I took one thursday off (which Kaoru has off work anyway) and we went to Hakone.  We left home about 8.00, so it was a pretty early start to the day.  It was about an hour by train, towards Mount Fuji.  We got a 2 day ticket which let us catch the cable car (tram), ropeway (cable car), boat and buses.  So we got a map and planned the day.

The weather was nice, albeit a bit on the chilly side.  I was starting to regret not packing a beanie or scarf!  Especially when we were on the water.  We had a nice stroll through Cedar Avenue, which was the old road between Edo (what we now call Tokyo) and Kyoto – from the days long before cars.  The Cedar trees provided shelter from the sun in summer, and the snow in winter.

As we caught the ropeway up the mountain, there was a strong smell of sulphur, and we could see steam coming out of the side of the mountain.  From the stop halfway, we walked to a closer viewing area, where the smell was quite strong, and we were given an opportunity to buy an egg that was cooked in the hot spring water.  Each egg is supposed to increase your life by 7 years (I think).  We passed on that – something about eating a black egg didn’t work for me.

It was quite late by the time we got home, and we were both very tired.  We slept on the train a bit (as you do, in Japan), and I also did a bit of Hiragana studying.  We opted for home delivery pizza for dinner.