Hakone II

We woke up early to catch the train and then a bus to a lake area. We ate our breakfast in front of Lake Ashinoko, and took the walking trail around towards Hakone Shrine, with a torii gate overlooking the lake, it made for an excellent photo. Kara and I somehow found our way into some sort of mansion on top of a hill, providing excellent views below. We passed through a checkpoint that was used so long ago to end up near the port.

We rode a ferry across the lake that took us to the other side, it was a very relaxing ride, seeing the shrine from the other side was interesting and we also had clear views of Mt. Fuji. I found out that Kara was into games and we talked about games for quite a while before arriving. We got on a bus that took us to the pampas grass fields, one of the highlights for me. I have never seen anything like it and I thoroughly enjoyed going through and taking some memorable photos.

Going back we were a bit pressed for time as Kara had another place to be and we were also both quite hungry. The lines for the ferry were long and we also had to take a long bus ride back, I also didn't want to keep Eliska waiting for too long as I had other plans with her. In the end, we made it fine and I said goodbye to Kara and waited for Eliska for a bit. We wanted to go to the illumination festival in one of the areas in Hakone but it was too late already as we couldn't come back but one of the clerks suggested another illumination event happening that was much nearer to our area so we decided to go there instead.

The journey took us through an almost ghost town, seems like nobody was out but we followed the route that was going up and up, turns out it was now a full blown hike. It took us a while to get to the top but it was well worth it as the sun started to go down, the summit's lights started to turn on, turning the place into some sort of illuminated wonderland. We had a look around and stayed here for a bit. We had some more conversations about life and decided to go back.

It was a bit last minute but we decided to hit the onsen before I went back to Tokyo, we shared plenty of laughs along the way from the stupidest jokes including an orange peel. The onsen itself was, as always, extremely refreshing and nourishing. I left the place feeling awesome. We went back and it was a bit risky with the time but I took Eliska to a tsukemen restaurant for the first time and she absolutely loved it. We rushed and I was able to make it to the last train going to Tokyo just by a few minutes. Extremely lucky and a good day all in all!Read more