Hakone

Having left Kyoto behind, we boarded another Shinkansen to head towards our final stop on this tour, Tokyo. It gave us a chance to glimpse Mt Fuji for the first time and even from the distance we were at, we weren't disappointed! We would have a chance to get nearer to the mountain, first though was a stop in the sleepy mountain town of Hakone. In comparison to our previous mountain retreat, Koya-san, this was a lot quieter and sadly the accomodation not as well maintained as the monastery had been. However, the ryokan (traditional Japanese house) that we stayed in did have its own thermal pools or onsens. This were great and very warm, even if we didn't quite embrace the baths in the traditional way, ie, not completely naked...

After dumping the bags, we headed towards Fuji. As I've said previously, the local transport is fantastic here. So the bus, ferry, cable car and venicular railway we took were all pretty good. The ferry was probably my favourite though, as it was done up to look like a pirate ship. As we drew nearer the mountain, the more impressive she became. I am a bit of a sucker for natural beauty like that, but even the most uninterested person would have been pretty impressed with the landscape, I'm sure.

After numerous photos of the mountain and trying to take a photo of the dog with the backpack on, none of us succeded with the latter, we headed towards the sulphurous gasses emanating from the mountain side. Masa, our, by this point quite weary, guide had promised us a local delicacy. Now myself and the wife, we will eat most things - she enjoyed a mostly still alive sea urchin in New Zealand once; we both ate crickets and tarantula in Cambodia and as I've said, we tucked into a whole (small) octopus in Kyoto - so an egg, hardboiled in a sulphur pit was no bother. It is said to add 7 years to your life, so hopefully, I'll be able to go on more amazing trips like these and write blogs for everyone's enjoyment!

Eggs eaten and pictures taken we headed back for Hakone and another traditional meal. Luckily I enjoy fish, so the sashimi on offer, another Japanese culinary experience ticked off, was very enjoyable. The food was better and more to our tastes than in Koya-san, but that was the only feature that this was better than there, really. We headed for bed after enjoying a few beers with some of the group. I love the way groups like this end up interacting, I have been very fortunate in the past to make some very good friends, two especially, on similar group tours, so hopefully some of us will keep in touch. It all ends tomorrow, as we head towards Tokyo. I wonder how overwhelmed we'll be by the huge, sprawling metropolis, after being in fairly remote and easy to navigate places on this trip. We shall see!