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I took this photograph from a boat on Lake Ashi near Hakone. No cropping has been done to the image, but I did have my camera on 12X optical zoom. The sky was nice and clear (other than the few clouds shrouding the top of Fuji) as it had rained during the night before.
Behind and up the road from our hotel in Hakone were a couple of very peaceful temples. Pictured above is what lies behind Sounji. There was a large graveyard which led to some paths up the mountain. We took the mountain path (which was wonderful). On the other side you find yourself back near the river and the Hakoneyumoto Train Station. The Yumoto Fujiya Hotel is also right there. So you could start there and come over the mountain to get to 金湯山早雲寺.
It is said that Hojo Ujinao (whose grave is here at Sounji) has a ghost who wanders this place at midnight. I didn’t come back to find out. Maybe next time.
We didn’t stay at the Fujiya Hotel when we visited Hakone, but we did go by it on our way to Lake Ashi. I took the above photograph through a bus window. Next time I’d like to stay there and check out the grounds. Many of the buildings have been there for well over 100 years.
Part of the Hakone Loop includes Owakudani which means the big, boiling valley. Why do they call it that you ask? Because it smells like sulfur from the boiling trenches you see along the walk. As a tourist attraction, they hard boil eggs in the volcanic waters. The eggs turn black. Of course no one would normally pay the prices listed at Owakudani for a black, hard-boiled egg given that those visiting the place are almost ill from the smell of rotten eggs the sulfur provides to begin with. So they created the tale that if you eat these eggs boiled here you will live an extra seven years.
As evidence of the long living, they have hard-boiled Hello Kitty. The fact that Hello Kitty never seems to die is proof positive that there is something to the Owakudani, black, hard-boiled eggs.
Owakudani is actually not a very pretty place. However, the views of Mt. Fuji from Owakudani can be spectacular, and the cable you get to ride in on is lots of fun.
The word 黒タマゴ on Hello Kitty means “black egg” as if you couldn’t tell that Hello Kitty was a black egg.
As part of the “Hakone Round Course” you get to ride in a ferry boat across Lake Ashi. If you are lucky you will also have a clear view of Mt. Fuji.
My daughter thought we were unlucky because even though we had a view of Mt. Fuji we weren’t on the above pirate-looking ship. Instead, we were on a regular looking ferry boat. I explained to her that, no, we were the lucky ones as we had a view of the pirate ship and those on the pirate ship only had a view of a regular looking ferry boat. She didn’t buy that explanation.
If you click on the above picture to have it fill your screen you can see that it is called “ビクトリー” or “Victory.”
Those going to Hakone from Tokyo pass through the Odawara Train Station (小田原駅). I found it to be a rather sleek place. Like most of Japan, it was clean as a whistle. Although lacking in dirt, the station was not lacking in signage. If you look closely you can see an arrow pointing to Odawara Castle (小田原城). We didn’t check out the castle or any other on this trip except the one in Himeji. We figured that all others would pale in comparison so why bother. Next time we’ll skip Himeji and check out all the others. 😉