Tokushima: Day 1

For my last weekend trip in Japan I decided to go to Tokushima, on Shikoku.  Shikoku is one of the four main islands in Japan.  I started my trip on  a Friday night by taking the Shinkansen to Okayama.  I had hoped to take the overnight train Sunrise Seto to Takamatsu, but the train was all booked up.

The next morning I returned to Okayama station and departed for Takamatsu, across the Seto Inland Sea.  Okayama is a super busy station!

 While I was waiting for my train I saw the overnight train pull into the station.  I was so jealous of all the people in their train jammies!

It took two trains to get to Tokushima from Okayama.  The first was the Marine Liner which travels across a giant bridge to get to Shikoku.

 The next train took me from Takamatsu to Tokushima.  This train was called Uzushio.  Uzushio means whirlpool in Japanese!

 I arrived in Tokushima and started walking around the city.  This made me laugh:

 My first stop was the Awa Odori Museum.  Awa Odori is a famous dancing festival in Tokushima.  At the museum I was able to see the dance performed and I even learned how to do it!

 It was fun!

 On the top floor of the museum there is a ropeway up to the top of Mt. Bizan, which is the symbol of Tokushima.  Tokushima is a big place!

At the top of the ropeway there is a giant kaleidoscope thing.  It was pretty neat!

 After leaving the museum I boarded a bus to take me to Naruto to see the famous tidal whirlpools.  As I was waiting for the boat to take me to see them I found this guy and a bunch of his friends in the water.

Here is the boat I took!

This pretty bridge spans the narrow channel where the whirlpools form.  There is an observation deck under the bridge where you can watch the whirlpools from as well.

 The boat took us right up to the action.  It was so cool!

 A lot of water splashed over the railing of the boat.

 The pictures don't really do it justice - it was so swirly and cool.

 On the way back to the dock I saw some people set up for a day(s) of fishing.

Next, even though the whirlpools were dying down, I decided to go to the bridge observation deck.  I even braved standing on the floor window long enough to take a picture.

 There was a nice park around the bridge with some gardens.  It was so nice!

 On the way back to Tokushima in the train station I found this train poster that shamed you for doing rude things.  I thought it was entertaining!

I had a great first day in Tokushima, and I got to see the whirlpools, which were the major draw for this trip! I was happy!

Hakone: Day 2

On my second day in Hakone I wanted to start my day by going up the Mt. Komagatake ropeway.  Unfortunately, this is what it looked like and the ropeway was closed!

 Instead my gnomies and I took a walk around the lake back to Moto-Hakone where I got on a bus to take me to the train to get to my next destination.

 The Hakone Open Air Museum!  It's a giant sculpture park.  It was so cool.  This first one reminded me of something similar outside Porter Square Station in Cambridge.

 There were all sorts of sculptures!

 This was a giant kid's playground.  I wish I was small enough to climb all around inside, it looked fun.

 There was a maze sunk into the ground.  And in the background is another kid's play structure.  It also looked really fun.  I wish they would make these for adults!

 They had a whole building with works from Picasso.

 There was a footbath outside the cafe - it was nice to chill out for a bit with some fruit.

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 Giant fried egg benches.  Can I get one for my backyard?

 This was a cool tower made out of stained glass.  There was a nice view from the top!

 After visiting the open air museum I did some shopping and then made my way home.  I was entertained by the switchbacks in the train line.  The train would stop and the conductor would move from one end of the train to the other and we would start up again in the opposite direction!

I had an awesome time in Hakone!

Hakone: Day 1

A few weekends ago I went to Hakone, which is only a couple of hours away, to see the sights and get a last chance at onsen before I leave Japan.

One of the attractions of Hakone is the many types of transport that are available.  First a train that winds its way up a mountain with lots of switchbacks, then a cable car - literally a train car that is pulled up a hill by a cable!

I took the cable car to the last stop, Souzan.  Normally from there a ropeway goes to Owakudani, but it was closed for repair.  There was a replacement bus, but the line was so long, so I decided to take the hiking trail instead.  It was quite warm outside, but as I hiked up I found a lot of snow on the path!  

 But, it was worth it for the views of Fuji-san I got along the way!

 Here is the steaming hillside of Owakudani.

To reward myself for the hike I got an egg ice cream.  It didn't really taste like eggs - more like custard.

 At Owakudani they boil eggs in the sulfurous water at high altitude.  They transport the eggs up and down with a tiny egg ropeway!  So cute!

Here I am at Owakudani!

 After seeing Owakudani I took the next ropeway down to lake Ashi.  This ropeway was very efficient with many cars!

 At Lake Ashi there are many sightseeing boats decorated as pirate ships that take you across the lake.

Here is the view from the top deck of the ship.  It was a little cold to ride outside the whole time!

 This was my ship at the first stop, at Hakone-Machi.  Pirate ship, Lake Ashi and Fuji-san - what more could I ask for in a picture?

I walked from Hakone-Machi to Moto-Hakone on the Ancient Cedar Avenue.  It was a really nice walk.

 Moto-Hakone had a huge torii gate over the road!  I love it!

 Lots of people were gathered at the shore of the lake.

A nearby shrine had a huge floating torii.

 The shrine was really pretty with lanterns lit up and giant trees all around.

 The shrine also had one of the scariest dragon fountains I have seen yet!

After visiting the shrine I went to my ryokan, which had an amazing hot spring bath to soak in.  After all the walking I did, I really needed it!!

Kawazu

Last Sunday Stephanie and I traveled to the Izu Peninsula to see the town of Kawazu, where they have planted a special variety of early blossoming cherry trees!  It was beautiful!  I got a little carried away taking pictures.

We traveled to Kawazu on the Odoriko Super View Express.  It was a pretty cool train with huge windows!  The first and last cars were two levels, and the bottom level of the first car was a kid's playroom.  Pretty nice!

The view from the train was nice as we traveled along the coast.

 Here is our train - I wasn't the only one excited enough about it to take pictures!  I have become a little obsessed with trains lately.

 There were cute signs all over the town - I think this one says "everyone be happy". (?)

 There were some para-gliders over the town - I bet the sakura looked amazing from up there!

 The cherry blossom festival of the town was in full swing, and there were many people there.  In addition to the sakura there were other flowers blooming as well!

 Closeup!

 A festival means lots of food stands and snacks.  I got some grilled mushrooms.  And as usual, I ate one before I remembered to take a picture!

 So many foods!  A lot of them were pink and cherry flavored.

Chiizu!

 More foods - a roasted sweet potato cut into wedges and rolled in sugar.  I couldn't finish it!

 Most of the trees were planted along a river, it made for a beautiful walk.

 At times the trees created a tunnel to walk under.

 So very Japanese!

 A nice man offered to take our picture!  I was amazed that there wasn't anyone behind us since it was so crowded there.  Also, it appears that we dressed to match with the blossoms.

We just missed the eruption of this geyser.  I think it's fake though, because it went off every hour on the half hour exactly according to the schedule!

The daffodils and the sakura together were so pretty!

 After strolling in the town for a while we decided to take the bus to see some waterfalls.  On the way we passed this spiral bridge.  I wish we would have gone up it, but we went around instead.  It looked so cool!

 Kawazu has 7 waterfalls, but the paths to get to some of them were under construction.  It looks like there were some small landslides that took out some of the paths.

 The ones we did get to see were pretty impressive!

 I tried my hand at throwing some wishing stones into a bowl made out of a rock in the middle of the river.  I missed badly!

 This was the best waterfall of the bunch, and a great view to end our day.

After seeing the waterfalls the weather started to change, getting cooler and starting to rain.  Back in the town we had some dinner, and then boarded a very crowded train back to Yokohama.  We had to stand the whole way back, but we were entertained by what appeared to be a mother and daughter standing near us and drinking a lot of beer and eating a seemingly never ending supply of snacks. They, in turn, were amused by us, studying Kanji by writing them on the foggy window!