May 8, a completely different day

Just back from a fabulous day, but first I must report on last night’s dinner. It was an amazing experience - quite contrasting to the Iron Chef restaurant of Saturday which was unique and wonderful and totally Japanese - this place is written up as French, but while there is French influence it felt very Japanese to us. The ambience could be French - simple and tasteful, and you use knives and forks not chopsticks, but the food was Japanese - except the chef combined interesting things in perhaps not a Japanese way (for instance there was a dish of octopus and tripe with baby corn - sounds weird, but I think even tripe haters would enjoy it!!). Anyway, it was great - there is just a degustation menu so no choices which is good, and was almost entirely seafood (except for the tripe!), and judged perfectly so that you could eat everything and not feel too full. It was raining by yesterday afternoon as predicted, but we went by subway anyway with a walk at the end as we had so painstakingly found where it was the other day! Cathy and Paul would think we were mad and we arrived rather drowned, but satisfied, and we had dried out by the second entrée! Barely sprinkling on the way home...

Now for today - we had a day out of Tokyo. Helen and Greg had told us about, and recommended, a trip to Hakone. You get a ticket for the day (about $55 each) and go by train to Hakone-Yumoto, then you can go on another train up the mountain - like the zigzag railway - and there is a cablecar (which is like a funicular) and a ropeway (which is a suspended car) and a boat ride on the lake! Also there are buses to get everywhere too. You can choose your route and mode of transport and spend all day doing it...very good value and lots of fun. The Hakone area is a resort with mountains and a lake, and quite a lot of people were staying there, but it is close enough to Tokyo for a day trip. There would be views of Mt Fuji in good weather, but we knew that wasn’t going to happen. Rain is predicted all this week so we went today anyway as rain wasn’t meant to start till after 3 pm (and tomorrow, our last full day here, is AM rain)...and it didn’t rain and only sprinkling as we arrived back at Shinjuku.

So after arriving by train, we decided to go up the mountain first before the clouds closed in, and went up the fun zigzag, and then the Ropeway, stopping midway at a station where there was a tourist shop and restaurant...very volcanic air smelling of sulphur, and where they sell black eggs - they are cooked in the volcanic water and it turns the shells black!! We ate some for lunch (you buy a pack of 5, lovely and hot and hard-boiled) and eating them is meant to add 7 years to your life!!! Then we descended in part two of the Ropeway down to the lake where there are these crazy “pirate” ships that take you down the lake to another town - Hakonemachi-Ko. We got off there and walked a few kilometres to the next town via a path of Ancient Cedar trees. This was the old Tokaido road and the trees were planted over 400 years ago to protect travellers from the weather...gorgeous enormous trees, and it was misty and rather mystical by the time we walked along it. Upon arriving at the next town we decided the weather wasn’t going to last much longer so we hopped on a bus, which went along a very winding road, back to the train station. A fun day!

Am putting the food photos now, and then will add today’s as a separate entry, as they take SO long to download and upload!Lue lisää