Japan, Day 7: on to Hakone

On a rainy morning, we took cabs to the main train station in Tokyo for a journey south to Hakone, a mountainous town known for its hot springs. Transportation was a little stressful: getting through the gates with our QR codes wasn’t as seamless as we expected, and it took a minute to figure out which bus would carry us to our hotel.

The highlight of our train ride was seeing Mt. Fuji! It’s magnificent. I wasn’t sure we’d actually get to see it, as the weather isn’t great.

We had lunch at a soba restaurant near our hotel and visited a nearby botanical garden of wetlands, that specializes in plants found in bogs and marshes. With a similar climate to DC, the plants and flowers I have seen in Japan are pretty similar to what we have at home.

We are staying in another ryokan, a traditional Japanese lodge where you take your slippers off at the front door of the sleeping room, sleep on low mattresses on tatami flooring, and use the hotel-provided yukata- robes to wear around the hotel - whether for going to the natural hot springs, or for dining.

We all used the hot baths and dined at the hotel: another feast with dozens of small plates.Read more