Hakone

We took a local bus to Lake Ashi. The Japanese obey the instruction not to get up from your seat until the bus stops. There was also little chatter on buses, metro and local trains. We went on a "pirate" boat across the lake, and then went into a magic box shop to see how the boxes are made with different woods and designs. They were very attractive and expensive. One of them had 35 things to do before it opened. I bought a sake cup.
We passed through a gate which was the frontier between the Shoguns in Edo/Tokyo and the Emperor in Kyoto. It was part of the Post Road which I hiked on elsewhere later in the trip,
We visited the Shinto shrine which was above the red Torri gate in the Lake. There was an archery class in one of the buildings in the complex.
I had a good udon vegetable soup for lunch.
Seiji, James and myself took a local bus to Hakone Yumato Station and then a shuttle bus to the alkaline hot spring public onsen at Hakone Yuryo, As in all onsens, there were separate baths for men and women since the bathing was nude. There were hot and medium cold pools plus a hot sauna with a temperature of 40 degrees; I lasted for less than 2 minutes in that heat.
We took a local bus back to the guest house, passing through villages on windy road and completing our circumnavigation of Lake Ashi.
We went to a local Japanese restaurant for dinner.Read more