Visit of Hakone National Park
A mix of super touristy and super traditional, Hakone is a wonderful place to visit. Mona and I went there for the week-end, leaving early saturday morning and staying overnight in a charming japanese-style guest house. Included in the room fare was free access to a small private hot spring bath which was absolutely wonderful.
On saturday, we did a tour of the park recommended by the guest-house owner which was very nice. First on the list was a small bus trip through the hills and forests, then a small cable car(which is like a rackrail train, but is pulled up the hill on a cable), and then a whooping ropeway up to the sulfur mine and volcano. (here too, they cook eggs in the hot water)
Then a second ropeway down to lake Ashi and the 'pirate' boat cruise to the other end of the lake, with some nice shrines, and another detached palace along the way.
As the boats and busses wind to a halt around 5 pm, we had to get back to the guest house pretty early, which just FORCED us to go out to a japanese restaurant for dinner, and then try out the outdoor hot spring. It was actually so nice thay we signed up again for the morning, Mona deciding that she wouldn't have too much trouble getting out of bed in the morning, if it was to jump into the hot spring pool.
Then we took a real rackrail train to a small village where a hiking trail started out. We saw a nice waterfall, nice cedar forests and tons of cherry and japanese maple trees. It must really be beautiful in autumn... Also, for some unexplained reason, some quite large pampas grass plains. They seem to be quite an important feature of the region. The hike took about 2 hours and was wonderful. And even though we managed to miss the ruins of the castle we were supposed to see, we did get too see tons of HUGE butterflies, which were just as good, I'm sure.
There could have been no better farewell trip.
