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!  

Ueno Zoo

Last Saturday I didn't have any big plans, so I decided to go to Ueno zoo, the oldest Zoo in Japan.  I got to see some unusual animals!  And I learned some more Japanese animal names!

Of course there were pandas!

 Even though there was some thick glass, I felt a little nervous this close to a lion!

 Gorilla - just chillin.

 These lovebirds were so adorable!

 This is by far the strangest bird I have ever seen.

 Oh hey polar bear. This guy kept sniffing the air with his nose - polar bear noses are surprisingly movable.

 My lunch at the zoo was a sandwich with a panda toasted into the bread.  They were celebrating 40 years of having pandas.

 One side of the zoo had a huge pond, with many big office buildings in the background!

 This is a pile of naked mole rats.  It was squirmy and gross.

 Oh hai Mr. Meerkat.

 This is called a Palla's cat.  I thought it looked so fluffy and cute!

 This is a leaf-nose snake.  Pretty self explanatory, I think.

 Of course because it is Japan, there was a pagoda at the zoo!

After seeing all of the animals, I checked out the massive shopping arcade near Ueno station.  There were lots of things for sale, many types of fish and other foods, golf clubs, clothes, shoes.  Pretty much anything!

Nikko Day 2

On my second day in Nikko I had a plan to go see the waterfall Kegon no Taki.  I woke up and decided to walk to the station to get my bus ticket.  A very light snow was falling, but the day was still pretty warm.

I got on the bus and it started to wind it's way up a mountain.  And the snow got heavier and heavier as we went.  Soon it was like a blizzard.  After I got on the bus I fought the wind and snow for a 5 minute walk to the waterfall.  This snow was not messing around!

 It was a pretty spectacular waterfall!  It was half frozen, but still pouring out an amazing amount of water.  There was an elevator you could take down through the cliffs to get level with the falls - it was a great view!  There were even a few other crazy people braving the storm.  I sat with most of them around a heater in the bus station later, waiting for the bus to take us back down to the town!

 The town near the waterfall is called Chuzenji-onsen.  I figured I would find an onsen there, and I could have a bath and warm up.  Unfortunately, the town seemed deserted!  I tried to walk around a little bit, but it was just too cold and windy.  I found the large lake that the town is centered around, and a nice big torii.  Then I turned around and went back to the bus station!  This is the first time I have completely bailed on sightseeing since I've been here, but it was just so miserable out that I didn't care!

 This was the road back down the mountain.  There were over 50 switchbacks on the road!  (There were signs numbering them - I didn't count!)  There are separate roads for up and down, thank goodness!

 Once I got back to Nikko the weather was great again!  I had some lunch - yubadon!  It was delicious!

After lunch I did a little shopping and then took the train back home.  I'm glad I went to Nikko, it was really interesting!