We caught the Odakyu Romance Car train from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto station. Hopped onto a bus, which was packed within minutes and climbed up the steep mountain road to Hakone. A warning came across the speaker, to keep luggage secure as we were going up a meandering road. Well, it was hairpin after hairpin on a narrow and slippery road. The rear wheels of the bus were spinning on each left hand, off cambered turn and sliding across the road. Maybe our driver was a drift car racer in his spare time. We spent a few days in the Hakone/Lake Ashi area to explore this historic area. Booked in and spent one night in the Hakone Hotel, which is right on the lake and only a hundred metres or so from the ferry wharf. The big window of our room, opened up the view of the lake and Mt Fuji, and in the bathroom there were big barn door shutters that you could swing open, to give you the same view as you lay back in a steaming bath.
We got rugged up and walked to the ferry wharf only a hundred metres away and took the cruise on the ‘Pirate Ship’. It was bitterly cold on the lake but the scenery was spectacular. An old Japanese man sat next to me on the top deck and asked if he could practise his English. He was a nice polite man who was on a school reunion. I gave him a chocolate Oreo biscuit and he pulled out a gift wrapped box of chocolates and insisted on opening it and giving me a few. His history of his life and experiences during his 80 odd years, was fascinating.
The following morning we got up and packed our luggage, leaving it at the hotel for storage until we returned from site seeing later that afternoon. We took the 30 minute walk along a part of the Old Tokaido road, through the cedar forest down to Moto-Hakone on the shoreline of Lake Ashi.
Had ‘breakfast’ at the 7eleven store and then caught a bus to the Amasake Chaya teahouse. It is run by Satoshi Yamamoto and has been in his family for 350 years. The building is not totally original but the thatched roof and atmosphere can transport you back to 1603, when this Edo period Inn was first opened. We had a cup of hot Amazake, which is a thick drink made from fermenting rice and some sour plums.
We caught the bus to get us around the mountain, so hopped on the next one to check out the Kanazashi woodcraft shop. Amazing and precise workmanship. We continued on to the Hakone Yumoto station to change buses for Kiga-Saskashita and then another bus change to Gora Station. We had a walk around the hilly town, climbing up steep roadways that seemed to offer no exertion for the elderly Japanese residents, but had us puffing.
The Gora gardens were lovely and overlooked the town and surrounding countryside. The town had sulphur mining in the vicinity and the strong smell rose out of the water drains in clouds of steam. The entire area is volcanic and unstable to some degree. We lined up with the multitudes, to catch the cable car to Sounzan and then the gondola, or Ropeway as it is called, over ‘Hell Valley’ and finally down to Togendai and the Pirate Ship for the ride back to the hotel. Hell Valley is a desolate looking area where sulphur is mined and hot, gassy steam rises out of fissures and bubbling springs. At one of the stops, they sell ‘black eggs’ which are boiled in the hot water of one of the many springs. The water turns the shell black and it is said that every black egg you eat will add 7 years to your life. Alas, we all got relegated to our allotted lifespan, as the line to buy eggs was hundreds of metres long and we had to get back.
We left our luxurious hotel and headed off to our next accommodation. There are a number of airbnb rentals available in the region and we had booked one named ‘The Ritz House’, but the reality of the name was lost in the translation. None the less, we settled in to the spartan shack for a couple of nights. It looked a bit dreary and overcast and sure enough it got windy and then the rain came down. We caught a bus to Moto Hakone and it was very cold, with the wind whipping off Lake Ashinoko, but we walked the short distance to the Tori Gate, only to find a busload of Chinese tourists queueing up for photos. We stood in line and waited to get a photo. Sure enough, lining up the shot and some oblivious person stands in front of you to take their own photo. We walked back to the ferry terminal, got something to eat from the convenience store and stood in line to catch the last ferry across the lake to Togendai and then a bus to near our accommodation. We found the $200/night ‘Ritz House’ to be less than luxurious. Maybe it was named after the cracker rather than the famous hotel. It was a very basic two room ‘house’ with two rooms, double bed in one and thin futons for the sofas, which turned out to be very uncomfortable.
After showering, there was nowhere to put clothes or towels in the wet room, so I had to get dried off and dressed in the ‘kitchen’. Lucky the rooms had doors which could be closed. It rained all night and was still raining in the morning as we headed off to the bus stop about 1klm away and caught it to Gora Station, where we then hopped on the Hakone-Tozan (zig zag) train to Hakone-Yumoto. The train travels on Japan’s oldest mountain railway. The small trains wind themselves through a narrow, densely wooded valley over many bridges and tunnels, stopping at small stations along the way and changing directions at three switchbacks. The 35 minute train ride from Gora to Hakone-Yumoto is especially beautiful in June and July when thousands of hydrangea (ajisai) are in bloom along the tracks and are illuminated during the evenings.
We had a light lunch at the Yumoto Fujiya Hotel. Beryl and I shared a Club sandwich, I had a waffle and ice cream and she had a slice of apple pie and cream plus coffees all for a cost of $Aud95. Hmmm, expensive? After lunch we walked alongside the Hayakawa River and took the usual photos from the Ajisai-bashi bridge and walked up to the Tamadare Falls. All very pretty – and busy.
Caught the bus ‘home’ and it was turning very cold and foggy. Nothing around the area where we were, as far as dining out, so we had convenience store food again. A hot cup of noodles for Beryl and me, before turning in for the night. Early the next morning, I was awoken by a rumbling noise and the house shook. This happened about three more times during the next hour and Beryl looked out of the window and excitedly told me to look. It was white and heavy with snow outside and still coming down strongly. Michelle was awake and I asked about the rumbling and shaking of the house, to which she explained that there was an active volcano only a couple of klms away and it always rumbles. Great. Just then there was another tremor, so I opened the front door and had a look outside. A ton of snow slid off a roof a couple of doors away and that was the rumbling sound I had heard. As it hit the ground, the house trembled, so that explained it. I would hate to be standing just outside the roof line when that lot came down. The snow was the lightest, fluffiest, squeakiest that I had ever seen and it showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.
the buses had been cancelled due to the conditions. The owners of the house were contacted and we were told that it was booked for that night and we had to leave. How? Michelle got a return call an hour later and was told that someone would pick us up and take us to the station at Odawara, about a two hour trip.
There was no way a car could get down the laneway and back out, due to the snow, so when there was a knock on the door, we all piled out under umbrellas and had to walk to the convenience store where he had parked his little van. As we left, there was a bit of sliding but we took off with no chains on the tyres and started off downhill. We came across cars which had slid off the side of the road, stopped in the middle of the road and with people pushing their cars as the wheels were just spinning as they slid off the road. Our driver couldn’t afford to stop, so just weaved past the cars. We passed only a couple of cars driving up the mountain and none appeared to have chains. There was about 1 metre of snow off to the sides of the road. It all looked really postcard pretty, with the pine trees white and a carpet of snow without any sign of footprints. When we finally got off the mountain an hour later, we hit a freeway which had a lot of slow moving traffic and big trucks travelling on it. Several times we appeared to drift very close to trucks and the roads were mushy black snow, but obviously icy. Finally we got to the station and wanted to pay our driver for his time, tolls and fuel but he wouldn’t hear of it. He spoke no English at all and we felt sorry for him having to drive all the way back up the mountain. Hope he made it. We booked our reserved Romance Car tickets and had a couple of hours to kill, so walked around the shopping precinct. Beryl and I had put plastic bags over our socks before putting our shoes on and walking in the snow and hers were poking out and squeaking as she walked, so they were removed as soon as she could as people were probably thinking, ‘what the heck are these tourists wearing’. It continued to rain but the temperature was 2C, so no more snow this far down the mountain. We hopped on the train and found we had a private saloon booth, so that was good. After a couple of train changes, we finally arrived back at Shinjuku about 6pm. A great adventure for us.