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Japan 2023: Onsen town
posted : Saturday, May 20, 2023
Debated for a while between this day trip, versus staying in Tokyo and exploring some other areas which I have not been to, Akihabara for instance. Patisseries for example. And the fact that I needed to travel 2hours each way. But decided in the end that I would rather see Hakone and it was sort of a plan that I had all this while so just followed through with it and bought the Hakone Free Pass (past midnight the night before some more).
I did consider not getting the free pass actually, coz it was meant for two days actually and I am only there for a day trip, and the chief benefit of the pass is free transport within the region. You don’t get free entry to attractions, only discounts at some merchants. In the end I didn’t have time to calculate properly if it’s worth it, so I just went ahead with it but as the day went on I get the feeling that I have gotten the worth out of it so I guess it’s alright. Bright and early again, did have to rush a bit to catch my train so couldn’t have hotel breakfast (though it did look decent). It was a somewhat early train because I wanted to have as much time in Hakone as possible. Had to top up I think about 1100¥ for a ride on the Hakone Romance Car (what’s with Japanese and romance? Maybe “sightseeing” is too difficult?). But I think it was worth it in the end, coz it’s a direct train with no stops so it’s faster, and the view is great too. The front cabin seats (I think there were only 12 seats or something) were of course long snapped up but I don’t think you are missing too much in the regular cars.  Bright and early from hotel room. It’s a good sunny day!  Ah Shinjuku. Didn’t quite explore this time round.  Front row romance car seats which needed advance bookings  Is that what I think it is….? Passengers in my car kept letting out excited (but muted) noises whenever it appeared  Arriving at Hakone-Yumoto station  Good day! Found an itinerary online for a typical Hakone day trip (which covers most of the attractions) and just followed it, so the first stop brings me to this Amazake-Chaya tea house.  Mochi is good, but amazake is not my cup of tea  Interior of the tea house And the next thing on the itinerary is a hike. I wouldn’t say the hike itself is difficult for my stamina (which is of course a lot better than what it was), it’s just that the path isn’t very well laid out to be honest…the rocky paths and slopes were a bit hard to walk on, and not helped by the fact that they were a bit slippery coz it (probably) rained the day before too. So I was constantly worrying about slipping and falling, but all’s good in the end.  Starting point of the old Tokaido Highway.  Urgh. And I didn’t really have the right shoes.  Randomly came across this nice photo spot which is a bit off track The 45 minute hike took me to Lake Ashi. Which would have been really great to chill at, if it wasn’t that windy. In fact it was so windy that the official website indicated that some of the transport modes like ropeway and sightseeing ship are not operating, but turns out they were. But more on that later.  Lake Ashi Headed straight to the Hakone Shrine, skipped entering the shrine (coz if I were to be honest, all shrines look the same) and headed down to the famous torii gate at Lake Ashi. Where there’s a queue to take pictures! It didnt seem too bad at first so I joined the queue..but it turned out to be quite slow moving and coz I already waited, I kind of didn’t want to give up on it. I ended up queueing almost an hour for it lol and the wind really didn’t help. Was shivering by the end of it and the photos didn’t even turn out nice ahahahaha.  The queue. Underestimated how long it’d take and also how windy it’d get  Finally  One with me, artificially increased brightness around my face lol. Standard practice is for people queuing behind you to help you take photo haha. Walked (half sprinted actually coz didn’t want to wait for the next ship) back around Lake Ashi to board the sightseeing pirate ship. I don’t know why it had to be in the form of pirate ship and the story behind it, kinda gimmicky but it got the job done I guess.  Pirate ship  Fujisan Ship takes you to the Togendai area and transferred to the ropeway, which takes you up the mountains to Owakudani. This is actually an active volcanic zone! The valley was a crater created by an eruption like thousands of years ago and it’s still emitting sulphuric fumes, and supplying minerals that makes Hakone’s onsens so famous. The stench was bearable, though again, the wind wasn’t hahaha. Ducked indoors to sample some of their food - eggs are out of the question for me, so I just had a pork bun, get some souvenirs, and moved on.  Reminded me a bit of Jigokudani at Noboribetsu  Pork bun. Nothing special, but I didn’t have proper lunch so Was kinda rushing by now coz I didn’t want to get back to Tokyo too late, and I still wanted to leave some time for onsen in Hakone. So hopped on the ropeway again, transferred to a cable car towards Gora, then to the Hakone train. Which was a very interesting train ride I wasn’t expecting, because they run on some complicated system that requires switchovers etc (and it’s too complicated to explain here). And it’s quite scenic too so they went quite slow - had I known the ride will take that long I would have fought for a seat hahah but I ended up standing all the way. Back to Hakone Yumoto station, took a shuttle bus to the onsen place. Again, wasn’t free, but discounted under the free pass. There’s a private onsen option too but I was alone, not a good enough reason to splurge on it, and I was comfortable with public ones by now. Really came a long way…just know that 如果你不尴尬，尴尬的就是别人 so it’s really on them now ahahaha.  Inside the Hakone Yuryo  Towards the camera restricted area It’s a fantastic onsen btw, especially the outdoor pools facing the mountain. Would have been more serene if there wasn’t so many people especially those hogging the smaller, infinity pool-esque bath. Oh well. Refreshed, headed back to the station, did a bit of food souvenir shopping (again, because I kept thinking I didnt buy enough for office peeps) and went on my two hour train ride back to Tokyo. It’s dark already by now so there’s not much point booking a romance car ride for this leg anyway. Headed straight to Tokyo station shopped around the station a bit, but the Henri Charpentier shop I wanted to go (to buy a cake back for the sister) have closed for the day, ditto Daimaru (it’s only 8pm!). So that’s where my regret was, not having even a shortcake in Japan.  Outside!  Yum! Place is called Tosaya. Got pork belly and jowl. There’s one last thing to do which is a bit of shopping at Don Quijote next to hotel, and that’s it for the trip. Initially wanted to drop by hotel’s bar for a drink too, but ended up not doing it after my nightly IG posting activity.  Can’t get enough of this view though |
