A great trip to start the autumn. Onwards to 8o pictures of Hakone!

Next, Mama and I went to an area slightly west off Tokyo, Hakone. Known for its mountain ranges and hot springs, it’s extremely popular among tourists, especially those who wanna get out of Tokyo’s bustling urban jungle.

Japan knows the needs of their tourists well; they provide a 2-day Hakone Free Pass where we can ride all the transportation you see in this post for an unlimited number of times. And all the spots are nicely connected via various types of transport lines, so it was easy to get around. Benri da ne! (Convenient!) Fully recommended by yours truly!

Sorry to take up your bandwidth, but I tried to delete as many as I could! There were just too many interesting photos!

After travelling 90 minutes via Odakyu train, we took a bus to get to our accommodation in Moto-Hakone. Give me an AE86 and Dogfight single CD and we could’ve gotten there much faster.

Once we checked in, we decided to hike down this little path.

Life is slow in this part of Japan.

Where the only web around here was the spider’s.

There were some nicely designed houses here as well. Wonder how much does it take to own a piece of land here.

Most of the houses had a western design to it, like some sort of cabin/rest house.

With this kind of view, it doesn’t matter how you design your house, you’ll have a great life for sure. This is Lake Ashi. The orange gate (or torii) on the other side belongs to the Hakone shrine. If you want to do a tourist brochure of Hakone, this is one view you must include. It was simply breathtaking.

Green mountains surround the lake, taking your breath away even more.

We have finally reached the foot of the mountain hike.

Time to eat some egg sandwiches beside the lake. Made by Mama!

We met a friendly Australian couple in the bus, and coincidentally we met them again here. G’day mate!

We can see Mt. Fuji from here! Or at least its right shoulder. Man, that pirate ship looks tacky.

Spotted an old couple enjoying the breeze. The lady was reading a novel while the man was drawing. Is this the life or what?!

Instead of the lake, he was drawing a bunch of cedar trees. Now why is that?

Coz it was just nearby! This is the Ancient Cedar Avenue.

A path lined with cedar trees. It was parallel to the busy road, so it wasn’t THAT scenic.

Still, the trees and the sunlight seeping through them were enough to make this path a spectacular one.

An important historical site, the Hakone checkpoint. Jin and Fuu were held here while Mugen went on a superb drug adventure in Samurai Champloo. Didn’t see anyone jogging on site.

Samurais won’t resist drawing their swords (courtesy of Lawson) if you don’t have a pass.

Just as depicted in Samurai Champloo, this checkpoint separates the Edo side (now known as Tokyo)…

…and the Kyoto side.

We didn’t have a pass, but luckily the officer didn’t bother to use the weapons behind him.

Alert alert, tourist trap, tueettt tueetttt~

Can someone tell me who this is?!

Could get some lovely manjuu here, hot mochi balls filled with red bean paste or green tea.

Say, that shopkeeper looks familiar.

I look like a nun in a samurai costume.

It was getting late, but we had enough daylight when we got to the other side of the lake.

The entrance of Hakone shrine.

Huge sacred tree! Maybe I should’ve chopped some wood off and carve myself a blue-haired shrine maiden.

A flight of stairs to the main shrine. Touhou immediately comes to mind (Man, UFO is haaaaaardd).

And finally the torii that you saw earlier from the other side.

It’s these little things that highlight the religion’s emphasis on serenity and peace with oneself.

It was getting late, even the goose needed her rest.

While waiting for the bus, this cute kitty kept clinging on us. Felt bad leaving her :(

Nothing much to do after 7 here, so it was time to return to the guest house. Wanted to go to the hot springs, but it was getting late and Mama didn’t want to go anyway. Oh well, next time.

Moto-Hakone Guest House is a nice little inn with some homely deco.

Our room was called Sakura :) Love the flower, love the character (yes, all of them).

Awww how lovely! They had some nice paper cranes to greet us in our room.

Money-saver Mama decided not to opt for local area cuisine and instead chowed down on some Maggi Curry Flavour. I gladly followed along :)

PSP ran out of batt. Time to sleep!

The next day, we were surprised to see a lovely clear view of Mt Fuji!

…on the inn’s computer desktop :P

Outside, it was in fact the very opposite.

We planned to take the cruise from Moto-Hakone, but the ship could only depart from another location due to the mist.

The ship at Hakone-machi however departed as scheduled. Welcome to the (super tacky) Hakone sightseeing cruise. I love pirates and all, but this feels so…. fake.

Regardless, I enjoyed the sea breeze, as you can tell from my messy hair.

By the powers, enemy spotted!

Avast scallywag! Or I’ll place ya with me black balls!

Mama decided not to play pirate and went to the lower deck.

This “pirate” went around asking people to take polaroid pictures with him (for a fee of course, told you it’s tacky!) but no one accepted his offer. Poor guy.

At Togendai, we took a bus to the next stop, Hakone Glass Forest. Mama said (translated to Manglish), “die die oso must come here ok!”. She’s a big fan of glass and crystal crafts.

At first I thought it would be as tacky as some french village in Malaysia, but it was very well-decorated. Attention to detail was amazing. Moreover, it’s a mini Venice \o/ Now, why would I like Venice?

I thought I’d get into the Italian mood myself.

Looking at this picture, you’d think that it is a bridge surrounded by waterfall droplets.

When in fact they’re strands attached with beautiful hand-crafted Venetian glass jewels.

I was most amazed by the moss and flowers that grew naturally in the area. They added a lot to the atmosphere.

There was even a nice cottage house with a mill that doubles as a cafe.

The place features a little museum showcasing various Venetian glass and crystal crafts. Mama said it was a little disappointing as she was expecting more stained glass exhibits.

This is the archway to yet another tourist trap…

…The craft shop! Tueettt tueeet~

Mama is one happy customer.

We took the bus back to Togendai and rode on the Hakone Ropeway.

This is me trying my best to hide my fear of heights.

Had a nice chat with these two Japanese ladies. The one on the right was so particular on how our picture should be taken. “There, you can see the lake! And those trees, with this perspective it’ll be great! Quick, give me your camera!”, hahhaha.

We reached Owakudani, a place overcrowded with tourists, and you’ll see why.

Hello Kitty manning the souvenir shop.

Finally, the full shape of elusive Mount Fuji! I know I climbed the beast before, but seeing it from afar is another thing altogether.

Tourists flock here to see the volcanic activities that are still, uh, active. And man, it was smelly out here, no thanks to the sulfur content in the air. Should be called fart mountain.

The main attraction here are the eggs, cooked by the sulfurous volcanic pools and picked up by this poor dude who had to endure the heat.

They’re called black eggs coz the shell is black (thank you captain obvious).

It was fresh from the pool, so it was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY hot. Had to be careful when peeling off the shell!

The yolk was especially delicious. Eating one egg is said to lengthen your lifespan by 7 years. Just had 21 years added to my life, woohoo!

They had a spare uniform, so wore it and took picture with this cute attendant-on-duty :3

We were freaking tired after that, so we decided to go home right away. At Gora, we took a cable car down the hill. You know, that slanting train like the one you see in Penang. The autumn colours were starting to show near the tracks.

Then we took a nice little 2-carriage train on the Hakone Tozan line. It was unique coz once it went down to one part of the hill, it traveled in reverse to go down further. This process repeated a number of times. After all, it’s stupid to build a circular track around the hill.

Like the schoolgirl in front of us, we took a nap throughout the journey.

It was a wonderful trip! Just 10k yen per person and you can enjoy all these sights. Highly recommended! One day I need to go there again and enjoy the hot springs :3