Hakone! Just a subway, three train rides, a cable car, three ropeways, and a cruise boat away!

I went to visit Hakone today, about 100 km outside of Tokyo. The place is known for hot springs and as having lush forests/greenery. I planned my trip out and left for the train station via the subway at about 6 am this morning. I arrived in Odawara for my first transfer at a little after 8. I grabbed another train which took me to Hakone Yumote station (that was the luxury train we opted not to take, which we later booked for our return!), I then grabbed yet another train which took me to Gora Station. From here, we took a cable car up the mountain to transfer to the first of three ropeways. From the first ropeway I could see "Hell Valley" with all of its sulfurous fumes.

If it weren't a cloudly/overcast day, we probably could've seen Mt. Fuji from here, alas, luck was not on our side. After a few more transfers we arrived to the dock for our cruise boat to take us across Lake Ashi... and to my delight, it was a replica pirate ship! What a fun opportunity for goofy pictures (which will be posted Tuesday), in fact there was even a pirate on board, but I didn't feel he was authentic enough to merit ~$10 fee for a photo with him. The time on the water was relaxing, as always. We landed at Hakone-Michi-ko and began to walk around. At this point I was starved so I stopped for an ice cream cone (I didn't opt for the lavendar flavor, although that would've been adventurous). We then walked through the old time Hakone Check Point which served as a border from Kyoto to Edo (old Tokyo). They did a nice job refurbishing, but we were a little limited by the all Japanese guide.

We kept on walking and walked through Old Cedar Path... the name kind of gives it away. It was peaceful and quiet, a nice break from the bustle of Tokyo. Thanks to my pleading, we finally stopped for lunch at this great little "pub" called Madhatters. It was a very small cafe (a far cry from a pub) but it was probably the best lunch I've ever had because the owners (a couple) were so incredibly hospitable!!! The service was great and they were so nice, that we kept ordering more just because they were so happy we had lunch there. The food was good too. After we were stuffed, we kept on walking to Motohakone-ko. We looked up the timing for a bus back to Gora Station to continue exploring and killed time by exploring some nearby pathways and shrines. We then boarded a bus which took about 35 minutes (it was like a roller coaster, I've never seen a bus handle hills that fast!!). Back at Gora Station, we decided there was nothing left to do and we were exhausted, so we changed our tickets back to Tokyo for an earlier time.

We boarded a train in Gora heading to Hakone-Yumuto, which took longer than expected because of a number of switchbacks required to get down the mountain, and the ascending train running behind schedule. We made it to the station in the nick of time to hope our "Romancecar Limited Express" back to Tokyo. The ride back was much nicer than the ride in, as it has assigned seats (the train in the morning was essentially a local subway with standing room only that took half an hour longer because of all the stops) and a cafe car. The ride went quickly thanks to some cat napping.

Got back to Shinjuku at about 5 pm and headed back to the hostel, with some quick errands on the way back. Once again, I am utterly exhausted, so will be an early evening and no alarm clocks tomorrow! Not entirely sure what's on the agenda tomorrow, but probably walking to a famous garden in Tokyo!