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Hakone: Tour de Fuji-san
When one speaks of Japan, one can’t help but to think of the revered Mt. Fuji. A perfect cone that rises up 3776 meters out of the mist and presides over the resort area of Hakone. So, when Robyn and Kay came to Japan to visit, I felt that their trip would not be complete without getting up close and personal with the big Fuji-san himself.
Read any tour book and it will tell you that ‚Hakone is a great day trip from Tokyo.’ Hankone’s sights are connected by a combination of bus, boat, gondola and cogwheel train that loops around Mt. Kami and Mt. Komagtake, taking you to all of the major sights of the area. I estimated that the travel time around the loop would be about 3 hours (the total of all of the transportation modes) with a brisk walk down the Cedar Avenue and a nice Soba lunch. And I firmly believe that the tour can be done in 3 hours once reaching Odawara, but you will have to expand the trip into two days when you are taking two wiggly toddlers along…or be prepared for adventure.
We reached Odawara, the starting point for tours of Hakone, and set off on our adventure loaded on to a bus for Moto Hakone. Like most seasoned bus drivers, this gentleman knew his route though the lush mountainous terrain. For us, it was a bit harrowing. The bus swayed left and right, jerked forward and back all as Bjorn (my little monster..eh, boy) jumped up and down in his seat. If it was possible to move in a forth dimension, I am sure that either Bjorn or the bus driver would have done so.
Just as the thirty-minute bus ride was ending, both Robyn and Bjorn fell asleep. So in a flash Kay and I had to literally throw 2 strollers, 2 back packs, 2 sleeping toddlers and ourselves out of the bus, and do so at neck-breaking speed, because we were holding things up. So here we were, Moto Hakone where the bus dumped us. We decided to just sit for a while where we were dumped and eat a snack after our mad rush to exit the bus. That was not my real belly; I was 7 1/2 months pregnant.
There is a Cedar Avenue somewhere in Moto Hakone, but Kay and I decided to forgo that option and go shopping. In a little shop we found the most interesting article, a scoop to scoop the earwax out of your ear. We would have taken a picture…but we didn’t want to look like tourists.
From Moto Hakone we took this Spanish Galleon out on Lake Asahi, where we were given our first glimpse of Mt. Fuji. The great Fuji-san had wrapped himself in a thick veil of mist and was barely visible, but that did not matter because the boat itself was a treat for the toddling toddlers. With pirates galore and room to roam, we all had an enjoyable float to our next stop, Togendai.
In Togendai we took the Hakone Ropeway gondola to the top of Mt. Kami. A kami in Japanese is a spirit, and a lingering spirit followed us up the mountain, in the form of a particular stink in Mr. Bjorn’s diaper. We looked below at the glimmering water of Lake Asahi and at the veiled splendor of Mt. Fuji and thought, “what in heavens did that child eat!” But as we reached the top of Mt. Kami, we realized that it wasn’t Bjorn who stank so badly, it was actually the fumaroles of hot sulfur steam escaping from the side of the mountain that were giving off such an odd stench.
It was about 4:30 pm and we had not eaten lunch. Almost starving when we reached the restaurant on top of Mt. Kami, we found it to be closed for the day. So we shuffled down the hill and across the parking lot to some fast food stands for a bite to eat. Fast food in Japan takes on a whole different meaning. It is cooked just as quickly as the western variety, but what is on the menu is a bit different. We could have had a grilled squid or fish on a stick, but we opted for some chicken, French fries and eggs boiled in the hot sulfur steam emanating from the side of Mt. Kami.
We were tired, moms and toddlers alike, but as the sun set, Mt. Fuji emerged from his misty robes. We could see him, and he was a splendid sight to behold. It was worth it!
We rode the gondola back down Mt. Kami to Sounzan, where mounted at the train station platform were two Swiss Alphorns. The sun had set and the evening scarlet sky turned to a dark blue as we boarded the cogwheel train to Gora and then another train further on to Hakone Yumoto and finally Tokyo.
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