Blogs from Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan, Asia

The Japanese culture values hard work and social harmony. As modern as this country has become, they seem to continue to practice their traditional values and spiritual beliefs. It is refreshing to visit Japan because the people are polite and respect their elders. This was demonstrated a couple of times when younger people offered us a seat on the train. Yes, it made us feel older, but the kindness and respect were evident. There is also great reverence for the past and many Japanese value this greatly as evidenced by the shrines and embracing traditional clothing. All this is evidenced in our travels..... Nikko A short train ride from Tokyo is the town of Nikko with a population of 80,000. It was nice being out of the hustle and bustle of Tokyo even though we enjoyed ... read more

Fri: Lake Biwa to Gora Good morning, 5 am ☀️ The sun was just rising and the east side was turning orange. Breakfast was done before 6 am. It was a good time to take a stroll along the lake which we hadn’t been able to take advantage of yet. We had been seeing a lot of people walking and jogging the lakeside path from our 19th-floor room. Y wasn’t onboard but he was happy to walk on rocks at Nagisa Park. We took the first shuttle to Otsu at 8:15 am. This got us to Kyoto station before 9 am. The plan was to get Mister Donuts for the Shinkansen ride. This was quickly denied as they weren’t opening until 10 am today due to some equipment swaps (?), doh! Our train was leaving at ... read more

The rain has cleared overnight and we wake to blue skies and only a few scattered clouds. We’re desperate to get a good view of Mount Fuji after yesterday’s thick cloud and pouring rain, so we get back on the Hakone Ropeway and head up again towards the Owakudani Valley. As we head higher we can see the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, but the only clouds in the sky seem to be very determined to gather around its peak. We decide to get off the ropeway halfway up at Ubako where we were told there is a Mount Fuji viewing point. It’s not obvious exactly where this is, but we find a sign to a trail through the forest to a viewing point, so we assume that this must be it. We pass a sign ... read more

We leave Tokyo and head for Hakone which is in the mountains to the south of the capital. The train trip gives us a good appreciation of exactly how vast and densely populated the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis really is. Although our Shinkansen bullet train is very fast, it still seems to spend a very long time going through continuous suburbia. This also gives us a bit of a taste of how the majority of ordinary Japanese people must live. If the strip along the train line is anything to go by, it looks like most of them live in small apartments or very small houses. I'm not sure how representative this is. If travelling along a train line was the basis for assessment of how a community lives, a visitor to Melbourne could be forgiven for thinking ... read more

From Hiroshima to Hakone with decorated wooden spoons And so we left Hiroshima today. After you've done the atomic dome, the museum and peace park it's easy to forget the American atrocity that happened here. And that's not a bad thing because the people have made a city to be be proud of from the ashes of death and destruction. They want to be able to move on whilst honouring all those slaughtered: and they do, with pride and dignity. And that's all part of being Japanese. And there's definitely nothing wrong with that. After two days of lie-ins it was time for Claire to get me up early. When you consider a lie-in on our holidays is 8.30am..... So, we were up at 5.30 and waiting by the tram stop 35 minutes later ready for ... read more