literally dancing a LOT) and making weird noises and generally creating a wide berth around them. I can't convey how embarassing they were.
While I was trying to ignore them, looking in the other direction, a Japanese boy about 10 years old said 'hello' to me. So I said hello and asked him his name (in English). "My name is Tetsuo," he said, and then we had a short conversation in Japanese and English. His mother asked me if the other foreigners were friends of mine and I said emphatically that I didn't know them; I was travelling alone. Hahaha...
Later, I was standing by the rail looking out at the lake, and Tetsuo found me again, and his eyes lit up. He called my name (with -san ^_^) and came to stand next to me. "Is it your first time on this boat?" he asked me in very clear, simple Japanese. (Adults rarely speak so clearly to me.) I said it was. He said it was his first time too. It's nice weather, isn't it, I said. Yes, and there are no clouds, he said. What are you doing after this? I asked him. I'm going home, he said. I'm going to Owakudani, I said.
It was a simple conversation but it put me in a good mood for the next hour. ^_^ He was such a nice boy. ^_^
Once we reached Togendai, I lined up for the ropeway. A few people behind me, the annoying foreigners came in. I started counting how many people were going in each car, hoping that I wouldn't be with them. Fortunately I was safe.
Owakudani
We took the ropeway up, and the scenery was beautiful. At this point the afternoon sun was low in the sky so half the hill was bright and orange; the other was half-hidden in glare. Mt Fuji was still huge and clearly visible in the sky as we climbed the hill.
Soon I saw Owakudani approaching. It's quite a sight. It's nicknamed 'hell valley' and it's a volcanic crater full of sulfuric activity. Very cool-looking.
The specialty of Owakudani are the eggs which are boiled in the natural hot water. These eggs are supposed to prolong your life by 7 years. Their shells turn black. Unfortunately, by the time I finished eating a laaate lunch (tempura and soba, mmm), the eggs were all sold out. So instead I ate a Kitty egg. Since cats have nine lives, I guess I've prolonged mine by 63 years.
I mentioned before that everything in Hakone closes crazy early. I thought I'd checked the timetables but when I returned to the ropeway at 4:30 I found it had finished 15 minutes earlier. Ummm. Great. I knew bus timetables also finished really early in that area, so I was slightly concerned about how I was going to get back to Hakone-Yumoto.
As I walked back outside I thought that in a worst-case scenario I could buy some kind of gift at the gift shop, ask some random Japanese families (who had cars) for a ride, and then give them the gift at the end. This kind of request would be even more unusual in Japan than in Australia - people here very rarely ask strangers for favours. Fortunately I didn't have to try it out, as there was a bus to Sounzan (unfortunately not covered by my free pass, so that was some wasted money...).
Back home
From Owakudani it was a long stretch back home. Ten minutes to Sounzan. Ten minutes on the cable car; 40 minutes on the train to Hakone-Yumoto; 15 minutes on another train to Odawara, then an hour and a half home. Not to mention all the waiting times. Yeah, Hakone is not really a convenient place to just drop by. For all the return journey it was dark and I was just knackered.
The girl sitting opposite me on the train to Hakone-Yumoto was wearing an elaborate kimono. I assumed she'd been to a wedding or something. I think it was the kind of kimono called 'furisode', and it had very long, thick, dangling sleeves. It was interesting to watch her sit down. She couldn't just sit; she had to carefully adjust herself, and then arrange one sleeve to hang carefully over her lap, then the other sleeve. Throughout the journey she was continually, subtly checking her kimono's status out; adjusting bits and pieces, tugging at the obi in the middle, etc.
When I was waiting in Gora, I remembered the last time I went there. It was 3 years ago, with Yan. It was as far as we got in Hakone, and I remember resenting it for not having a view of Mt Fuji. Really, there is nothing there, just as I remembered.
Hakone is a very Japanese place. I remember thinking that the first time I went there. Its most popular activity is its hot springs. It's full of tea houses and places selling amazake (sweet sake), Japanese architecture, omiyage and countless bits and pieces of local history and culture. But this time the Japanese-ness of it was less mysterious than before. I could some of the food, some of the omiyage, some of the signs.
And that's all I have to say about that.
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