Great thoughts of Fleeting substance

April 10,

The fact that I did this day correctly is a source of personal pride for me. Here’s the scenario.

There’s a day-trip out of Tokyo that is so common that there’s a ticket for it. It goes like this: You take a bullet train from Tokyo to Odawara, south along the coast. Once in odawara you take a train to Hakone Yumoto station. Then things start getting fun.

Next up is a train that runs up the side of a mountain. It’s a long, slow, winding thing that actually has to use switchbacks at several stops in order to gain the elevation it needs. The view up the side of the mountain is supposed to be great. From there, you get off the switchback train and get on a sloped train, a rail that goes up a consistent 20 degree slope further up the mountain. At the end of that ride, you get on a gondola that goes up and over the sulfur-stained side of a mountain, steaming with volcanic energy. Normally you’d take a gondola for the next part too, but it was under repair, so you hop on a bus that goes down the mountain and onto a lake, then you take a boat across the lake, get back on the bus, and go home. In our case, however, we get back on a bus, go back to Odawara, and then take a bus from there to a hot springs resort, a very neat place. More public transportation than you can shake a stick at, and a whole lot of Kanji that I can’t read. Of everything this entire trip, pulling off the Hakone loop was the only thing I was really worried about. Here’s how it went.

We packed up in the morning and left our Tokyo Hostel, strapping on our backpacks and heading over to Ueno station, one of the big transportation hubs in Tokyo. From there we took a bullet train down to Odawara and purchased our Hakone Free Pass, the ticket that pays for every single step of the Hakone loop. It’s actually a pretty neat thing to have, because all you have to do is flash the ticket at a driver and they instantly know what you’re doing and if you’re in the right place to do it. It’s like the ticket leads you around. Cool.

Oh, and by the way, everything within 50 miles is called some variation of ‘Hakone’, so It’s easy to get confused.



Anyway, the slow train, the one with the switchbacks, was pretty fun to ride. It wound its way up the valley and we got to see a wide expanse of trees, city, and the occasional cherry tree in full bloom. Very nice view.



‘The orange book’ recommended one stop along the way up the mountain, at a placed called the Hakone (Ack!) open air museum. We got off at the recommended stop only to discover that the book got the stop wrong and that we were well out of walking distance of the museum. It wasn’t a total loss, though, we bought some ice cream and walked back up to the train. Two stops later, we saw the museum from the train, got off, and walked over.



The Hakone (Ack!) open air museum was one of my favorite sights of the trip. Check out these pictures! There were tons and tons of interesting and amazing sculptures of every shape, size, style, and genre. We walked around the whole place and saw a bunch of Picasso art, both paintings and pottery, at the appropriate pavilion. I liked it quite a lot.

We had lunch there then got back on the train which took us to the ‘straight up the slope’ train I mentioned before. The entire car was sloped and it just followed this odd section of rail up and up and up the hill. Saved us thousands of calories of elevation, I’m sure.



Then came Jessie’s favorite part of all, the gondola ride. We slipped on and were soon cruising up the side of the mountain. Then, the mountain ridge falls away and we are strung over this huge, volcanic-looking valley hundreds of feet below. It was really impressive. Jess was pretty much giddy.



Unfortunately, the rest of the gondola, which normally goes down to the lake, was under repair, so we took a bus down to the lake. From there we got on…uh…a tour boat, of a sort. Really felt like we were boarding a ride at Disneyland, but it was a nice jaunt anyway. The boat had an automated tour-guide in Japanese, along with occasional commentary in English. There were some interesting sights, but it was mostly nice just for the boat ride. Jessie chatted up a little girl sitting in front of us on the boat and we gave her one of our cute little American keychains.

Then, the tricky part. We got on, then off, a bus that I thought was going the wrong way (wrong), then on another bus which eventually got us back to Odawara. Then I had to find the bus that would take us to our Hot springs Resort, Senkyoro.

I had written down the Kanji for Senkyoro in The Blue Folder and if I hadn’t, I never would have found the place. I was looking through bus timetables at Odawara and recognized (somehow) the Kanji I had written down. We were able to find the right bus, then, and navigate our way to the right one.

Lucky: The Hakone (ack!) free pass that we had purchased for the loop also covered the (50 minute) bus ride to Senkyoro. Unlucky: the turnstile ate Jessies pass. Lucky: I still had mine. Lucky: bus drivers in Hakone (ack!) are so used to seeing tourists with the free pass that I just had to flash mine and Jessie could just follow along behind. It’s not cheating! The turnstile wasn’t supposed to eat her pass, it’s valid for a few days!



We got on the bus and I kept my eyes *FIRMLY* peeled for the kanji that would indicate our stop. Jess slept (so cute!) Spotted it, pushed the button, and got off. The Hakone loop and Senkyoro bus ride…accomplished.

And to the winner went the spoils. This was our ‘splurge hotel’ for the trip, sporting, as it did, Japanese-style dinner and breakfast, Japanese-style baths with warm water fed from volcanic hot springs, and a pretty big room.

We walked up the driveway though the parking lot. Lexus, Lexus, Audi, BMW, etc. There were some nice cars there and even more nice cars pulling up while the staff came out to welcome all newcomers to the hotel. Then we come tromping up the driveway in backpacks and boots and they come out to welcome us just the same. I really doubt having backpackers come by was a rare occasion (we did get bus directions from their website), but we did feel a little silly. Felt sillier still when we sat down and the ladies tried to heave our backpacks up onto a hand cart so they could take them up to the room.



We got up into the room and changed into the provided Yukata for rest and relaxation before dinner. The lady that showed us to our room also poured some tea for us. It was nice, but not really comfortable, I kept feeling like there was some sort of custom I was supposed to be following that I wasn’t aware of. Good for the experience, though.



I liked dinner, Jessie, not so much. She was such a trooper, though. The tried a little of everything, even RAW foods, until her stomach just couldn’t take the strangeness anymore. I, essentially unconcerned by anything that’s even reportedly edible, ate everything, and there was a lot of food. Something like 7 courses of intricately arranged fish and...other stuff…dishes. Strangest: whole cuttlefish. I ate one, but I’m not a huge fan of squid, so I left it at that.



Jess eventually did get some edible desert, and we got some rice (with peanut sauce!) for her too. Good stuff.

Then we got to hit up the hot springs. If you want to see what they looked like, click here, they have some pictures on the website. In the evening we went into the shared baths, where we scrubbed off the grime of the day and then relaxed in nice, hot, mineral-filled water. We definitely took our time and came out feeling very relaxed. At that point, they had come by our room to change the table for our beds, so we pushed the futons together, entwined our arms, and fell into some serious, serious sleep.

-N

Labels: Gondola, Hakone, Japan, Senkyoro