The rain poured the night before, but cleared up to show this beautiful view! Since we had to head back to Osaka anyway, we just hoped the looming clouds would be gentle to us!
We catch the shinkansen to Odawara, where we picked up the Hakone Free Pass - which would be our ticket around Hakone. You can choose from a 2 or 3-day pass. Despite only being there for a day trip, it is still more convenient and worth it to grab the Free Pass instead of trying to buy separate tickets (also because I'm lazy).
After a trip on the Tozan train (which is a very slow, zig-zag train which makes its way up towards the peak) and the cable car, we arrive at OWAKUDANI - THE MOTHERLAND OF THE BLACK EGG!
The view from the cable car -- the smell as you pass over this section is intense as it infests the cable car before you even see the field! I have no idea what it is for, but I believe that it is and will continue to be my closest encounter with a 'mine'.
After alighting the cable car, the trek (to the souvenirs and food) begins! They sell souvenirs back at the entry to the cable car, but who wants to hold stuff as they walk.
Pretty rocks with sulphuric water streaming down -- I assume it is sulphuric...but it was too pretty to pass a photo of!
On the way to the top! What was funny was that we had no idea of what was at the top when doing the trek -- we just saw everyone walk in that way and followed...trust my lack of research and direction to do such a thing.
And...we walked in the wrong direction. More like a circle - we had walked across a bridge that we shouldn't have. But, we did manage to bring a lot of other tourists into this dead end with us!
We made it! But it was crazy windy~~~~ There's actually not much here other than a better view of the hill, a bunch of restaurants and souvenir shops. Since I already painstakingly trekked here, must take picture, right?!
Having suffered enough wind in our faces, we decided to head in to a busy ramen restaurant, run by some strict but smiley obaasans. Having poked a couple ramen ticket places in our trip, we knew how to order!
You must have Japanese curry in Japan! I was absolutely set on this as soon as I saw the カレー ・ライスbutton on the machine. The tonakatsu was brilliantly crispy, despite being dowsed in curry sauce.
Being the only one of the four that could take some spice, dad went for the black ramen from hell --地獄ラーメン.
The black ramen didn't taste any different flavour wise to the regular ramen, but was of a more chewy texture. Although being hell-spicy, it was addictive as I kept going back for the soup.
It turns out the ferry....is a pirate boat! It was entirely decked out with the old-fashioned guns and sails and all that jazz! We were meant to see Mt. Fuji in the middle of the river, between two mountains (google mt fuji lake ashi)..but our bad weather luck hit us again and the mountain was covered by clouds.
And that marked the end of our day trip to Hakone - I really wanted to stay at one of the ryokans there..but why are they so expensive?!?!!
Next time...next time.
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