Japan 2012 - SPRING Part 2

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Continuation from Part 1 ... This is Part 2 of my 12 day Japan trip.

We continued on to Hakone and spent 2 nights in Okada Hotel. 7-9 April.

My family took the "Romance Car" from Shinjuku station to Hakone Yumoto station. The journey took about 2.5 hours. The funny thing is the hubs simply cannot remember the name of this train. He keeps calling it the "Love Train" which makes sonnie laugh non stop! Hahahaha. The scenery along the way was beautiful. As the train chugged on, the landscape changed from clusters of interesting yet cramped old buildings to rice fields and meadows to vast mountains and rivers. By the time we arrived at Hakone, it was way past our lunch time, about 2pm. We were all starving ... the itinerary for that day was to explore and visit a few places before checking in to the hotel. We made our exit from the train station and quickly went about to look for FOOD .... we need FOOD ... super duper hungry already! Because we weren't sure if there were any eateries within walking distance, we decided to settle for any place that serves food. .. Settle the stomach first ... everything else can come second. Don't know if it is the right or wrong move . The restaurant that we settled for .... has "cut throat" price for a simple bowl of tendon. If I remember correctly, the bowl of tendon (with like 3 tempura pieces) cost about $20 over dollars!!!

The first place we visited in Hakone was the "Glass Museum". Now that I've been there, I find that it is very easy to get to this place but somehow, on our first try, we kinda got lost. We went up the correct bus ... but we missed the stop, hence we had to get off the bus and then try to figure out which way to walk or how to continue on the journey. What made it worse was that the bus driver could not utter nor understand a single word of English. I remember very clearly that we should be alighting at bus stop number 28 but in the end, the stop for the Glass Museum was like ... bus stop number 14. The Glass Museum was lovely. It was built and landscaped like a little European town. Very quaint, serene and peaceful. There is a bridge with hanging glass pieces shimmering and glistening in the sun!

By the time we completed our tour and leisure walk in and around the Glass museum, it was almost 6pm. Time for us to head back to Okada Hotel. Dinner would be served at 7pm sharp.

It was our first time staying in a Ryokan. The experience was ... ummm ... how should I describe it? Very spacious, comfortable and almost luxurious! YES ... luxurious would be the word. The Japanese room comes with a kaiseki dinner, meaning dinner served in the room. As we are not big fans of "raw" food and sashimi, I exchanged the kiseki dinner with a room that comes attached with a private onsen. Wooooo .... Heavenly! The private onsen .... soaking in the hot tub ... is just too heavenly!

The next day, we went through the usual Hakone route ... Hakone Tozan Railway, and then to Gora. Change to Hakone Tozan Cablecar from Gora, to get to Sounzan. From Sounzan, we transferred to Owakudani on Hakone Ropeway. Many sights to see, and things to do along this route ... but time is just not on our side 😞

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