Another Short Trip to Japan, Part Two—Hakone and Yokohama

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When I decided to go to Tokyo, sure, I wanted to see Tokyo, but I expected that I wouldn’t love it. As much as I hate to admit it, I am kind of a country girl, and cities make me a little annoyed. So, when I realized how close Mt. Fuji was to Tokyo, I immediately knew I wanted to try to go there for a day. A Korean friend recommended for me to go to Hakone, a mountainous natural area where Tokyoites often go for a short trip.The key part was that I could see Mt. Fuji from there and there were also hot springs spas, which I have grown to love from Hungary, Korea, and my last trip to Japan.

Info for anyone going (skip to the * if not going): I bought a 5000 yen (about $65) Hakone Free Pass in Tokyo for a 2-day trip around Hakone. It included the round-trip train from Shibuya, Tokyo to Hakone-yumoto station in Hakone, as well as any transportation in the Hakone area. It also had discounts on attractions there, but I didn’t use it for that at all. I thought it was a bit expensive, but it ended up really being worth it. The train you can take that’s included on the pass is the commuter train (seats like on a subway not a regular train), which you usually have to take to Odawara, then transfer to a different train to go to Hakone-yumoto (just 15 more minutes). Same deal going back (train to Odawara, then another train to Shibuya) (I did it really easily with no problems). You can pay more money for the Romance train but if you don’t have a lot of luggage, I would just take the commuter train that’s included with the pass. Also, something I was a bit confused about was if I had to actually buy a train ticket even though I had the pass. You just stick the actual pass into the train ticket turnstile to get through and then you should be able to pick it up.

*Okay, everyone else, to continue. I took a train from Tokyo south to the mountain area. The best part of the trip was at one point, suddenly looking out the window and seeing Mt. Fuji. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a nice ride. I miraculously made it down to the main station in Hakone with no problems.

The main attraction in Hakone is that there are all these different modes of transportation to take a loop tour of the area. So at Hakone-yumoto station, I got on a small mountain train, which had nice views. Then I got off and got on an incline (they call a cable-car). At that point, I felt like I was pretty high up the mountain (not Mt. Fuji—a different mountain). But not high enough! I then switched to an enclosed ski-lift-type machine. This was really cool because I could see Mt. Fuji and also approach a volcano area called Owakudani (which apparently means something like ‘Hell on Earth’). The whole mountain-side was smoking. It’s the halfway point of the cable-car, so I got off. There’s a short walking path up to the smoldering area. I’m going to come off as a total nerd, but getting closer and closer to the side of the mountain felt like Frodo approaching Mt. Doom. This area had the best views of Mt. Fuji out of the entire trip. After that stop-off, I got back on the cable-car to go down to Lake Ashi.

I unfortunately was running out of time in my day, as usual with this trip. I had booked a hotel which included a pass to a spa museum (like a hot-tub water park) which closed at 6, so I wanted to get there before 4:30 or so. I took a boat across Lake Ashi and skipped the southern part of the lake (Hakone-machi). I went straight to Moto-Hakone. I was a little disappointed by the lake because I thought I’d be able to see Mt. Fuji across the lake, but other mountains surrounding the lake blocked it from view. However, going to Moto-Hakone made up for that. There was a huge orange tori (Shinto arch) on the lakeshore in the water. I walked around the bay to see the tori close-up. As I walked, I went a bit too far to the right, away from the shore, and into an actual shrine. This was maybe my best find of the whole trip. Although I was trying to only quickly see the tori in the water, I ended up spending time at the shrine and then along a beautiful path along the water. I can’t really do it justice.

Anyways, I walked quickly to find the bus stop, hoping I hadn’t missed the last bus (I wasn’t sure how late they ran—it turns out they run until at least 7pm). Luckily I hadn’t, and got the bus to the bus-stop where my hotel was supposed to be. Let me cut to the chase and say I wandered up and down a hillside of hotels for about 30 minutes, becoming increasingly frustrated, and eventually made it to the hotel. I was pretty pissed because it had been advertised as across the street from Yunessun (the spa museum), but it certainly was not. It was like a ski resort area, and it was behind a lot of trees about ¾-1 mile away. As I later found out, though, there was a shuttle between the two. So my advice is to ask at Yunessun before hiking the hillside looking for your hotel.

When I checked in, the guy said the water park area was closed (grrrrrrr—I’d been looking forward to the sake pool, the wine pool, and the green tea pool), but the bath area (onzen—Mori No Yu) was open until 8. So I went to enjoy that at least. The bath is segregated by sex and you take it all off. The first time I went to a public bath in Korea, I was really nervous, but by this place I felt like an old pro at the system. It took a while for me to realize there was a whole outdoor area. Yes, it was January, and took some motivation to go outside, but it was really nice. It’s surrounded by walls, and there’s a partial roof for privacy. There were various pools of hot water surrounded by rocks. There were also individual wooden-style stand-alone bathtubs.

I was ready for dinner, but didn’t have time to go to a restaurant at the Yunessun because the last shuttle was supposedly at 7-something. I looked for something to grab to eat there, but there wasn’t much available. I went back to the hotel and Japan’s vending machines saved me. I bought some ramen and some other snack. You should bring food some backup food with you because there’s not a convenience or grocery store around that area.

Saturday, I took the bus from Yunessun to the train station. It featured the nicest views of the whole area. The road was maybe the curviest I’ve ever been on. The bus drivers must have good arm muscles from the amount they turn the wheel. If you go in any season but winter, I think between Yunessun and Hakone-yumoto have good hiking and would be interesting areas to visit if you’re there for more than 1 day. I really liked Hakone, but I was excited because Saturday was the day to meet my Japanese friend, Eri! I took the train up to Machida using my pass, then had to get off and pay to go to Yokohama, where she lives.

I met her in the train station. It was really good to see her! She gave me a whole tour of Yokohama. I was her first visitor ever, but she did a great job! Yokohama is now the second-biggest city in Japan, but it didn’t seem like it. It was much less hectic than Tokyo; I preferred it. We went to the port area to see the waterfront. Then we went up to a park. Later, we went up Yokohama Landmark Tower to the 69^th floor. To do that, we took the second-fastest elevator in the world (it took 40 seconds). The views were nice—way nicer than the Tokyo views, because we could see bridges and water and even Tokyo off in the distance.

Last, we went to dinner—we got donkatsu (delicious breaded pork) with some side dishes. Donkatsu is one of the few Japanese dishes popular in Korea, so I was excited to compare them. The Japanese one was better and the side dishes were better, but the Korean version isn’t too different, and is also usually delicious. It was good to catch up with Eri—it’d been 4 years since I’d seen her, but it was even better to talk to her about Japanese culture. I had lots of questions left over from my other trip. I also quizzed her repeatedly about Japanese customs to find out the similarities between Japan and Korea.

After dinner, we met her boyfriend (a Canadian living in Tokyo) for a drink. They told me about the earthquake and tsunami. Her boyfriend had been on the 11^th floor of an office building in Tokyo, and the initial quake lasted over 2 minutes. I hadn’t realized how strongly it had been felt in Tokyo. Then there were hundreds of aftershocks as well. I was glad I didn’t plan to go in any more tall buildings while in Japan. They also told me about how unsure everyone had been about the nuclear plant blowing up. They actually evacuated to Kyoto. Eri also said that people only now were being allowed to return to Fukushima. I hadn’t realized all those people hadn’t been able to go to their homes after so long.

Finally, after a long day of travels, Eri hosted me in her apartment overnight. I took a train out early Sunday morning so I could catch my flight. I’d had a busy but good trip. I plan to do one more trip to Japan to see Kyoto and Osaka.

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Photos

Lake Ashi
I think you can see Mt. Fuji behind another mountain.

Lake Ashi
Really nice

A Tori on Lakeshore
I love the orange!