Hakone

This morning we got up about 7.30am, but couldn't get into the bathroom - somehow the door was locked from the inside. So Moccle phoned reception, and they sent someone up who fixed it, by poking a pen in a little hole in the door handle, which is what Moccle thought we should try.

We ate the sushi we bought yesterday, but didn't like it much. With Wasabi and soy sauce, it didn't taste too bad, but not nice. The Wasabi was just like mustard really. After breakfast we went to reception and Moccle asked if they had details of the local buses, and they gave us a timetable and circled the bus times that stop at the bus stop nearest the hotel in red for us.

We went to the bus stop and caught the bus to the station. When we got on the bus, we just had to take a ticket from the machine next to the driver. Then when we got to the station you had to pay the amount on the screen at the front of the bus that corresponded to the number on your ticket. We paid too much, so the driver gave some little ticket things for money off our next fare.

Before we went to get a train, we went in the shop next to the station to get some more food and drink. I bought some random Japanese drink, but when I tried it, it was disgusting and tasted like sesame seeds (which are nice on buns, but not to drink).

In the station, we didn't know how to get the ticket to Hakone, which is where we wanted to go. Luckily there was a helpful lady who spoke English, who told us the different places we needed to change and what lines we needed to change to. So we got our train tickets, which were about £20 each for a single to Hakone Gara. We got there okay thanks to the instructions that the helpful lady had given us, and when we were changing at Odawara Station, we noticed that Odawara has a castle near the station, so thought maybe we could visit Odawara tomorrow before going on to Kyoto.

When we got to Hakone Yumoto Station, where we had to change to Hakone Gara, there was a giant queue for the train to Hakone Gara, with a bloke standing with a signboard at the end of the queue saying 'End of queue for Gara'. We joined the queue and eventually got on a train, which was stuffed totally full. The Japan guide book did say that you shouldn't visit Hakone on a weekend, but we couldn't really not visit today since tomorrow we've got our train tickets to go to Kyoto.

The train went very slowly up hill in a zigzag fashion until it reached Gara, where everyone got off. Then we had to get a 'cable car' (which was really more like a tram) to further up the mountain, which also had a massive queue. When the queue had gone down a bit, we realised that we were in the queue for the cable car, rather than the queue for cable car tickets, which is what we thought we were in. Luckily, the cable car tickets machines were nearby and there wasn't a queue for them, so I popped out of the queue to buy our tickets and then got back in the queue in time for us to get the next 'cable car', which was very squashed like the train.

When we got to the top 'cable car' station, there was a giant queue for the 'rope service' (or something similar, it was actually a normal cable car). We saw there was a path up the mountain with a sign saying something like 120 minutes to one mountain and 180 minutes to another mountain. We thought we might as well climb up the mountain to the next cable car stop rather than waiting for an hour in the queue, since we'd already spent ages waiting in queues.

We walked up the mountain, but it was actually totally far and exhausting. We saw a few people coming down the mountain but one couple going up the mountain (like us). Also, it often smelt of rotten eggs (sulphur). Eventually we got to a bit where there was a sign that said 30 minutes to the right to the 'rope' station, or 80 minutes left to the top of the other mountain. We went towards the rope station, but the route was now going back downhill.

When we eventually got out of the trees we could see that we must have walked all the way up one side of the mountain, and then were coming back down on the other side of the mountain. We could also see the peak of the other mountain, which was a bit further along and a bit higher.

When we got to the 'rope' station, we found that actually we were at the top rope station. So we had walked up higher than the top rope station, and had had to come back down the mountain to get to it. We went to get a ticket for the rope service to the lake area, luckily the ticket bloke spoke English, but we couldn't decide whether to get the rope car back again (a return ticket), or get a single and then get a bus back. There were long queue waits for the rope service according to the ticket bloke, and you also had to be careful to make sure you didn't miss the last rope service, which was at something like 5pm (it was about 3.40pm at the time). However, the bus also had long delays due to the heavy traffic (seems Hakone is an extremely popular area).

We decided to get a single and then get a bus back, which would give us plenty of time to look around at the lake. We queued for the rope car to the lake, which was quite a long queue, but the cars came quite quickly so it didn't take too long before we got on a 'rope' car to the lake. As opposed to all the other transport in Hakone, they didn't actually stuff the car full of people, and everyone got a seat.

When we got to the lake, we checked the info on the buses, and found the last bus from the other end of the lake (and where we were planning to walk) was 8pm. We started walking along near the lake, which had lots of people on it in small rented row/motor boats. But soon the road/path veered away from the lake, and for most of the walk to the bottom of the lake, you couldn't see much or any of the lake at all. We stopped partway along the walk to eat our lunch at about 4.00pm.

On our walk, I said 'Konban wa' to someone, (as it was getting dark), and they started saying 'Konban wa' back, but then said 'Konichi wa'. Moccle had said before that it was too early to say 'Konban Wa', so it seems he was right. Moccle said that you can actually say 'Konichi Wa' any time of day.

After a lot of walking we eventually came to the other end of the Lake. By this time it was quite dark (probably about 5.30pm). We were wondering where it was you were meant to catch the bus from, but kept walking and found the place, there was a long queue (though very short compared to the other queues we'd been in throughout the day). The first bus was one that stopped at all stops (someone kindly translated what the bus person said for Moccle), and it was recommended that you wait for the next 'rapid' bus if you wanted to go the station (which we did).

So we waited and got the bus to the station, which was packed full. The roads were still very slow (traffic jam), then after a bit the bus came to a bit where another bus person spoke to the driver, then the bus turned round and went up a different road that wasn't packed (so I think it took a long but not as busy cut). The bus ride took probably 40 minutes, then we eventually got to Hakone Yumoto station. We got the train back to Odawara, and there we checked if there were any lockers that we could put our bags in tomorrow while we looked round Odawara. There were, and they were 300 yen. We got the 'local' train from Odawara to Tokyo, and got off at Oiso.

We got out of the station, and saw there was a bus waiting across the road, but I was hungry and wanted to get some food, so we went into the shop next to the station and bought some food. We went across the road to the bus stop, and saw there were 2 bus stops. The second bus stop looked like it would be the one we wanted. A bus pulled up, so Moccle asked the driver if the bus stopped at the Tokyo Prince Hotel. The driver could speak some English, and at first he said that the bus would stop where we wanted, but then a minute later (the bus was waiting at the stop for quite a while) he said that actually he was sorry, and the bus would turn right before we wanted, and he showed us the bus we would need to get, which was in about 30 minutes, at 8.30pm.

We waited around and I ate some of the food we'd just bought while waiting, then the next bus came, so we got on it. We used the gps to check when the bus was getting near our stop (since we didn't know where the stops were), but the bus has a voice that announces the stops as it comes up to them, and our stop was actually called the 'Oiso Prince Hotel', so we needn't have bothered with the gps. This time to get on the bus you used the middle doors (and didn't take a ticket from the machine next to the driver), but just had to pay your fare when you got off the bus (in the machine) again.

We walked back to the hotel from the bus stop, had a bit more food and a coffee, watched a bit of 'Casino Royale' on TV (in Japanese), and I wrote this blog post and copied and sorted the photos from today.

Food
Breakfast: Sushi with Soy sauce and Wasabi; water.
Lunchtime snack: A few Pizza LA Spicy Italian Doritos; coca cola.
Lunch: Rest of the Pizza LA Spicy Italian Doritos; Can of warm coffee; ½ chocolate iced pastry.
Waiting for the bus snack: 2 ring doughnuts.
Tea: ½ iced long bun thing filled with cream stuff.