We moved to Hakone today from Tokyo and so it was up sharpish with breakfast in our room. I have discovered the best drink ever, Chinese pear juice, it’s the best! Just so much fragrance and flavour and massively refreshing.
After leaving a spacious 85 mins to get to the station for the inaugural Davies shinkansen trip I managed to blow a significant portion of it going in the wrong entrance on the subway and cancelling all our cards. The stress was palpable. We eventually got through to Ueno and made the change to overground trains to Tokyo central station. However the train was not leaving for 10 mins leaving only 13 mins to navigate to the bullet train. Have you ever seen five stressed jet lagged English folk move like a blur in 38 degree heat? Now you have. We boarded the train with minutes to go and got sat down. It was a class 700 Komada 711 train to Shin-Osaka but we were only going 3 stops 30 mins to Odawara. Here we got off and bought Hakone Passes to enjoy the highlands activities and sort train fares for the region. We are now checked in at Hakone and have left our luggage before a steep rail ascent with 3 switchbacks as the height is too much for the train to do in one go. It reminds us of Ecuador and Peru.
A quick stop for more curry after the cable car overlooking a sulphurous crater half way up the volcano and a craft cider called. Lots of local breweries to try the wares from. Following the cable car as it is called here we went on a cable car as we would call it (here called the rope walk). And immediately after that a cruise. Everything is back to back and is included in the Hakone free pass. Finally a bus back to check in proper and what do you know, we are on TV! They are filming segments about Hakone and they must have thought let’s grab the 5 sweatiest Brits who have just stomped up a Hill in 95% humidity and film them saying “Hakone is number 1!”
This is a super posh hotel and comes with a welcome reception from literally all the staff, drinks, a tour of the rooms and then each has its private hot spring bath overlooking the mountain. THIS is the holiday bit and it is fabulous. Jenni had a snooze and I stayed in the hot spring for as long as I could without passing out. We will be collected for dinner and are wearing traditional dress. This could be fabulous, hilarious or humiliating, maybe all three 🙂
