Ringing in the New Year

Luckily for us, our xmas/New Year's break ended on our weekend, so having a few extra days off we decided to head down to Hakone, south of Yokohama. Hakone is a hot-spring resort kinda town. We found a place to stay ("ryokan", Japanese hotel) on the internet, made reservations and off we went.

We got there a little late in the day - which we thought would be ok. The lady at the ryokan told us that all the shops close early in Hakone, which we took to be a ploy to get us to spend more money eating dinner at the hotel instead of at a cheap restaurant nearby. So we went for a walk, looking for such a restaurant. When she said they close early, she meant really early - everything closes around 4pm! We managed to get some food at a 7-11 and had that, supplemented by some rice-balls from room service. That night we got some Star Treks in and that's about it. :)

The next day was our big sight-seeing day. We took off in the morning for Hakone Jinja, followed by a short hike up to the gondola area. They've built a tourist trap around it of course, but we did get some soba noodles for lunch at a supposedly famous shop there and they were quite good. Next, we took the gondola to the top of Mt. Komogatake, where we had a beautiful view of Fuji and the Yokohama/Odawara area. I don't think we've ever had such perfect weather (see for yourself, the pictures are up). We took the cable car down, thinking we would walk down the highway to the bottom, which was actually quite close to our ryokan. Five minutes down the mountain, however, the only other people on the cable car with us pulled over and offered us a ride, which we gladly accepted.

At the bottom of the mountain we took a short walk to see the stone Buddhas, which are carved into various rocks along the path. The scenery was great - it's so nice to have a change from the greys of Tokyo. Again, the pictures are up at the usual place.

We headed back to the hotel for a rest and then once more we headed out to get some omiyage (presents) and some Japanese desert. Then back again to the hotel for the outdoor onsen (hot spring) - just in time for sunset.

Now it's back to work. :(