Exploring the Hakone Area

From the itinerary for 24 August, 2023: Start today with a cable car ride from Owakudani (from Hakone Yumoto you can reach Owakudani via train) , a volcanic valley with numerous hot springs. Particularly famous here are the eggs boiled in volcanic water, which have a black colour and are said to prolong life.

Afterwards, the trip continues by cable car to Lake Ashi. From here you can cross the lake by boat and with a little luck catch a great view of Mount Fuji. To do this, board the boat in Togendai-ko and go ashore again in Motohakone-ko. Right next to the pier is the Hakone Shrine, which is picturesquely located in the forest and is definitely worth a visit. From there, you can go back to Hakone Yumoto via bus.

Here is a photo of my route for the day - blue arrow is the train that took me to the first sort of windy train (green train). The yellow arrow is the funicular they call a cable car and shift to a a ski lift they call a rope way over the volcanic valley to the red arrow - the cruise across the lake. Then the purple arrow is the bus that took me back to my hotel.

I slept well, took an onsen and went to my mediocre breakfast. This was actually ok since I overate last 3 days... the weather report looks good, but rain is in the forecast which started right away. It feels very tropical hear - 86, but feels like 100 at only 9:30am. It's supposed to get up to 90 today

The train to Gora is very scenic. The railway looks a bit like a subway and it's very windy. The track actually uses switchbacks as it goes up hill

Then a sort of funicular they call a cable car

Then on to the ski lift they call a rope way. No view at all because the rain was quite heavy at this point, at least I have a car all to myself. As we climbed up the hill I noticed the health issues box and wondered "what don’t I know". The label says to alert the staff if you use anything in the box which is filled with oxygen tubes. Once the hill was crested the incredibly smelly and ugly volcanic mine is visible. Only switching ski lift cars at the top was there he warning about volcanic gas translated into English which explained why there was a "health issues box" in the cable car:)

You switch cable cars at the top over to Togandai. This is where you can get eggs that are boiled in this water - the result is the eggs turn black. It tasted like a normal egg.

At least this side is prettier and you can see the lake.

On clear days you can see majestic Mt Fuji on the right

I took a pirate ship cruise across Lake Airu- I wonder if there are cormorants on the lake because I saw 2 black birds that looked like cormorants. It rained most of the way across.

I saw these cute dogs while I was waiting to board the ship

Rather unfortunate picture taken of me by French lady in front of the Hakone-Junja.

After landing I stopped for a sesame ice cream which was good and gave me an excuse to get out of a sudden rain storm

Along my walk I stopped at a Taiwanese dim sum place for a snack- milk tea and sesame balls - no photos, but tasty!

And then made my way over to the Hakone-Ninja Shrine

Hakone-jinja shrine dates back to the year 757. Many military commanders prayed at this shrine devotedly, which brought it fame throughout the country. Another group of worshippers were travelers, who regularly visited the Hakone area, and often came here to pray for a safe trip. Waited 40 minutes to get the mandatory photo taken- not sure why I did it. Of course started raining just as it was my turn

Took K bus back to hotel- very twisty road- reminded me a bit of Machu Picchu road. Wanted to see where it left me off so I knew where to pick it up in the morning if I decided. not to walk to the train.

I decided to go to Odewara Castle instead of hiking a mountain, even though there are a lot of trails in the area. It's just too hot and will have the advantage of seeing a bit of Odawara.

The views from the tower were very pretty and there was a breeze!

This was at the Castle and we have the same one at home...

There was a cute door at the exit

On exit I found some sad monkeys which are local to the area.

I had a mediocre dinner

The topper of the day was finding a huge roach in the room. Reception was a bit less than helpful, but they did finally get the roach and take it away. They also left some spray in case there were others:). (luckily there were not)