Hakone

 On Sunday, May 24, we caught the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Odawara, and transferred to local trains that went into Hakone. This is a mountainous area near Mt Fuji that is known for its numerous onsens. The small trains that go into Hakone go up a very steep grade. A few times the train go into a switchback that looked like a dead end, but then the tracks would switch and the train would reverse direction continuing up the other steep track.

We reached the small town of Miyanoshita, where the inn was. It was about a 15 minute walk up some steep roads through what looked like a residential area. The inn was an old, Japanese style inn run by a lovely elderly couple. There were two onsen baths inside, and they for private use. That is, if no one else was using it, we just entered, locked the door and had the bath to ourselves.

The couple that ran the inn called a restaurant for us to make reservations, and then drove us to the restaurant. The town seems very quiet. There are several big hotels, probably all with their own onsens. But there may not be enough restaurants for the number of people staying, since apparently reservations are necessary everywhere.

We had a nice dinner at a restaurant near the station. I had a craft beer from a local brewery called Gora brewing, and it was one of the best IPA's I've had.

The next morning, the man from the inn drove us to the town of Gora, which the start of the cablecar up the mountain. Before getting on the cablecar we had breakfast at a great place called Camp Coffee.

The cable car was packed with people, and made a few stops before reaching the end stop called Souzan. There we transfered to a gondola that took us to the highest point. From there we got a view of Mt. Fuji above the clouds.

At the top you could several places where volcanic gas was escaping from the rocks.

There were tourist shops selling "black eggs", which are cooked in hotspring water from the volcano. We bought some to eat later.

Afterward we continued on the gondola down the other side, to Lake Ashi. We took a break, walked along the lake and ate our eggs. We also stopped at a small restaurant the served deep fried smells that were caught from the lake.

The last part our tourist circuit - which was all included in the 'Hakone Free Pass' that we bought at Odawara station - was the sight-seeing boat that went to the end of the lake.

From there we caught a  bus back to the inn.

We dinner a the same place as the night before. An interesting appetizer was deep fried fish bones. They went well with beer!

The next day we decided to go to the town called Hakone-Yumoto. It is the biggest town  at the entrance to the Hakone area. It is known for onsens, but most of the onsens are inside hotels.

The man from the inn drove us there. We had breakfast and walked along the river and the town for a while.

We found out from the tourist information centre that there is a big, public onsen called Yuryo  and there as a regular shuttle bus to it from the station. 

We went there early, about 11am, in case we needed to make a reservation. But it wasn't busy so we went straight in. A very beautiful onsen with several outdoor baths, a sauna, a tatami mat rest area where you can hang out in your yukata, a rest area outside with a fire pit, and a restaurant. We were there for almost four hours.

It turned out the Gora brewery was just a few minutes walk down the road from the onsen, so we went there for a drink and a bite to eat.

We walked back to town - it was only about 20 minutes - and had dinner at a soba place that was recommended by the man from the inn. It was very different: some of the dishes were bowls of cold soba noodles topped with raw egg.  At little difficult to eat, to be honest. 

We then took the train back to the inn.