Kozuka Yama

Today we said goodbye to Tokyo as we headed for an overnight stay in Hakone. We started with catching the Subway to Shinagawa Station where, after Nathan stressed Vela out but wanting to double and triple check we were getting the right train, we connected to an intercity train.

This took us through to Odawara where we stopped for lunch. We had a delicious teppanyaki steak and a Japanese curry, delicious and affordable and it might have ruined Japanese curry for us forever...

Next we hopped on a bus through the mountains to Motohakone-ko, where we boarded a sightseeing cruise (more of a ferry to be honest) and jumped on the gondola over the mountain. We crossed over a geothermal valley, the source of the hot water for the onsen (Japanese baths) in Hakone.

Next we transferred to a cable car, hooked down a narrow windy hillside (with Nathan acting as sherper) before arriving at the bottom of the valley where a geothermal fed river flowed. Our final mode of transportation for the day was to hop back on a bus for the last little stint to our accommodation.

We were greeted by a very relaxing atmosphere, our room is significantly bigger than in Tokyo and has tonnes of character with two beds on a raised wooden platform. We quickly visited the onsen (and got a sneaky photo while nobody else was there) and settled in for a relaxing evening after a travel day involving 7 different modes of transport (subway, train, bus, ferry, gondola, cable car, and a hike).Read more