Hakone and Gora

Happy to say that the weekend was excellent. Got home much earlier than usual on Friday, long overdue haircut, and then a couple of pints in anticipation of our trip away to Hakone and Gora. All good.

The main reason for our weekend away was to celebrate the 63rd birthday of Yuki's mother. Although I have been to the Hakone area a number of times, there were still many new places for us to visit. We were also looking forward to our stay at the Setsugetsuka Hotel which promised nice rooms, a selection of onsen, and great food. We were not disappointed.Before we arrived at our hotel, we stopped off to eat some soba and then the nearby Lalique Museum. I have always had a mild interest in Lalique, probably a result of watching the BBC's Antiques Roadshow each Sunday evening when I was growing up. The exhibits were certainly very nice, but not nice enough to get the pulse racing. To be honest, I was more impressed with the museum buildings and the immaculate lawn next to the cafe. I would have been happy to have sat there all day enjoying the sunshine and the cool mountain breeze. Very relaxing.

The Setsugetsuka Hotel was certainly a great place for us to stay. Large and comfortable rooms (each with a private outside bath on the balcony), the usual fantastic range of outdoor and indoor baths (onsen), and exquisite food. It is a terrible shame that I dislike seafood so much - I therefore have to appreciate the artistry of the sushi chefs. At times, food in Japan seems more like an art with all the amazing shapes, colours, and textures.We enjoyed our dinner very much, although I perhaps made a small mistake of also taking the 1 hour nomihodai option. As you can see from the link, nomihodai means all you can drink within the alloted time. I calculated that in order for this option to be economically viable, I would need to drink at least 3 beers during the 1 hour time limit. I ended up drinking 6, which was fun, but which contributed to me falling asleep on the bedroom floor whilst The Hurt Locker was blasting from my laptop computer. All good fun and a great way to de-stress from the rigours of city life.

I woke up this morning feeling remarkably fresh after an approximate 8 hours of sleep. Instead of going down to the large hotel onsen baths, I decide to try out the bath on the balcony of our room. The smell of the wooden bath, the sound of warbling birds, and the sight of trees swaying in the wind made for a quite satisfying experience. I can say without a doubt, that Japan is certainly is the traveller's paradise. After checking out this morning, we did a couple of touristy things before the drive back to Tokyo. The main event was taking the cable car up a volcanic mountain. This excursion started off badly as we had to suffer 5 screaming kids on our journey up the mountain - mothers and fathers oblivious to the irritation of their fellow passengers. It was also unfortunate that visibility was poor which prevented us from seeing Mt Fuji. Shame.Despite the poor start, once we arrived at the top station, I was very interested to see all the volcanic activity, the yellow sulfur which had formed around vents, and famous black eggs which are purported to give added longevity to those who eat them. Another great trip away from Tokyo. I will probably be visiting Scotland for a few days next month in order to drop Clara off at my parent's home in Inverness for her summer galavanting. The next big trip will be towards the end of August when we are all scheduled to travel up to Hokkaido (Japan's northernmost island) for a week. I can't wait for that one! Wishing you all a good week ahead. More to follow soon.