Traveling in the Past, Hakone Sengokuhara 2020
Traveling in the Past
Hakone Sengokuhara 2020
I was going through my old posts, trying to pick up posts about my travels. It looks like for the most part, I just briefly mentioned my travels in an HNW post and posted photos, but I didn't write a separate post about it. So, I decided to write about the past travels, at least of what I could remember from the trips.
The last quarter of 2020 was a time for travel, which was a good thing since the world went bananas soon after. I went to Hokkaido, Hakone, and Izu Kogen (story to come later). The week after I went to Hokkaido, my travel buddy, another long-time friend, and I went on an overnight trip to Hakone. Instead of driving, we bought a 2-day Hakone freepass that let us ride the train, bus, cable car, pirate ship that tours the lake, and ropeway. It was a pretty good deal if you managed to ride all of them over the course of two days, which we did.
I offered to bring a picnic, so I got up bright and early in the morning, fried some chicken, grilled salmon for rice balls, put together some other things to munch on. I thought I had enough time to take a leisurely shower, but when I looked at the clock, I was like SHIIITTTT!!!! I read the clock wrong and if I didn't leave that second, I would be missing the train. I madly rushed around getting dressed, grabbed my stuff, literally ran out of the house, hopped on my scooter, and hightailed it to the station. I broke a few traffic laws on the way, but we're talking before sunrise morning, so no traffic (or cops) to worry about. I made it to the station with seconds to spare. The train came in soon after I passed through the gate.
I met up with my friends and we headed off to ride the Hakone Tozan Railway ("tozan" (登山) meaning climbing mountain), which is a train that zigzags up the slopes using the switchback method. The view from the train is great, too. We munched on the picnic I packed while enjoying the ride. We changed over to the Hakone Tozan Cable Car to climb further up the mountain. The cable car led us to the Sounzan station where we could get on the ropeway that goes down to Lake Ashi (芦ノ湖). We got off at Sounzan to visit a temple that had a great view of the Myojogatake, the mountain where there's an event called Daimonji-yaki (大文字焼), the last major summer festival in Hakone held on the last day of Obon where bundles of bamboo are lined up in the shape of the kanji "dai" (大) and burnt. The fireworks are set off as the fires burn to give the spirits of the dead a spectacular sendoff.
We got a great view of the autumn colors on the ropeway. It was a clear day and we were graced with an awesome view of Mt. Fuji and the Owakudani sulfur pits. The first leg of the ropeway stops and Owakudani, so we got off and roamed around the area. There are times where the winds or lack thereof makes the air toxic from the sulfur so people are turned away from touring the area. A popular delicacy (?) is hard boiled eggs where the eggs are boiled in volcanic hot springs rich in sulfur and iron. The minerals chemically react with the eggshell, creating a black coating on the surface. It's said that eating the eggs promotes good health and longevity. Of course, my travel buddy just had to get some eggs. LoL
The next leg of the ropeway ride took us down to the lake, where we could ride on the pirate ship that takes us to the other side of the lake. We got off the ship and did a bit of walking around, taking pics of the big torii gate that sits in the lake. There was a shrine across the street. My travel buddy and other friend wanted to go up to the main shrine. I saw all the stairs going up to the shrine. Going up might be OK, but coming back down would pretty much kill my knees. I told them to have fun and I'll be napping on the bench.
There was a villa nearby where the bus stop was where we thought we could have some coffee and cake, but the restaurant was full, so we roamed around the garden until it was time to catch the bus (buses are few and far between up in the mountains). The inn we were staying at was in Sengokuhara, an area famous for the vast field of Japanese pampas grass, which are pretty much taller than I am. You can usually see lines of tourists heading into the path that's cut through the grass. We saw the field of pampas grass through the window during our bus ride.
The inn was a typical Japanese no-nonsense ryokan that only offered breakfast, so we left our stuff in the room and headed out to scrounge for dinner. Surprisingly, there was an Italian restaurant just around the corner that served pretty good food. To start off with, we ordered bagna caouda, a veggie plate served with a dip made with garlic, anchovies, wine, and olive oil. Next came the pasta and potato au gratin. For the meat dish, we had grilled chicken and steak with fries. Dessert was caramel ice cream and panna cotta. Everything was so good! After dinner, we went to soak in a nice, hot, onsen bath before retiring for the night.
Breakfast was the typical Japanese fare--grilled fish, salad, rice, miso soup, seaweed, rolled eggs, pickles, and a couple of other dishes. It was pretty good and filling. We went back to our room, enjoyed some green tea before packing up and checking out. There was a temple with a bunch of statues. The autumn colors were so pretty. It was a bit windy, blowing the leaves off the trees. Given that we were on temple grounds, it was a bit spooky but kind of pretty.
We took a bus back to Lake Ashinoko, and went on a nature hike on a path called Therapy Road going through the Kuzuryo-no-Mori (nine-headed dragon forest). My travel buddy wanted to visit a shrine that's on the path. It was a peaceful walk, but a bit tiring. We made our way back to the cable car, went up and over the mountain, took the ropeway, cable car, and then the tozan train back down the mountain. It was dinner time by the time we got back to the station that's taking us home. We found a nice place that serves tempura and it was yummy!
It was a great trip in great company. I had a wonderful time. 😁
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