Hakone

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Having learnt our lesson after the trip from Tokyo, Scott took Elodie to the playground to run off some energy while I packed up our AirBNB in Osaka. By the time they came back I was all done so we grabbed our suitcases and headed to the train station.

When we arrived at Osaka station we purchased shinkansen tickets to Hakone. We opted to take a slightly later train so we'd have a direct trip. While waiting for the train it became clear that the morning playground trip had been a little too successful as Elodie fell asleep in her pram.

We had about an hour and a half wait for our train, so Elodie was awake by the time we were due to board. We were a little worried about how she'd cope being awake for the whole 2 hour 20 minute trip, but fortunately a lovely Japanese-Sri Lankan woman boarded the train and sat next to us after a few stops. She had three kids of her own and could speak quite a lot of English so between the three of us we kept Elodie entertained. Elodie was particularly taken by her sparkly red fingernails and the stickers she gave her.

Once at Odawara station we purchased a Hakone pass and then headed to the local train to Hakone Yumoto station. After 16 minutes we arrived and headed to our hotel to check in.

Hakone is a popular day trip spot from Tokyo; it's famous for its hot springs, beautiful scenery and museums. Yumoto area is the closest town which makes it easy to get to. I'd selected it as our base so that transport would be easy, particularly on the way back to the airport to catch our flight home.

Given it was our last stop of the trip we'd splashed out on a more traditional ryokan type hotel which offered kaiseki meals for breakfast and dinner and onsens for about 450 AUD per night. Our hotel was actually one of the cheaper options in Hakone; many of the other similar hotels cost close to 1000 AUD a night (and don't accept children). This one also appeared to not have paper walls...definitely a plus when travelling with a nearly 2 year old!

Our room was quite nice but a little dated / tired looking. Still it was comfortable and had everything we needed. We confused Elodie by showing her that our beds were in the cupboard!

After settling in we headed out for a walk. First stop was the local 7/11 to pick up ice creams. We ate ours pretty quickly, but Elodie decided to be very un-Japanese and walk around very slowly while eating her ice cream / getting it all over her face. A lovely local was horrified by the mess and ran off to get her a tissue...before she'd finished eating. A very kind thought but definitely premature as she was messy a few seconds later!

Yumoto is built up along one side of the river. The other side is mostly forested with a few hotels dotted around. There's also a hiking trail which is apparently very difficult - I assume it goes straight up the mountain.

Our walk was quite pleasant; we followed what we assume is the start of the trail for the hard hike but turned around after not too long. Still it was nice to walk amongst the trees.

We headed back to 7/11 to pick up dinner for Elodie as we'd opted not to pay for a kaiseki meal for her because we were fairly certain she wouldn't eat enough to justify the 50 AUD price tag! We then headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.

Our dinner was served in a private dining room which was great as we didn't have to worry too much about Elodie disturbing others as long as we were able to keep her fairly quiet. They had a high chair for Elodie as well as bowls and cutlery which was great.

Scott and I were served an array of different dishes each. We had fond memories of kaiseki meals from our last trip - they're great because you get to try so many different and unusual things that you wouldn't ordinarily order / think to order. Scott counted 11 or 12 different types of fish as a part of his meal. Dinner was yummy; there was heaps of food! My favourite was a tofu and egg stew and the vegetable tempura.

We all had a bath in our outdoor hot spring bath before hopping into bed on our futons.

The following morning we awoke to fairly heavy rain. Scott and I both had a trip to the onsen before breakfast which was lovely. We're both big fans of onsen baths!

Breakfast was another impressive array of little dishes. This time we didn't bother bringing anything separate for Elodie as there had been so much food the night before and she was happy to share ours. It was the right decision - she happily sampled a lot of things (and fed her Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck toys from Disneyland).

After breakfast we headed to the train station to go to the Hakone Open Air museum hoping that the rain would ease while we were traveling. The train trip to the museum was really lovely; a steep ride through the forest with several switchbacks to get up the mountain.

When we arrived at Chokoku-no-Mori station about 40 minutes after leaving Hakone Yumoto. Unfortunately the rain hadn't eased; it had gotten heavier. Scott headed to the nearby convenience store while Elodie and I waited under cover.

We then set off on the short walk to the museum, but it became clear it wouldn't work that well when we weren't able to protect the pram (which Elodie would have to have her nap in) and ourselves from the rain. We decided to admit defeat and headed back to the train station to go back to the hotel. Luckily the train ride was so scenic.

We decided to have pizza for lunch at a restaurant which got really good reviews. The food was actually delicious; we both really enjoyed our pizzas and Elodie was very happy with her chips with parmesan on them.

Elodie napped at the hotel while we both had another trip to the onsen.

By the time her nap was over the weather had improved so we decided to head back to the Hakone Open Air Museum. We retraced our steps from the morning (lucky it was such a nice train ride!); fortunately the weather cooperated.

The Hakone Open Air Museum was a short walk from the station. The museum consists of sculptures dotted throughout beautifully landscaped gardens as well as a few exhibition halls all with a gorgeous backdrop of the surrounding mountains.

We really enjoyed wandering around; it was a great spot to visit, particularly with Elodie as she could run around happily. The grounds were incredibly well maintained and the sculptures beautifully presented. We were very amused when Elodie was playing with the interactive kids sculpture / climbing net and ended up being knocked over by the suspended ball she was pushing. Luckily the ground was padded - and even luckier was that I caught it on video!

A few hours after arriving it was time for the museum to close so we headed back to the station.

Dinner was another delicious kaiseki meal with lots of different dishes to try. Elodie made us laugh as she pretended to feed the fish on Scott's plate (all flesh removed, but head, tail and spine placed on the plate as decoration) noodles. After dinner we all had another bath.

The following morning was our last in Japan. Scott and I both had a trip to the onsen before breakfast. We then took some photos of Elodie wearing the yukata provided by the hotel - she wasn't super cooperative, but we got some OK ones.

Breakfast was another impressive array of little dishes. All different to those which we'd had at the previous three meals. It was delicious. Once Elodie was done eating we let her watch some youtube on our phone and were able to finish our meals while she watched a show - we wondered why we hadn't done it before!

After breakfast Scott took Elodie to the play room which I packed up our room. We then took all our suitcases downstairs and left them at reception before heading out for the day.

After a train ride and a short walk we arrived at Lake Ashinoko. Lake Ashinoko is a large lake which is in the caldera of a volcano. The shores are largely undeveloped which means it's surrounded by forest which comes right up to the water. Apparently on clear days it's possible to see Mt. Fuji from the lake, but the clouds got thicker after we arrived so we'll have to believe the internet about that one.


Several companies run sightseeing boats on the lake which are strangely all pirate themed. We bought tickets to one of the boats and boarded. We spent about 40 minutes cruising around the lake. The boat made various stops for people to get on / off, but we just stayed onboard admiring the view and watching Elodie run around.

After the cruise we walked into a small town to get some lunch. We ended up at a restaurant which seemed to be run by a grandma and grandpa. I ordered a set meal (which came with lots of very small fried fish, a local speciality), Scott ordered a Japanese curry and we planned to share some of ours with Elodie. Our food took ages to arrive, but once it did we were quite impressed. It was yummy; perhaps best of all was the large plate for fresh fruit. Fruit is very expensive in Japan so we hadn't been eating lots; it was nice to have some!

After lunch we made our way to the ropeway. The ropeway heads up the side of Owakudani which is an active volcano in Hakone. It was rather windy but the cabin didn't move around too much. We had to transfer to a different ropeway half way up, before we reached the viewing area at the top. Elodie loved the ride! Mid way up she started asking for an egg (probably because of the sulphur smell in the air).

The viewing area at the top of Owakudani was so windy! We snapped a few photos and checked out the volcano. There was a lot of slope stabilisation around quite a few vents releasing steam.

We then hopped back on the ropeway and continued to the next viewing point near Sounzan Station. The view from this point was rather different - lush green mountains and the sea in the distance. Very pretty.

We then made our way to the cable car which would take us down the steep side of the mountain towards Gora train station. Elodie finally fell asleep in her pram while we were on the cable car.

Once at the station we waited for a few minutes before we hopped back on the train which would take us back to Hakone Yumoto.

By the time we arrived back we had about 20 minutes to get changed and rearrange our luggage a bit. We then headed to the station to start the trek to Haneda airport.

We retraced our steps to Odawara station, then purchased shinkansen tickets to take us most of the way to the airport. We then transferred to a local train. We arrived about 3.5 hours before our flight was due to depart. We were pretty happy with that as we'd certainly made the most of our last day in Japan!

At check in we were offered 4 seats in an exit row to share between us, to which we of course said yes!

Having sent our bags off (again Elodie got sad about saying goodbye to the suit cases) we set off to have a look at duty free. We picked up a magnet and a yukata that Elodie will need to grow into.

Dinner took quite a while to get as it seemed that they didn't have enough staff working at any of the restaurants in the food court. However, when it arrived it was actually delicious. We both ordered tempura sets and it was as good as some of the other tempura we'd had throughout our trip.

The flight home was not particularly fun. Elodie fell asleep on me before take off (so we thought we were in luck!), but when we tried to shift her into the bassinet she woke up. She fell asleep on me again, but woke up when I tried to put her seatbelt on. She finally fell asleep properly at about 3:30am Melbourne time. I think I got about an hours sleep, Scott didn't get much more (despite Elodie insisting that he wasn't allowed to help try and get her to sleep!).

We had a wonderful trip in Japan! It was definitely a different trip than our previous one, but we still had a lot of fun. Elodie coped with the long days sightseeing far better than we had expected so we were able to do far more than we had thought we would. She had a wonderful time and regularly talks about "Pan" (Japan) now that we're home - particularly the big ducky (Daisy Duck) and spinning teacups at Disneyland. She sleeps with her Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse toys every night.

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[D MJ Binkley]

Hakone and more
We are going to Japan in March so we are enjoying your blogs.