First I rode 2 hrs on the JR train out of the city to the main train station at Hakone-Yumoto. The further you go from the city, the further you are from people who potentially speak any English...this was the big challenge of the day. Nevertheless, I followed the suggested itinerary from the free guide given to me when I bought the Hakone Free Pass (not free, but lets you get into all the sights for free).
First was a 45-minute bus ride that zig-zagged up the mountain and arrived at Motohakone-ko. I was supposed to follow some trail to some checkpoint/exhibition, but I could not find it, so not wanting to be lost on my own, I went straight for the next leg of the trip, which was a 40-minute boat ride to Togendai. Here is a photo of the boat.
I think on a good day one is supposed to be able to see Mt Fuji, but it was quite overcast, so I didn't see it. But, the scenery along the way was lush green forested mountains and the occasional temple... very serene.
The next step was supposed to be a "ropeway" (cable car), but it was under construction (I laughed when I saw the sign that announced that service was "suspended"... good [likely unintentional] pun!). They had busses instead, which were supposed to take 15 minutes, but took 1 hr instead because near the peak of the mountain there is only 1 lane of traffic, so it backed up for many kms.
We reached Owakudani, which is a valley formed by volcanic explosions! There were multiple sulfuric hot springs (i.e. smelly!) and you could walk up the side of the mountain to a little hut which was selling "black eggs" which were recommended to eat in order to increase your life span (7 years for 1 egg, 14 years for 2). How could I refuse? Here are photos of the mountain:
and the eggs:
Note that they were normal hard-boiled eggs inside, and just the shell was black. It came with a little package of salt. Yummy!
From there, I took the functioning ropeway to Sounzan.
At the station in Sounzan, I met a very nice Japanese woman, who was acting as interpreter and tour guide for about 15 Indian software engineers (on temporary work assignment in Japan). So, I latched on to their group and did the rest of the tour with them.
At Sounzan, we boarded the funicular to Gora park. Note the perspective between me standing upright, and the slope of the car!
The park was very peaceful and the flowers were in bloom.
From there, 1 more stop on the funicular, then we boarded the Hakone Tozan train, and had another zig-zag ride down the mountain back to the central station of Hakone. It was quite funny, because the train would pull into a small station, then would start backwards again, as it was doing switch-backs all the way down the mountain.
Finally, the JR train took me back into the city, where I enjoyed a most delicious tofu dinner at a restaurant upstairs from the Shinjuku station. I love the restaurants where you can point to pictures, or better yet, to plastic renditions of every dish that is offered. Takes the guesswork out of the whole thing!
I have to say I was impressed that I managed to do all this on my own, though it would have likely been more enjoyable in the company of others!
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