On our fourteenth day in Japan we traveled to the town of Hakone and bussed around to see all of the sites. Here you can find the beautiful Mt Fuji, a large sulfuric gas volcano, cable cars, and a traditional Japanese resort called a Ryokan. We bought a day pass that worked on all transportation and were were able to ride busses, trains an even a boat to get around! This area of Japan was so beautiful. It reminded a lot of us of pictures we have seen of Hawaii, with gorgeous green mountainsides. It seemed almost impossible to have that many shades of green, and the immense size of the mountains was also incredible.
We started off leaving out hotel in Kyoto and rode the 200 mph bullet train to Hakone. We had been on the train before, however this time it was a much longer ride. Only David and Kennedy were brave enough to try the bento boxes on the train for breakfast, but the rest of us just stuck to fruit and snacks. When we arrived we went to out hotel to drop off out luggage before out day of excursions began. The Ryokan hotel was outstanding, and was filled with traditional Japanese elements. Since I am in a three person room, we were given a suite that was a 20 tatami mat room, which is very huge. There was a living room with a table and mats to have tea at, a sitting room with a small table and chairs next to a gorgeous shoji screen in front of the windows. There was then a separate room for sleeping where we had three comfortable mats placed atop the tatami, and more shoji screens to close it off from the rest of the suite.
Our next stop in the city of Hakone was a lake that was on top of a mountain. This is extremely unusual and can only been seen in a few places in the world. At over 1000 meters above sea level, not only making it quite a hike to reach it, but it had also been formed in a crater of a volcano. It was gorgeous clear water surrounded by beautiful greenery, and at certain points we could see the beautiful countryside and ocean below. To cross the lake and reach the cable car exhibition we rode what looked like the pirate ship from Peter Pan. This was quite an experience, and we ate lunch on the ride across the lake. This was a gorgeous start to our day, and it helped that the weather was mild.
When the ship docked on the opposite end of the lake we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain with numerous sulfur deposits. These sulfur areas were quite the experience because the landscape was beautiful but the smell of the sulfuric gas smelled like eggs and other mysterious odors. Ironic to the smells, visitors of the mountain could purchase and eat eggs that were boiled in the sulfur water. In comparison to traditional boiled eggs, these came out of the water in a black coating but were perfectly normal on the inside. As we approached the summit of the long, winding path to the top we stopped to take in the incredible views of the surrounding area with fleeting glimpses of Mount Fuji off in the distance, its presence being shrouded in the mist helped to appreciate it that much more.
After taking the boat back to shore, we walked down the road and found a trail called Ancient Cedar Avenue that led us through a beautiful forest with beautiful old trees that towered over us, making a covered space. Once our short walk was over, we got on a bus and rode to Amazake-chaya Tea House. We all gathered around a table made from the trunk of a huge, old tree, and we sat on stumps made into small chairs. We were served herbal tea and a doughy pastry with matcha powder. Our waitress spoke very good English, and from her we found out that the tea house has been run by the family for thirteen generations! There were old pictures of the tea house in the past and it was so interesting to hear its history. She loved talking to us and said she was sad we had to leave, and she gave us two bags of Japanese rice candy as a gift. Once we got back to the hotel, we organized our things, did some exploring, and changed into traditional robes for dinner. The dinner had many courses similar to what we had at the monastery, but luckily most of it was tasty and we were able to eat it and have our hunger satisfied. The dinner included miso soup, sushimi, tofu, seafood over an open flame, and a cassarole-like dish in a large clam shell. When dinner was over, the girls all went to the onsen to relax and bathe after the long day. The onsen included and indoor and outdoor area, so that was nice. David and Lorie went out and bought us all some good snacks for us to eat that night before bed and for the next day on our journey to Tokyo. So most of us enjoyed some snacks while working on our homework before going to sleep on our tatami mats for the night!
Written by Lauren Ferguson
