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Japan – Day 6 (off to Hakone!)

After waking up and getting breakfast I packed and headed to the train station for Hakone. I’m actually staying in Odawara, which is about an hour by bus from Hakone proper, but it was a lot cheaper and easy access to the trains. Plus, it’s only an hour, no biggie…right? Well, maybe not so much.

After dropping off my bags I went to ask about the bus, except there was some big traffic jam on the bus route so it was faster to take a train then transfer to the bus. Okay, no problem. Except it took 1.75 hours to get there, so it was nearly 3pm by the time I got to the lake. I made my way to Hakone shrine, and waited patiently to take a photo with the floating tori gate. A new thing they started doing here was renting out these stupid plastic swan paddle boats and people will paddle out to the gate and try to photobomb pictures. It’s super annoying, selfish, and dickish behavior, and the people doing it know they’re ruining people’s photos and do it anyway. So when it was my turn and these two Japanese girls in a swan boat wouldn’t get out of the photo I non-discretely pointed at them and gestured for them to kindly get the fuck out of the way. The other tourists were all too polite to speak up, but I’m an obnoxious American so they can gtfo. The two girls in the paddle boat laughed of course, but started moving away and when I turned around the couple that were up to take their photo next waved and thanked me for that. No one in line was happy the paddle boats were there, cheap ass ugly looking pieces of garbage…

Anyway, after getting my picture I walked down this cobblestone pathway along the lake and finally found my momiji! There weren’t many but there were indeed yellows and oranges and reds, finally! I got some nice photos, but the path didn’t actually lead anywhere interesting, so I power walked back to the pier and skipped the actual shrine so I could get to my boat tour around the lake. The views from the boat are spectacular, especially at sunset, and even with some clouds you could still see Mt. Fuji. Plus I met some very friendly people on board who were just as happy to be there as I was so we chatted the whole time. I figured since it took so long to get here it would probably take just as long to get back, so I walked to the bus stop early and met some lovely ladies from Australia and, coincidentally enough, Tinley Park in Chicago. So we yapped for a while and hopped on the bus. Unfortunately there was a car accident shortly after we got on the bus that brought traffic to a standstill, and since it’s a two lane winding mountain road there is literally no other path to take. So the trip home ending up taking well over 2 hours.

I was planning on going back tomorrow to ride the cable car up the smaller mountain, but man I wasn’t expecting the travel time to be like this. Tomorrow is a weekday though, not a weekend, so maybe it won’t be so bad? I need to watch the weather too, if it’s raining there’s no point in going all the way out there anyway in which case I’ll hang in Odawara and check out their castle and waterfalls and stuff. There’s no shortage of things to do around here! Once I got back in town I went to a place kind of off the main trail to get some yummy orange chicken, and the restaurant happened to be in the same building as an arcade so I stopped and played a round of Taiko Drum Master. It took me a minute to remember what all the symbols meant but that game is still super fun. Tomorrow is a flexible day, so maybe I’ll go back and check out the rest of the arcade.

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Japan – Day 5 (Kamakura)

I have no idea why I woke up so sore this morning. I’ve been walking miles and miles every day for over a month now, why am I hurting now? Nothing some ibuprofen can’t fix! I had my breakfast and headed out for an adventure on the Japanese bus system! If you’ve never been to Japan let me tell you this, the train system is amazing: everything arrives and leaves on time, it’s clean, it’s orderly, and you always know where things are going and coming from. The bus system…is not. The buses are clean, that’s true, and people typically line up to get on but then the order breaks apart. They don’t always arrive on time, everyone is jammed in, unlike American buses there’s only one way in and one way out and you have to scan your fare card twice because the amount changes depending on distance (as opposed to the flat rate fare in the U.S.) and you basically have to yell at the driver when you want to get off and squeeeeeze through to the front. I tried to avoid the buses back in the day, but in Kamakura it’s unavoidable unless you want to double or triple your travel time.

My first stop was Kenchoji, an old temple with stunning old juniper trees and a very pretty garden. They also have a hiking trail up a mountain but it was shut down due to damage from the recent typhoon. Next I walked over to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, and this place was CRAZY busy. It seemed like there was some sort of children’s festival going on, because there were all of these kids aged 2-5 years old all dressed up in super fancy kimonos and running around being adorable. There was also a very traditional wedding ceremony going on that we all got to watch, and as I was leaving another wedding procession was coming in. This time it was a younger couple and when all the tourists started gushing over the bride and groom (seriously those kimono are GORGEOUS) they both got super happy and started posing for the tourist cameras while they were waiting for the light to change. Once the light changed it was like the parting of the sea and everyone including tourists stepped aside for them without prompting, everyone is so polite and well behaved here. Or maybe it’s because we all know how difficult it is to move around in a dress like a wedding gown let alone a wedding kimono, ha! Next I caught a bus to Hokokuji, known for its tranquil atmosphere and bamboo gardens. Also its momiji, but, like I said no colors yet…

A bus and train ride later and I was at Kotoku-in, where a gigantic Buddha from the 13th century is located. What’s cool about this particular Buddha is you can actually go inside of it and see how they cast and connected all the pieces together, which is really neat. Next, I walked to Hasedera, another place known for its momiji (I’m sensing an aggravating theme here) and koi ponds, plus it has a great view of the city and the ocean since it’s so high up. I filled out a wish clam shell and hung it on the wall of the inari shrine, climbed up to the viewpoint, and walked around the rock zen garden for a while. Afterwards I headed towards Enoshima, a small island just off the coast that’s easy to get to but with a lot of walking, and from the bridge you get a gorgeous view of Mt. Fuji. I walked to the island and up the hill into the shrine, and managed to make 2 of my 3 coin shots into the luck fountain (it’s a pond with a small money box in the middle and you throw a coin while making a wish and if it lands in the box you have good luck). I also made my three trips through the good health ring, pet a resident shrine cat, and made my way down the stairs. I didn’t time my descent well enough though, so by the time I got back to the bridge the sun had already dipped behind the mountains but I still got some good pictures of the sky and Mt. Fuji silhouette. I jumped down to the beach to stick my hand in the ocean, then caught a bus back to the hotel. My legs were killing me, so I took a hot bath with some sort of Epsom salt mix thing that made me feel a bit better. Kamakura is a pretty neat place, I’m glad I stopped by!