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!