I woke up around 5:30, trending in the right direction! It was kind of neat to see the empty park before anyone arrived (at least I thought so, the rest of the family was not so impressed).
This was 5 min after park opening -- already impressive crowds! It was kind of funny watching people run from the entrance...and then lose steam after a while and resort to walking. 😆
It was another lazy morning for us today -- so lazy we actually took our first taxi ride of the trip. Farewell Disney...on to Hakone!
We stored our luggage at the Shinjuku train station -- no thank you for the 1500 yen per item per day fee at the Odakyu office -- coin lockers are 900 each and we fit four bags in just one!
Hands mostly free, we headed out in search of lunch. And pastries. And boba. The pastries (loved the matcha croissant) and boba didn't make the camera roll...but here's the sushi lunch!
There was an accident on the Romancecar line unfortunately so we had to take the local train out to Hakone. It was a SLOW two hours on the subway. Luckily so slow I managed a cat nap or two on the way. Once we got to Hakone we switched over to the train -- the mountain was so steep that the train actually had to stop and change directions at three switchbacks, very interesting! Every time it stopped, the conductor and rear attendant had to get off and switch cars...seemed just a LITTLE inefficient...can't they both be trained to handle both jobs?
Once we finally got to our ryokan - Madoka No Mori, we were welcomed by such a sense of quiet serenity.
We quickly got into the mood. I even managed to convince the twins to join me for a soak in the indoor/outdoor natural hot spring onsen!(R: "we did not have a choice").They were a little freaked out by the communal au naturale bathing experience at first, but luckily it was practically deserted, so we basically had a private spa day. Freshly showered and moisturized, we changed into our yukatas to wait for our dinner. The room was very nice -- had a great view of the mountains.
The ryokan's nightly price included full kaiseki dinners (ie, super elaborate 8-9 course meals) and Japanese breakfasts, the kids got child sets instead but those were equally impressive!
The sashimi course was a highlight.
Every course was served with its own special plates and decorations -- they are definitely high up on aesthetics in their meals.
It was really nice that dinner was served in our room -- made for a much easier stagger over to the couches with our full bellies.
We called it a night around 9:30 today -- we've basically acclimated fully to Japan time now. Tomorrow, it's time to go in search of those sulfur-cooked black eggs to ensure our longevity!
No comments:
Post a Comment