Japan - Day Four

The fourth day in Japan was spent in Hakone. The hotel there was really nice, with a large room and a view overlooking the bay. Hakone is a fairly small town quite close to Mount. Fuji with a large lake inside the crater formed from a volcanic eruption. The hillsides are covered with forestry and bamboo which makes for a nice view.


In the morning after breakfast we made our way down the hill towards the lake, where they had various attractions like swan boats, where you could use pedal power to boat around the lake. They were fairly fun, but hard work as well doing all the pedalling. There were also a few pirate sightseeing ships you could take to reach the otherside of the bay, where most the township was. On the pirate ship there were even a few people dressed up as pirates which was funny, they went around the audience trying to get pictures with people. The ships were fairly huge and impressive, with different colors and stylings for each one.


At the other side of the bay things were a little more interesting, with many stores and some historical spots. During the Edo period, the Samurai and Feudal Lords had to travel to Tokyo every one or two years, wherever they might have been around the country, and Hakone was one of the checkpoints on their pilgrimage. They had many of the original buildings there from the checkpoint, with a musuem built up around them showing all the different things they used to do. It was pretty tough walking around this area, as you had to climb up and down really large hills to get to the interesting spots. There was a huge garden built around one of the hillsides also, with lookouts overlooking the bay at the bottom.

After doing some shopping and trying some crazy Japanese food, we eventually made our way back to the original side of the bay and headed back to the hotel. Later that night, in looking for a place to eat, we got to have the fun experience of wandering around the dark hillside getting lost. Hakone seems to shut down completely at night time, with the only places open being hotels and places to stay. After wandering for a long time, we grudgingly decided to head back to the hotel. The hotel had food, but the restaurants there were extremely expensive, so I had to make do with a pack of potato chips and a can of beer. At least the breakfast in the morning was included, so I finally got to have some real food then.


The next day we headed away from Hakone all the way down to Osaka on the Shinkansen. I'm currently using a public computer at the moment so unfortunately I can't upload any pictures at the moment.

Edit: Pictures added.