Hakone

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Went on a day trip to Hakone with the host family. Hakone is famous for its volcanic hot springs and is a big tourist attraction in the summer and fall because of its views of its mountains and hills. On good days, Mt. Fuji is also visible. It was pretty cloudy today and at first it looked like I was going to be shut out again of seeing the big famous mountain (first time was Mt. McKinley), but as we were coming down from one volcanic mountain the sun came out and burned off enough of the clouds to catch a glimpse of Fuji-san. In the fall supposedly its even clearer and you can see the whole mountain. I'd like to climb part of it while I'm here...the family said that July is best for that. It can be like by last hurrah in Japan. Speaking of that, it seems like I've been here for 2 months instead of 2 weeks. Classes start tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. This time in Tokyo has been like a vacation, but its time to get back to real life. I think once I start meeting some people in my classes and settling into a class routine the time will fly by and there is a lot for me to look forward to.

When we got to Hakone it was obvious there were hot springs around. It reeked of sulfur. These were real hot springs. There was steam/volcanic gas around them and all the cracks in the ground were caked with sulfur. The actual baths were downstream a bit and the water was brought in from the mountain so it didn't smell like you were sitting in a volcano, but there was no mistake about this being water right from a mountain. It was milky while with all kinds of minerals and very very warm. It took some time to get used to but I felt great afterwards. Host father said it helped loosen him up after a long day of golf the day before. We then took a cable car to the top of one of the volcanic mountain. We were pretty high up. This is where the water originated. You can see all the smoke and sulfur in the pics. The big attraction at the top was not Mt. Fuji, but intstead Onsen-tamago, hard or soft boiled eggs cooked within a hot spring. Because of the volcanic ash they come out black. I ate five and was very satisfied. We took a boat ride on Lake Ashi and saw a few shinto gates on the water. Lake Ashi was formed by a volcanic eruption. Our last stop was at a rest point on a 300 year old walking path. There has been a rest point on here since the Tokugawa shogunate for travelers on this walking path. The tea was delicious...it was some kind of house blend, and we all got mochi. Mochi are rice cakes made from rice flour. They are very sticky and chewy, often very sweet an topped with other sweet powders. Today there was sesame, sweetened azumi bean, and soy sauce (not sweet). The texture is just wacky but they went down fine except I felt like garbage afterwards when the sugar high went away. Japanese love these sweetened things but I don't think I can eat that much without getting sick.

Other items of note...Saturday was a welcome party in the school cafeteria for new students. Waseda's own brand of beer was served. In the cafeteria.

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Photos

Some of the water
It looked like this in the bath too

Some of the travelers
Owakitami (Big hot spring valley)

Cooking
Eggs turned black

Kurotamago chaya
"Black egg rest stop"

Fuji-san
On our way down the clouds broke just enough

Mochi
Soy sauce, sweet sesame powder, sweet bean powder, stomachache

Comments

[mom]

Hakone
wow, what pix. what a beautiful country!! cant believe all of the interesting geography and landforms. I bet those hot springs cures what ails you. xo mom