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Day 6

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

We all headed up the maintain on a cable car to the source of the onsen today, the sulphurous springs in the Owakudani valley. The cable car had rain drops on the windows however which meant photo-taking was futile apart from a few shots.

The springs themselves come out piping out, so we got to sample one of the “Black eggs” which are cooked in the sulphurous waters. Once you get past the black shell however, it’s basically just a boiled egg, but one purported to give you 7 years of extra life.

Heading back down the valley we grabbed a gaudy pirate ship across the lake when it promptly starting pissing it down with rain.

With a walk around the forest now treacherous to say the least, we headed into a local museum which resembled someone taking stuff out of their garage and putting it on display. A really random collection of things like clocks, cameras, cabinets and samurai armour.

With the rain now mist, we headed down the cedar lined alley of what used to be the old Tokkaido trail between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo).

I also managed to snap a picture of a tori-gate in the mist which turned out to be one of my favourite photos.

After wandering about lower Hakone for the afternoon everyone headed back for a relaxing evening at the guest house and making use of the onsen.

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18 September 2006

Day 5

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

Heading out from Kamakura first thing we got a train to Hakone which is nestled in mountains, literally. How they got all the machinery and builders up to build this fantastic town is beyond me, but such an achievement. When we got the bus from the train station to our guest house, there were road works and a bus ahead broke down meaning it was a long and tortuous journey up the hills.

The guest house itself was rocking, a family run establishment, it had a few young female staff, one of which (called Taki) was again extremely cute but our tour leader James seemed to have a thing for her so that was a bit peculiar.

The typhoon had stirred up the weather again meaning the afternoon trip to the Open Air Sculpture museum was a bit wet. Heading back on the bus however was an exercise in terror. The bus driver was taking hairpin bends down this mountain at maybe 40mph, bearing in mind the road is wet and the bus is full of (now scared) tourists. The driver was completely dead-pan throughout it which was slightly worrying.

The evening I managed to sample the onsen. My word. Relaxation doesn’t even begin to sum it up. The water was milky with minerals (mainly sulphur) and at about 28-30 degrees celsius and I could have spent hours in there.

Places visited:

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17 September 2006

Day 2

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

It was now raining significantly outside which meant my original plan to go to Akihabara was on hold. Instead I decided on the Tokyo International Museum which was all indoors. Unfortunately it was also through Ueno park which meant I had to invest in an umbrella, let me tell you, best 600 yen I spent all trip.

The museum itself was awesome, but photos not allowed in most places which I adhered to. Exhibits ranged from swords (so purty, even saw an original Murasame sword) to poetry, to woodblock prints to Ainu pottery and all sorts.

After leaving and with the rain abated, I did a bit of people watching in Ueno park. Don’t stay still in Tokyo too long, someone will come and speak to you; an older gentleman just came and sat down next to me and started eulogising to me in damn fine English. He talked at me for about 40 minutes about everything from the student population in Harajuku to how the government should be culling the crows. After a while, I decided it was time to make my apologies and head off somewhere else. Nice guy, bit crazy though.

The art museum nearby cost to get in, but the sculpture outside reminded me of the gate in Full Metal Alchemist so I snapped a photo of that.

Heading on the subway to Akihabara, it was uniquely underwhelming, and the guide of “the shops are around the station” didn’t help. I spent a bit of time in a random electronics store before heading out from all the noise and bright lights.

With the rest of the afternoon left I headed out to the Imperial Palace and gardens for a little look around.

I managed to get some really nice fountain photos (slow shutter FTW) but the grounds were under construction in places so access was even more limited than usual. The grounds were huge, evidently to hold all the people on the two days of the year when it’s open, but otherwise it was a big open space in the middle of an otherwise busy city.

Heading back, I phoned the tour leader to see whether there was a meal going on that evening which there was, so I got to meet the entire group. The meal was fantastic and was a selection of dishes chosen by the tour leader and a set of beers as everyone got to know each other. In all there were 9 of us, 10 including the tour leader.

Lisa was mid forties and had left her husband and two children at home to come to Japan. Larry and Joel were the only Americans in the party and Larry was the father while Joel was in Japan for his 21st birthday. Sam(antha) and Andy were two Brits who basically had travelled the world (glacier climbing in Chile, Tibettan mountain climbing). Pat and Tony were mid 60’s but ran marathons so were more fit than most of the group members. Gemma, another 21 year old who had been to Japan earlier in the year on another tour with her mum but had had a shitty time so came back on her own for this tour. And myself. Quite the eclectic group really.

Gemma, Joel and Larry had only just got into Japan so left early (weaklings) while the rest of us got boozed and eventually adjourned at about 11pm.

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14 September 2006