(The title, by the way, is pronounced the same as ‘delicate’. You’ll see why in a bit).
Before I start this post, let me quickly mention the unusual event of two evenings previous. I was returning from Akihabara, walking through Yanaka (alone) to the hotel. Ahead of me, on a long, narrow road, was a lone male, about my age. He was many strides ahead (30 paces or more) and moving at a brisk pace, but I knew – I knew – I could beat him. So I quickened my pace slowly but surely, until eventually I grew close. At this point I noticed he had sped up as well, but his skills were lacking, and the inevitable happened and I drew level. At that moment he glanced at me, and our eyes met. The unspoken communication of conflict then occured, and it was immediately obvious to him that in our walking battle he was the loser and I the victor. I forged on ahead, never looking back. And he was soon just a shadow in the night, long behind me on lifes road.
Yesterday we went to Hakone.
Hakone is a popular tourist destination for Japanese for various reasons. It is home to many natural hot springs. It is close to Fuji. It has wonderful views. Since we weren’t staying the night our intention was to appreciate the latter, and we would do so by making use of the ‘Hakone Free Pass’, an all-day superticket that allowed us unlimited use of the many forms of transport in and around the Hakone area.
< Yawn!
That (shocking) photo is of me early yesterday morning on the Odakyu ‘Romance Car’ train to Hakone, a 90 minute (approximate) journey on a comfortable train. I look terribly tired don’t I?
Once we got to Hakone station, we quickly hopped onto the second train line – a switchback train that climbs almost half a kilometer up the side of a mountain.
This was a fun trip. The switchback is cool, but the views outside the windows of the mountainous contryside is the highlight. The train ends at a station named Gora, and the next step of the trip – a cable car – was our next ride.
The cable car was very straight and not very steep. It was half the car the Takao one was, but fun nonetheless!
Now we’d been to Hakone before, back in 2002, although neither of us remembered that much. What we did remember was after the cable car we rode a bus to the mountaintop because the ropeway was out of commission. Imagine our surprise to find out that they actually replaced the old ropeway with an ultra-modern ultra-luxurious new one that only opened in ’07. And believe me, it was the highlight of the day!
The ropeway runs about 800 meters from the cable car to Owakudani – the sulfur vents near the mountain top. This trip includes a long stretch over the Owakudani valley that was absolutely breathtaking. The cars are large, comfortable, air-conditioned and almost all glass. Easily the best ropeway I’ve ever ridden.
Take a look for yourself what it was like cresting the peak over Owakudani Valley.
Owakudani, as I said, is a point on the mountain where sulfur vents from the volcanoes underground seep out of the ground. It has become somewhat famous because of eggs boiled in the heated water. When boiled, the sulfur turns the shells black and it is said if you eat the eggs you gain 7 years longevity. Whether that is true or not I can’t say, but I can say Owakudani is mightily impressive, even more so than the volcanic areas we saw in Hawaii. It was also much more active yesterday than when we came in ’02, which was a treat.
You can see the sulfur gasses behind me in the left shot. And you can see todays title in the rightmost – a sign that has kept us laughing even now, 36 hours later 🙂
Here’s a brief video of Owakudani, taken by KLS.
The black eggs (Kuro = black, Tamago = egg) can be seen in the middle shot of someone shelling one, or in the third shot as the attendant checks on a batch boiling (look in his cage). They sell the eggs Y500 (about $5) per five, and since neither of us particularly like boiled eggs we didn’t buy any!
They make them in droves though, and they are super popular. I’d guess it’s very rare than people come up this way and don’t eat one 🙂
See all the eggs just inside the shed? The rightmost shot shows a cute thing – the egg ropeway they have set up to transport the boiled eggs down to the tourist complex further down the mountain. It certainly saves carrying them all down the many, many stairs!
We had lunch at Owakudani…
Even though it was tourist trap food, it was excellent.
We then rode the first ropeway again (back down to the cable car station and then back again to Owakudani) before boarding the next leg of our trip – another ropeway down to Lake Arashi.
This ropeway was not half as impressive as the one over Owakudani, but that’s hardly saying it’s bad – just reinforcing how great the first was! (Note to JBF – this ropeway has been replaced as well since our ’02 trip by a bigger and better version)
Oh yes, I almost forgot the icecream we had at Owakudani!
Mine is nothing special but KLS’s – well would you believe that expression on her face isn’t fake? Nope, that was 100% authentic since that is 100% wasabi ice-cream she is eating! Her review was it was an aquired taste!
And I made a little friend (an elephant weevil) up on Owakudani…
< Weevil-chan
Anyway after the second ropeway we took the tourist ship cruise across the lake to the other side on one of the absurdly decorated ferries. Specifically the darker one on the left of the first photo.
Lake Arashi is a filled in old volcanic crater and is 500 or so meters above sea level. As you can see it is very undeveloped, and heavily wooded with pine around almost it’s entire shore. Much of the scenery around Hakone seems very ‘European’ (architecture aside) but Arashi is perhaps the greatest example. Many times yesterday I thought about how much my father would have loved yesterdays activities, and I wonder if perhaps the sights on the Arashi cruise may have been a highlight.
After the cruise we walked an old cedar-lined path to a bus which took us back to Hakone station and then boarded the train for the trip back to Tokyo. It was a long day and, even though we spent many hours ‘riding’ things, was just as tiring as all of our others this trip. But it was also another great day, particularly the ropeway, and we’re very glad we went!
I’ll end this entry with two notable images. The first is my magic apple pie from last night:
< Apple Pie +5
And lastly, a shot of a souvenir item that we’ve seen several times here on our trip – always in the ‘tourist trap’ like locales. These are jelly cups…
< Sadly, I did not buy this!