Spring Colors

Hanami-Cherry Blossom Season

Although rather gloomy weather, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom now and the Japanese are out in droves to celebrate Hanami- cherry blossom viewing!

Near the station where I work: 

You know the dogs want to enjoy this too!!

Shinjuku Koen

Yoyogi Park:

Just for laughs...

I've been slowly collecting funny English signs. So, I thought I  would start posting them for your reading pleasure. 

Quite entertaining, as many of us avid travelers can agree.

In Hakone, on the volcano, Owakudani. (Read carefully!)

Japan has a difficult time with consonant blends (br for example) since their alphabet is called a syllabary each character is a consonant plus a vowel, so it often leads to miss-spellings. (plus, check out all the weird flavors!)

This was the sign on a food item at a buffet lunch. Consequently, I didn't try it!

This was an add at the train station, clearly explaining the hazards of: cheating boyfriends, large teddy bears, high heels and long hair!

This was in the baking aisle of a grocery store:

Clearly it took too much effort to re-paint this sign!

A vending machine- of which there are more than you can imagine! At least one on every corner of every street I have ever been on in Japan!

A sign in front of a blocked path at a temple in Kamakura

Hakone Trip- Part 2

On Wednesday, I decided to take a more cultural focus. Museum Time!

The cool thing about Hakone, was all their different types of public transportation that navigated you through the windy roads and steep slopes. I also had the recommended 'free pass' which allowed me to get on and off all the modes of transportation without paying anything extra.

So from my hotel, I walked up the hill about a mile and picked up the Tozan cable car which literally had a track straight down the mountainside!
 

From the bottom of that station, I hopped on a bus that took me directly to the Venetian Glass Museum. Random choice, I know, but the grounds were set up like a small western European village and the Japanese visitors had fun dressing up in costume. Sisters- wish you had been on so much of this trip with me!
Baboo and Dzeda and Auntie Leza- the entire museum made me think of you the whole time!

Doesn't this lamp belong at Baboo's house??




Back on the bus, and then a short mini train ride, I arrived at the Open Air Museum. Abba, Lex and Dans you would have loved this outdoor sculpture exhibit. I know we would have been racing around to each of the statues and posing just like them. The funny thing was, most of the Japanese visitors were doing just that! I was slightly too embarrassed (and slow) to snap their pictures.

For LEX:


For DANS:

For MOM:

Sometimes the visitors are more bizarre and interesting than the exhibits themselves! 

 

Overall a great trip! 

This last little gem I just found as I was walking along back to the main train station. Dans, thought you would appreciate it! 

Hakone- three day weekend part 1

Just under two hours from where I live, I can reach "Japanese Country-side" in the mountainous town of Hakone. My photos below are good, but my inspiration and excitement about this three-day get-away was due to this website: www.hakone.or.jp/english

I spent two nights in a nice bed-and-breakfast with delicious pastries each morning! I got to do all the things I wanted/saw on the website: onsen, hiking, volcano climbing, egg tasting, Mount Fuji sighting, museum visiting, photo taking, independent exploring...

The afternoon I arrived, I channeled my inner mom and stopped in at the tourist information desk to get a lay of the land. To reach my accommodations, the lady told me to take a bus and get off at a certain stop. So after riding the winding roads, and getting off at the appropriate stop, I was rather unsure where to go from there. In front of me happened to be the amusement park onsen I had been excited to visit. So, what the heck? I could find the hotel later. I splurged on the $32 entrance fee and had a blast!!

Yunessun was incredible. Part waterslide theme park/part naked onsen, I spent hours there. I got to soak in hot tubs of: coffee, red wine, chocolate, green tea, sake, and charcoal! Then I rode some water slides, floated in a pool that made me feel as buoyant as the Dead Sea, and then switched over to the naked section that was built from cedar pines and had a fantastic smell! Throughout there were both indoor and outdoor pools. Check these out:

 

As I was leaving I asked an employee how to find my hotel, he said to pick up a free shuttle from right outside the building in six minutes- damn, that was lucky!

On Tuesday, my hiking adventure began.

I took a bus from right outside my hotel (5 minutes)

I rode an aerial cable-car up and over the side of a volcano.

I stopped here at the top for incredible views of Mount Fuji.

I trekked up the side of the volcano- Owakudani, smelled the familiar fumes of sulphur that brought me right back to my first hike with my dad and sister in Lassen, California. 

I watched a worker boil eggs in the sulfur.

I ate the sulfur boiled 'black eggs' while taking in the scenery.

I hiked down into the caldera to the lake-side.

I rode a pirate ship across Lake Ashi.

I hiked around the lake.

Stopped and visited a shrine.

Found a bus that brought me right back to my hotel

I passed out by 4pm!