Day trip to Hakone

Took the Shin-Okansen from Tokyo station to Odawara. Jorma is renting a car to check out Hakone. He likes to add the extra challenge of driving in small mountain towns to driving on the opposite side of the road. He manages it quite well.

We parked at the base of Mt. Kintoki. Jorma kept warning me that it was a steep hike. He said it was about 3 miles total though so I felt like I could handle that. It was a tough, steep hike. Mostly steps built into the trail but also some rocky parts. It definitely felt relentless when we were getting close to the top. The views were awesome though. Jorma had told me that on his trail run in Sapporo he saw so many elderly people hiking. It was the same on this trail. That always puts the challenge into perspective for me! We met a gentleman at the top who asked us where we were from. He was wearing short, shorts and over the knee socks. I asked him where he was from and he told us he lives at the base of the mountain. He hikes to the top about 4 times per week.

We drove the Hakone Skyline which Jorma said looked like the Foothills Parkway. Did a bit more exploring through Hakone and the surrounding area before returning the car and jumping back on the bullet train for our last night in Tokyo.Okumaya devam et