Run to the Hills
Next stop Hakone, which is often ‘done’ as a day trip from Tokyo, as it is only an hour out on the train. A clear contrast from the busy city, Hakone is a region in the hills, consisting of relatively small, relatively quiet towns which comprise mainly of hotels and guesthouses for the Japanese city dwellers to come to escape the crowds of businessmen and women, and replace the with crowds of tourists. We came midweek though, which meant a quieter time.
You are supposed to be able to have lovely views of Mount Fuji from some areas around Hakone. We didn’t. Despite great weather in the first day (a bit overcast on our second day), we still couldn’t see the volcano. Luckily we had caught a few glimpses of it on the bullet train out of Tokyo, so we can tick that one off our list!
There’s a well-defined ‘tour’ around Hakone, consisting of a slow and scenic rail journey up into the hills, followed by a funicular train straight up one of the mountains, then, in theory, a ropeway (cable car) over the mountain to a large lake. A scenic trip on a tourist boat made up to look like a pirate ship for some unknown reason, takes you to a town on the other side of the lake, then a scenic walk through an old tree-lined ‘road’ to another town, and a bus ride back. As you may have guessed, the scenery is the main draw here. We did the round trip, except for the cable car, which was closed due to ‘volcanic activity'. The sense of building a cable car over an area known for volcanoes and earthquakes escapes me, but a replacement bus served its purpose, albeit less scenically. It was a nice excursion, not too busy, very relaxing, with a few tourist shops to browse around on the route, mainly containing the local craft of fine marquetry.
Having done the standard tour on the first afternoon, our second day there was one for just chilling out. We paid a visit to the open air museum, primarily sculpture and some paintings indoors. It’s touted as a must-see for the area. I would have happily given it a miss. Emma like it. The outdoor sculptures were OK, and the setting was nice, especially in good weather. The large Picasso exhibition was like walking round an art show at a primary school parents evening. I was expecting to come across his ‘crayon period'. In fact, he may have had one, and it may have been shown, but I gave up after one floor of dull ‘art’.
Our hotel was very nice again, but this time it was more a Ryokan style (though it was quite a large hotel). Our room was Japanese style with tatami mats and a low table, that was cleared away each night and the beds made up on the floor, then they were cleared away again in the morning. The room was really big, and had its own ensuite toilet and bathroom, though there were also two public baths (onsen) in the hotel. I visited one of these (they swap men and women usage during the day – I could have visited the other one if I had got up early enough!) a couple of times – it was much, much bigger than the onsen at the previous Ryokan – this had two separate indoor pools (one a jacuzzi), a sauna and three outdoor pools. Very relaxing and thoroughly recommended.
At this hotel, we were served dinner and breakfast in our room, served on our low table by our maid, who spoke no English at all, but proceeded at every meal to tell us in great detail what to eat with what and in some cases what things were. She also rattled off some elaborate greetings whenever she entered of left the room. We didn’t understand a word of it, but smiled graciously.
The food was all Japanese and the hotel had obviously gone to great efforts to provide a variety of vegetarian foods – we had two dinners and two breakfasts there and always had different things to eat. Unfortunately even our adventurous sides waned after the second meal. There was a lot of food, maybe 10-15 dishes each at dinner and not many fewer at breakfast. Most of these were, unsurprisingly, tofu in various forms. Boiled, steamed, fried, and in a variety of sauces, mainly soy based, but some sweet, some bitter. Plenty of veg, but sometimes covered in.... no idea what. It all looked very pretty. But some if it tasted terrible to our western taste buds. So we guiltily left some of it every meal. I’m sure they are used to it, and we did try a bit of everything, but even many of the things we could eat, and did eat, we didn’t particularly enjoy. We did appreciate their efforts though, but were glad to her able to buy cheese and bread at the nearby 7-11 for lunch! And I think we were both very appreciative of the Starbucks coffee we had after we left that town. We can no longer call ourselves intrepid travellers, I feel.
You are supposed to be able to have lovely views of Mount Fuji from some areas around Hakone. We didn’t. Despite great weather in the first day (a bit overcast on our second day), we still couldn’t see the volcano. Luckily we had caught a few glimpses of it on the bullet train out of Tokyo, so we can tick that one off our list!
There’s a well-defined ‘tour’ around Hakone, consisting of a slow and scenic rail journey up into the hills, followed by a funicular train straight up one of the mountains, then, in theory, a ropeway (cable car) over the mountain to a large lake. A scenic trip on a tourist boat made up to look like a pirate ship for some unknown reason, takes you to a town on the other side of the lake, then a scenic walk through an old tree-lined ‘road’ to another town, and a bus ride back. As you may have guessed, the scenery is the main draw here. We did the round trip, except for the cable car, which was closed due to ‘volcanic activity'. The sense of building a cable car over an area known for volcanoes and earthquakes escapes me, but a replacement bus served its purpose, albeit less scenically. It was a nice excursion, not too busy, very relaxing, with a few tourist shops to browse around on the route, mainly containing the local craft of fine marquetry.
Having done the standard tour on the first afternoon, our second day there was one for just chilling out. We paid a visit to the open air museum, primarily sculpture and some paintings indoors. It’s touted as a must-see for the area. I would have happily given it a miss. Emma like it. The outdoor sculptures were OK, and the setting was nice, especially in good weather. The large Picasso exhibition was like walking round an art show at a primary school parents evening. I was expecting to come across his ‘crayon period'. In fact, he may have had one, and it may have been shown, but I gave up after one floor of dull ‘art’.
Our hotel was very nice again, but this time it was more a Ryokan style (though it was quite a large hotel). Our room was Japanese style with tatami mats and a low table, that was cleared away each night and the beds made up on the floor, then they were cleared away again in the morning. The room was really big, and had its own ensuite toilet and bathroom, though there were also two public baths (onsen) in the hotel. I visited one of these (they swap men and women usage during the day – I could have visited the other one if I had got up early enough!) a couple of times – it was much, much bigger than the onsen at the previous Ryokan – this had two separate indoor pools (one a jacuzzi), a sauna and three outdoor pools. Very relaxing and thoroughly recommended.
At this hotel, we were served dinner and breakfast in our room, served on our low table by our maid, who spoke no English at all, but proceeded at every meal to tell us in great detail what to eat with what and in some cases what things were. She also rattled off some elaborate greetings whenever she entered of left the room. We didn’t understand a word of it, but smiled graciously.
The food was all Japanese and the hotel had obviously gone to great efforts to provide a variety of vegetarian foods – we had two dinners and two breakfasts there and always had different things to eat. Unfortunately even our adventurous sides waned after the second meal. There was a lot of food, maybe 10-15 dishes each at dinner and not many fewer at breakfast. Most of these were, unsurprisingly, tofu in various forms. Boiled, steamed, fried, and in a variety of sauces, mainly soy based, but some sweet, some bitter. Plenty of veg, but sometimes covered in.... no idea what. It all looked very pretty. But some if it tasted terrible to our western taste buds. So we guiltily left some of it every meal. I’m sure they are used to it, and we did try a bit of everything, but even many of the things we could eat, and did eat, we didn’t particularly enjoy. We did appreciate their efforts though, but were glad to her able to buy cheese and bread at the nearby 7-11 for lunch! And I think we were both very appreciative of the Starbucks coffee we had after we left that town. We can no longer call ourselves intrepid travellers, I feel.
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