Mt Fuji

Onto Shinkansen at 8:30, now speeding toward Mt Fuji for busy day of train, ferry, bus and cable car travel.  We may even get cold apparently!  The sun was shining in blue sky as we passed Nagoya, raising our hopes of actually seeing Mount Fuji, but then it closed in again.  Only lucky tourists actually see the mountain.

We had a day involving many forms of transport.  We rode the high speed train to Odawara, then a local train to Hakone-Yumoto; a taxi to our new accommodation; and a half-hour bus ride up the mountain to the Lake Ashi (a second bus to the ferry terminal).  We bought lunch at a busy cafeteria there, then boarded a PIRATE SHIP(!) for the trip across the lake to the aerial ropeway; and up the mountain to the hot springs.  There we walked a couple of hundred metres up to the pools (altitude 1050 m), and ate our traditional black eggs (hard boiled in the sulphurous water) to add seven years to our lives.  A special small flying fox whirred past overhead carrying the eggs to and fro overhead.  It was quite hot and sunny, but Mount Fuji remained hidden in the clouds to the north west.  A different ropeway then carried us down the other side, followed by a cable car, then another train.  This was probably the steepest train line I've seen, and the train ground slowly down the twisting track at about 30 kph with it's brakes protesting all the way.  We went through several switchbacks, changing direction at stations, and were finally delivered back to Hakone-Yumoto Station.  After some free time in the main street a bus took us back to the ryokan.

Pirate ships!

The first ropeway

At the top

Eating my black egg

Where Mt Fuji should be

Dinner at the ryokan was a special multi-course Japanese seafood dinner, designed to be a bit of a special occasion, but unfortunately most of us were having trouble staying awake and it seemed to drag on for a long time.  It initially didn't look like much and Nouhi was murmuring that he would be going into town for a proper meal afterwards, but there was more than we could eat in the end.

Traditional dinner