hakone: do not touch doubtful things
After living in it's shadow for nearly a year, we (finally) went up to Hakone last weekend, whereapon we promptly realized that
a) Hakone is gorgeous, and
b) extremely easy to get to, and
c) there is a lovely and extremely reasonably priced hotel there, and
d)we are idiots for not having gone sooner, and then gone again and again throughout the year.
Good advice.
above: are those ORGANS for sale in that vending machine?
I don't know, that looks pretty doubtful to me.
Iain followed the sign's advice and did not touch any dubious things. He did, however, touch several things rather dubiously:
When Iain wasn't attracting stares by maligning innocent statues, we were having a lovely time. We stayed at a really lovely guesthouse that we both fell in love with - super friendly English speaking staff, gorgeous tatami rooms, and - best of all - a PRIVATE outdoor onsen that you can book for 30 minute slots. Having never been to an onsen before, I was particularly excited about this. Also, for the onsen-clueless, there are many helpful signs in English (and a binder's worth of information in the rooms) to help avoid onsen faux pas. For anyone in the area, I can't recommend this place more - it strikes the perfect blend of authenticity and foreigner-friendliness, which - in a country where, even after more than a year, I still stick my foot in my mouth with alarming regularity - is much appreciated.
The area around our hotel is famous for tall grass.
We also went to the coolest bar on the planet. It wasn't a bar so much it was buying a bottle of beer in your grandmother's basement (well, Grandma Tokuda's basement), with stacks of old videos, Japanese National Geographics, yellowing posters on the walls, fake flowers, doubtful things in bottles and a disproportionate amount of cat paraphernalia*. Also a gruff owner who greeted us with a single question ("Beer?"), asked Iain to point to his hometown on a map, and gave us free snacks and a shot of shochu.
The next day we went on the standard tourist circuit, which consists mostly of a gondola ride up the mountain, ostensibly to see some stunning views of Fuji-san...
... though, as you can see, our views were limited to brief flashes of fellow-gondolas, all to the sounds of a perky English and Japanese audio recording informing us that if we look to the left, we can see a spectacular view of Fuji.
Similarly, most of the attractions at the mountain top "view point" were also centered around the non-existant view. (Seriously, what IS that guy looking at?)
After our slightly disappointing gondola ride, we went on a pirate ship cruise (Why pirate ship? Who knows?) of Lake Ashi, which was beautiful, if freezing.
We ♥ Hakone.
* My grandmother would not have cat paraphernalia anywhere.
