Andre and Wendy: On to Hakone from Tokyo

Moving day from Tokyo on to Hakone. We had booked a train ticket on the Romance Train, this is a direct train into Hakone that is supposed to give you good views. Andre says the views were nothing special, I didn't see much of them for sleeping. I am still struggling with not sleeping through the night with the time change, hopefully I get sorted out better soon.

We knew we were going to be leaving our hotel in rush hour and we were a little concerned about how bad it was going to be to catch the subway to the train station where we were leaving from. Thrilled that it was not busy at all at our station, but as we moved on the subway car became very full. We were lucky and got seats but part way through a woman got on with braces for walking, Andre gave up his seat. I have been really surprised at this on the train, no one gets up for elders, or even this poor woman. The Japanese treat some things so well, no talking on the phone on the trains or subway, you must mute your phones, backpacks are worn on the front. Talking is kept to a minimum, it is really surprising how quiet it is on the subways.

Because of the concern over the packed subways at rush hour we left a little early and it really didn't take any extra time. At the train station we were able to change our reserved tickets to about 45 minutes earlier departure which was great. This was a day of different modes of transportation. We started off on the metro to the train station. Train to Hakone main station from Tokyo. When we got to the train station we were hoping they would ship our luggage for us so we could continue on touring, but where we are staying isn't registered as a place that will accept luggage transfers so that option is out. We were able to store our luggage at the train station, but this meant we had to come back to this train station to pick up our luggage at the end of the day, not in our original plans.

Since it is sunny out we decided to do some things that would be best on a sunny day, tomorrow does not look so nice. From the train station we took a train up the mountain. This is the first time either of us have ever been on a switchback train. It stops 3 times to do a switchback. It was funny seeing the conductor get out of the train to move to the front or back depending on which direction he was going next. It was so steep, an 8 percent grade. This is the steepest train ride in Japan, and second steepest in the world (must check google to see where it is steeper). You go through 15 km of tunnels that are over 100 years old. It is so steep and curvy that water comes out from the train onto the tracks at some point to reduce the wear and tear on the tracks and the train.

Off the switchback train and on to the cable car. I could not believe how many people they packed into these cars.

Cable car done and we now get onto a Ropeway. A ropeway here is what we call a gondola at home. This is where we get a glimpse of Mt Fuji for the first time. We can't see the top but we see lots of snow near the bottom of the mountain. Hopefully we will get lucky with some clear skies over the next few days and get some good views of this beautiful mountain. At the top of the Ropeway we decided it was time for lunch. Andre had Owakudani curry with a pork cutlet and I had vegetarian curry. There are so few veggies and fruit around that I try to get some in whenever I can. There are beautiful views from the cafeteria here, we are right over some volcanic valleys.

Next off we take another Ropeway down the other side of the mountain to where we planned on getting on a boat to cross Lake Ashie. There was a huge line up for the boat so we decided to skip on this today since we are staying on the other side of Lake Ashie and we will do this tomorrow rain or shine. We had purchased what they call a “Hakone Free Pass” and this includes all modes of transportation in this area. Instead of the ship we took a normal city bus back to the train station where we had stored our luggage. This city bus ride was fine until we got close to town. Wow what a huge traffic jam. We should have walked the last 2km, it would have been much faster. It reminded us of Shediac in the summer, only much worse. So many tourists, I can't imagine what it must be like during high season, crazy.

Picked up our luggage and another city bus to the town where we are staying for the next 2 nights. We are in an apartment that is about 10 times the size of our hotel in Tokyo. It is located in a great spot, just off a beautiful lake. Tomorrow we will explore on foot a little more, plus do a boat ride I am sure.

Went to the grocery store to pick up something for supper, then decided laundry was in order. Found a laundrymat in the next town over about 1.5 km from us so we walked off our grocery store supper and are now sitting watching washing machines go around. We do have laundry facilities coming up in our places next week I think, so hopefully this is it before then.