Final thoughts

"Australian Passport Holders" The words that instantly make you proud to be an Australian. It truly does signify that you have landed back home. It's cheating the system, not having to line up through the excessively long line of tourists, the perks of being an Australian Citizen. The sound of familiar accents overawed the testing and exhausting plane trip. Without sounding cliched it feels oh so good to be back home.

The return flight was as eventful as the initial trip that brought us over. Firstly, the attendants forgot (or neglected) to hand out the standard hot towel wipes upon ascent. Secondly, the plane was packed. Another full flight, my dreams of stretching out on the return leg were squandered by the holiday peak season. Again we strategically (or stupidly) requested that we be allocated to adjacent isle seats, which in hindsight I'd probably suggest against. Much easier having somebody familiar next to you than a stranger. We were working on the premise of "if we need to go to the toilet we wont be disturbing anybody". Good in theory.


The guy next to me was a quietly spoken Tasmanian who was returning from a business trip. His purpose for visiting Japan had something to do with having vested interests in second hand mining equipment. We spoke briefly and shared each others 2 week Japan experiences, this would be one of the first recounts of my trip. I was still sick so I didn't want to be coughing and spluttering in his face and after dinner I plugged in my headset (indicating that conversation would cease) and let the Qantas Entertainment system take over. Honestly, I have a vague recollection of what i watched. I finished off the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" that I had only partially watched. The rest was a mixture of Thank God You're Here and The Chasers War on Everything (or was that on the flight over?).

There were babies on the plane, not just any babies, noisy, snotty, babies. I wasn't the only one on the flight having interrupted sleep, how long do babies cry for? Isn't there a stage when they run out of tears and just make that short breathed choking noise? Surely, the parents could hear the baby crying. Why we rent they calming it? Nursing? Why was it left to cry? What possible experience can a child get from going to Japan at the age of 1 or 2? What possible experience can a Parent get from having to take care of a child overseas? It makes no sense. To share the newly born with overseas relatives? A dying grandmother wanting to see her first born grandchild? That's the only plausible reason. I guess I'll have to become a parent to understand the situation.

5:30 am: The lights on the cabin are turned on and breakfast is served. Plane food is possibly the least memorable thing about flying. Come to think about it there isn't anything memorable about flying except that you step on at destination A and step out at destination B. Entertainment is decent, service was bearable but the overall flight was forgettable. After all that I'm pretty sure that I didn't get a wink of sleep. My neighbour had earlier asked for earplugs to block out the noise, turns out they didn't help.

Stepping off the plane we were immediately greeted by Sydney winter weather. Lip chilling, skin drying cool air. Alighting from the plane it would seem that we we rent the only patrons that we rent blessed with a good nights sleep. I always find myself expecting something to have changed whilst being away, but it feels good to be coming back home. Laundry, one of the first things that needed to be done. 2 weeks, living out of a suitcase (for a guy) in a hot humid country isn't the most pleasant things going round. I issued out all the presents to my family and let a torrid 2 weeks and a noisy plane trip back take me off into a deep slumber.

Luck was maybe indeed on our side, since arriving back in Sydney we successfully avoided typhoons and an earthquake in Japan. Maybe our interaction with Japanese weather wasn't so bad after all?

Japan, put simply is an awesome place! Just talking about it to people gives me a heighten sense of excitement. As previously mentioned if somebody had offered me a job whilst on holiday I would have without hesitation accepted the job offer to work and live in Japan. Food was exquisite, the different noodles, fish and delicacies. One thing that stood out was that tradition was still very obvious and entrenched in the Japanese lifestyle. Everybody is polite to one another, there's one common culture and everybody understands that. As good as multiculturalism benefits societies there are always differences of interpretation and this leads to an uglier side of conflicting cultures. With Japan the simpler things in life seemed to be still very much appreciated although western influence was slowly becoming more mainstream. Finally the gorgeous women. Enough said. I presume that there were darker and less desirable sides of Japan that weren't revealed. Again, my perspective is purely based on a tourist's viewpoint. The weather as a underlying theme for the posts made for a not so comfortable holiday, but in the end who really mentions sweaty armpits when you're being exposed to a new major city.

Personally I loved the pacey lifestyle of Tokyo, the aura of Hiroshima and the heritage of Kyoto. Countless destinations and plenty of attractions and with a little help from my friends and their company I would definitely go back! In the end the trip was on the expensive side of holidays setting me back just over AUD$6k for everything. What an enjoyable trip, plenty of eating, shopping, sightseeing, culture and singing. Despite all of this it still doesn't feel like I've been on a holiday more but I have definitely traveled. I wonder what my next overseas destination will be?

Day 15: Last day

14th July 2007

So here we are, the finale of our trip. What a whirlwind 2 weeks of travelling and sightseeing. As with most trips it started up slowly at a steady pace before building up momentum and sure enough 2 weeks had passed within the blink of an eye. So here we are, the final day in Japan. Somewhat regrettably I can say that I'm more than over Japan.

7:35 am - Head, so light. Throat, so sore. Feeling so weak. I'm, getting sick. Yesterday's sleep in was a teaser and soon enough we were back to a schedule of early wake up calls. This was far worse than what is expected of me for work! In saying that everybody has their own definitions of holidays. We had spoken to the concierge of the Kent Hotel and thankfully they had agreed to hold our luggage for the final day after checkout. I managed to jam everything into my luggage, looks like we wouldn't have to buy extra bags.

One thing that we had drastically miscalculated was purchasing a 14 day JR pass and being in Japan for 15 days. As previously mentioned we had received good value from our JR passes, today we would have to purchase one more bullet train ticket. The ticket that would take us from downtown Tokyo to Narita Airport. We packed our bags and brought them down to the foyer for safe keeping. A net was thrown over our luggage, the ultimate in baggage security technology. Today like the previous day was no different. The rain fell lightly but consistently as we made our way to Shinjuku station, given the time few people were on the streets. The weather today was shocking and probably an appropriate way to leave Japan. I was not looking forward to dragging my luggage through the rain later today. We purchased ¥3110 tickets for the 3:42 pm train. We were set, all we needed to do now was kill half a day.


Luckily we still had access to the Lonely Planet. The solution? The Imperial Palace! Well actually the palace itself was closed but the surrounding gardens were open. We caught a train to Tokyo station, by this time the crowds had substantially picked up despite the earliness. The town planning had some very obvious western influence. We had breakfast at a small fancy looking cafeteria that had a touch of French elegance. Huge glass walls encapsulated the eating area and the staff were dressed in black and white. After a light French style breakfast our final sightseeing destination would be the gardens. Other tourists had bared the weather and were trudging along inside the garden quarters. Maybe it was the weather or possibly my low health bar but I found the gardens to be a huge let down.The cold had finally caught up to me, I felt light headed and not particularly keen on conversation or exploration. The rain had picked up and now came down heavily and my umbrella was starting to feeling the strain of being purchased from a 100 Yen store. Sinus clogged, we headed back to Shinjuku and did some light shopping and had our last bowl of Ramen at the same place we had tried on our first night.

It was around this time that my umbrella finally gave way and decided that it no longer wanted to serve its function in keeping me dry. Drenched to the bone we finally decided that it be best to make our way back to the hotel. We had outstayed our time in Japan. The weather wanted us out! 3:00 pm, if I wasn't going to get sick, this was definitely going to test my attrition levels. My feeble attempts to dry myself off with toilet tissue paper and the hand drier wasn't happening. Blink. This bites.

Again we managed to get some people's attention rocking up to the adjacent cafe with wet clothing and water streaming down our faces. The waiter seeing our situation brought us the menus and some hand towels to soak up some moisture. We indulged in some afternoon tea and made the trek back to the Shinjuku station.

4:42 pm: Puddles, wet. Oh so miserable. Currently on the Narita express, couldn't get out of Japan soon enough. Had a brief talk about the highs and lows about our trip. What would be done again, what would be done differently. Outstanding items were, "not to come back in summer", "Stay in Shibuya", "try Kobe Beef", "Go to Fukuoka" etc. Our last bullet train, we snapped some photos with the trusty notebook (Actually all the smiles and hand gestures probably used up 100% of the remaining enthusiasm for that day). Arrived at the airport at 5:10 pm a little earlier than scheduled but we were warned to arrive at least 2 and half hours prior to take off. Gathered our items, changed into some thongs, made necessary changes and then checked in. Over the course of the 2 weeks I had managed to bolster up the weight of my luggage to a healthy 27 kgs. Again our flight has been delayed, rescheduled for 9:10. Even when we want to leave we're still stuck here? For dinner I had some simple Chinese congee, which was very tasty. Time to board QF22...

Day 14: Just chillin'

13th July 2007

Ah the luxuries of sleeping in. It can't be valued, although it seems somewhat counter intuitive to be sleeping in whilst being overseas. Either way (whether I deserved it or not) I really needed a good nights rest. One idiosyncrasy on our short stay is that unless you have sightseeing installed for the day there really is nothing open. Such is the nature of Japan that shops would rather stay open later and consequently also open later at 10:30. I'd much rather shop later in the evening that earlier in the morning. With that being said, we had officially checked off all there was to see and do in Tokyo and Japan (Although Fukouka still eluded us). That left us today to explore and soak in the culture of Tokyo.

First stop was Harajuku. We were told that the area of Harajuku is where would we see the trendiest and most bizarre locals. Again the rain had deterred most of the locals away. What was supposed to fill the rest of my camera memory stick was not to be. No sightings of Japanese goths or lolitas. Arriving at Harajuku the shops were still closed so we grabbed some breakfast. Mmmm French toast! Did plenty of shopping, mostly shoes and a couple of t-shirts soon we were both holding shopping bags and we had only been out of the hotel for less than 2 hours. We idled through the streets of Harajuku and managed to buy some souvenirs for family and friends. Chopstick holders, mugs, key rings the usual holiday trinkets. It was around this time we had lunch in a small winding street in a fairly westernised restaurant. Continuing on our way down the street we soon realised we had exited Harajuku and once again were lost. A local pointed us in the right direction and we were soon heading back down the very same road we came.

From Harajuku we walked to Shibuya. Our goal for the rest of the day was to find sweets, biscuits and cakes to bring back home. We entered almost every single Department store in Shibuya but to no avail. What had been an abundant supply around Kyoto was no where to be seen in Tokyo. Again irrational thoughts crept into our heads. "We could catch a Shinkansen to Kyoto, buy the sweets and be back in Tokyo just after dinner". We had had enough and soon made the trek back to Shinjuku. It was still early so we explored the other sides of Shijuku (the non dicey side) which to our amazement was quite enjoyable. A much better place to stay. It was on this side that Takashimaya had the basement level full of sweet stores, we stocked up and our shopping was complete.

For dinner we headed back to the place we had Shabu Shabu, it was time to try Sukiyaki. Same ingredients but different prep, not quite fried more simmered in a shallow pool of broth. The twist was dipping the hot food into a broken egg. This was to cool the food down for consumption. Ingenius!

7:30 pm: Shibuya, after sunset. Up until now we had been a little disappointed with Tokyo, sure Ginza was nice, Harajuku was interesting but we were still lacking the huge culture shock that would be found in Japan. Shibuya at night was that. It wasn't a flooring experience but definitely one that leaves a nice lingering flavour even after you leave. The kind of place that makes you say "Japan ain't that bad, I could live here for a while.". Exiting the station the major intersection was filled with people, hundreds, thousands of locals and tourists going about their own business. Large billboards, neon signs and large screen displays advertised, sung, captivated the people as the bright glow reflected upon people's faces.

The lights flashed green and soon the road was engulfed with an ocean of pedestrians. It had a festive feel similiar to that on New Years Eve with out the rowdy revellers. Majority of the people here were under the age of 30 with nothing better to do than hang around. People hanging out on street corners chatting, smoking, talking on the phone, waiting for people, waiting for the lights, waiting for time to pass. We walked into the usual shops, HMV, Starbucks and Kinokuniya. I didn't want to leave this place, it was amazing! Did some last minute shopping at a denim store called Right On. Got back to the hotel with a nice lingering feel. Packed our bags, last night in Japan. Gah! Cockroach in the room! Luckily for me Japanese cockroaches hadnt developed flight yet (well at least this one hadnt). Whacking it with a rolled up magazine, the cockroach came crashing to the floor, I also came crashing down on my ass. Cockroach lay stunned, I on my ass, wonder if anybody heard that ruckus I just made?

Day 13: Fresh Sushi

12th July 2007

6:15 am: Urgh! I. Feel. Like. Shit. Mild headaches, extremely sore throat, dizziness. I'm no doctor, but I know I'm getting sick. My health bar very low. The reason for having to wake up so early was simple. We wanted to experience the Tokyo Fish Markets for what is was worth. The plan for today and the following day was to explore the inner suburbs of Tokyo. Our reliance on the JR Network had served us well but now we required Tokyo Subway access. We purchased a 2 day subway pass for ¥1000.

If almost as predicted we had problems getting from the JR line to the subway line. We managed to get Tsukiji markets, funnily enough we got there by following other tourists quite obviously also heading there. It should be noted that although the Markets do sell seafood they also cater for other fresh foods such as vegetables and spices. Narrow dank walkways led us through a grid shaped market. It was an entire ocean bed cut and presented en masse. Each store had slabs of tuna, fresh eels, crabs and various crayfish. Keeping shoes out of puddles of brine was one objective, the other was dodging merchant carts that sped around the market. The sights and experiences of one of the world's largest markets was fine and dandy but got boring, quickly.

This was all well and good but we were getting hungry and walking around looking at food is minor solace for two starved tourists. We walked about the market probably covering no more than 20% of the entire floor before we exited and found ourselves at a small sushi bar just on the outskirts of the area. The sushi was extraordinarily fresh (duh) but somewhat overpriced for what we got. At least we can say we had Sushi in Tokyo!

9:00 am: On schedule and on time, we proceeded to some Garden. The details, such as the name and features escape me. The defining thing was that it was sub par to the order gardens we had seen. Think Sydney's Hyde Park but lamer. I remember there being a water gate and some murky looking body of water. It was around this time (in the trip or in the day) that my accomplice's grip on reality finally slipped. What proceeded was a mild comic outburst as flies, heat and futility sunk in.

Couple of kms later and a handful of overpasses down we make it to Ginza by foot. There's a certain air of affluent snobbishness to the place. Despite all the shops being closed it had a distinct feeling of western influence. Large foyer boutiques on wide open pavements. More designer brands. Gucci, LV, Burberry, Prada. The shops were all closed and by the time we hit central Ginza it was only a little after 10 am. Nothing was open. We plonked ourselves outside the Sony Building and counted down the minutes till opening. Gathered on the steps of the building were other tourists who had also thought to come early only to find that Sony (along with majority of the other shops) opened at 11.

In the not so far distance Political Party Candidates were promoting their Party credentials and getting their face in the public for the upcoming elections. Vans mounted with large speakers were blaring policies throughout the quiet streets of Ginza.

10:30: Some shops fronts begin to open. We visit GAP once more and managed to do some shopping. The Sony building was more of a shop front rather than a museum. Definitely a popular tourist location and one of the highlights. The pride of Japanese technology, latest and swankiest gadgets and electronics. Kinda sad that we probably wont see half of this stuff in the Australian market.

Being very impressed with the range of technology we caught a train to Akihabara. It had started to rain so we ducked off under cover to grab some very tasty lunch. We explored the Anime Centre which contained some famous Japanese Cartoon Characters (Gundam, Astroboy, that blue cat thing etc). Other than some larger than life figurines and animation cells the place was somewhat of a disappointment. We sat down and began to watch an "Akihabara Video Tour" guide, halfway through we realised that it probably be best to explore the place ourselves.

Electric City, plenty of neon, large buildings, and people. Overall the place was quite overwhelming, the rain however made it not so enjoyable. Large shops that had everything electronic under the sun. Dedicated shops and stalls for the most specialised items. Camera shops, phone shops, LAN shops, resistor shops, LED shops. Specific stores for specific needs. Walking around we found that items were a little cheaper than back home. We ended up leaving empty handed. No big purchases. Exhausted!

Making use of our pass we made a small evening trip to Roppongi, supposedly the place with the most international influence. Plenty of multicultural food stores, from African, to Turkish to the staple Italian cuisine. We of course opted for the more Traditional Japanese Ramen store for dinner. I've taken quite the shining for Ramen, if only they had a Sydney equivalent. After dinner we just walked the streets. Again we were lost, seriously, could we be any more tourist? Passed Roppongi hills and popped into a local supermarket and bookstore. I Love this bookstore, peopl propped up against walls, perusing, chilling, hanging out. I could stay here all night long. Everybody was busily doing their own things, depsite this it has a nice feel, very trendy, culturally driven place. I picture it to be a place yuppies would reside. I get to sleep in tomorrow. Hallelujah!

Day 12: day trip out

11th July 2007

Starting to feel a little over done with Japan and its tourist sites. We've seen enough temples and shrines to be content for the rest of the trip. Nonetheless we still had Kamakura on our schedule of things to visit and see. One day into our Tokyo leg we had found the most ideal route from our hotel to Shinjuku JR Station. Kabuki Cho is a different place during the day time, restaurants, shops and plenty of people. A far cry from the red light district that it transforms into after sunset. That being said we had a daytime route and a night time route.



We caught a 2 hour train ride out of Tokyo to Kamakura. Up to date I think I've successfully managed to sleep on each and every bullet train. Today was no different. Gigabeat in the ears I drift off only to be awoken by the electronic charms of the train. First stop is the Kotokuin temple also famous for the large bronze Buddha. This is the second largest Buddha in Japan only to Nara. Again there were plenty of tourists, we snapped some photos and managed to bust out some Canto to get some Honkie tourists to snap us in a shot. For approximately 20 cents we were able to enter the large Buddha. Nothing much inside. We walked to the next Kamakura destination which was Tokeiji Temple, again I honestly don't remember too much of this, except the cave like shrine.

It was just before lunchtime and we were off to our next destination. Yokohama. I'm feeling very fatigued right now. Are we Japan-ed out? Again we were lost and neglected to pay attention to the bullet train announcements. We instinctively got off the train. Only to look at each other with blank looks "Are we at Yokohama?". Almost in unison we both took in a large breath. Looked back at each other and said "Smells like Chinatown". Don't ask me to describe what Chinatown smells like. I'm not talking about the trashy back alleys of dicey Chinese restaurants. I'm talking about the deep fried goodness coupled with the smell of used oil.

Walked about the city, quieter but had a nice feel. Eventually found the Chinatown. Didn't look that big... Decided it was time to eat so found the first restaurant we could find. Actually there was a young lady and an elderly man advertising. "All you can eat for ¥1400." As tempting as it sounded we kept on walking only to eventually came back. The eating area was upstairs and obviously the popular choice with locals. The food was Yum Cha style servings on a sushi train type setup. Food was good. Stuffed ourselves silly with dishes. everything from steam buns, to noodles, to chicken, curried prawns and jellies. Yum!

The afternoon was spent walking around Ueno looking for Americaya a denim store. We were walking around the wrong side of town among all the Jewellery stores. We had given up and started to walk back to Ueno station when we stumbled upon the store almost accidentally. Hip hip! I bought a pair of Evisus and contemplated a very stiff pair of Samurai jeans (I resisted). By the end of the ordeal we had given up on our daily activities for today. Asakusa would have to be left for another trip.

After a long day out, I always come back and change into my thongs after a nice hot shower. Getting back to Shinjuku we followed the Lonely planet for food advice. Up until then we had made an effort to try all the local specialities. Tokyo had us lined up for sushi and a nice dish called Shabu-Shabu. Initially we set out for the restaurant, but couldn't find it. Big hassle. Ended back at the hotel, this time we bring out the map and Lonely Planet. Still cant find it. Map says it should be here (phrase of Toyko). Eventually we find a nice little joint. Lady has great English and explains the workings of Shabu-Shabu.Kind of a Broth type setup with thinly sliced beef, mushrooms, tofu and stock, sugar we eventuates into a steaming broth. Most of the restaurants that have eaten at and had decent hospitality and/or service we've taken a photo with the host. This was no different. The food was nice, nothing outstanding, host was charming and a nice way to wind down.

9:20 pm: Since we finished dinner quite late, it had written off most of the evening activities. Instead we wandered around the streets of Shinjuku, very careful to avoid any strip bars and seedy looking areas. I entered a Chemist and asked the lady if they stocked Yuskin. She shows me to the location. I immediately without thinking grabbed all the boxes on the stand they had in stock. I have Yube! During our voyage around we stumbled upon some baseball batting cages, had a few sessions of hitting the ball. We chose a nice easy pace of 100 km/hour the balls were thrown, lobbed, flung at us and admittedly I only landed a couple of them. Still, it was a great stress reliever. Stress, from a holiday? You Betcha! Why am I always getting sick?

Day 11: Final Destination

10th July 2007

I don't think I have ever been more eager to leave a holiday destination. We arose early, grabbed some breakfast pastries and left B&B Pansion. The walk, that we had become so used to would be walked once more in my lifetime. After a couple of interconnecting trains we were soon at Hakone-Yumuto and eventually back at Odawara. We arrived in Tokyo shortly before lunchtime. Up until this point in time we had made one crucial assumption. That being, when you book something online you're pretty much guaranteed that booking. We haven't had Internet connection in just over 2 days and all we had was the name of our final hotel. The Kent Hotel, Shinjuku.

Immediately arriving at Shinjuku station the number of people that sustains a population of 12 million people (in Tokyo) was informally introduced to us. We were caught up in people moving in every direction, running for trains, moving like ants with a place to be. We were not up to par, stuck clueless we walked about dodging people and maneuvering our luggage through the station of Shinjuku. We decided to seek help from a place called Across Travellers Bureau. We emerged from the underground station and it couldn't have been more blatantly obvious that we were lost tourists in one of the largest cities in the world. Lugging luggage around with one hand, map in the other, camera around our necks. Could we have advertised being LOST anymore?

Due to our skillful acting and the confused looks a local ran to our aid. He took our Lonely Planet and proceeded to direct us to the Travellers Bureau. We spoke and tested his broken English. Turns out he was/is studying English and wanted to get some practise (uh huh! Motive!). After some walking through the busy streets he brought us to a major intersection. Looked up. Looked back at the map. Looked around. Looked back at the map. "Mmmm, it should be here". Clearly disappointed that he was unable to help us he directed us towards a Tourist Office on the other side of town. His instructions were surprisingly good and we found the place and spoke briefly with the information desk workers.

Kabuki Cho, is definitely a happening place. Plenty of large billboards, shops, people and restaurants. We struggled to find the Kent but after some searching we found it. It was tucked away in the cinema district. To our shock when we arrived to check in the concierge told us there was no booking under the name we had provided. We had just assumed we had received the reservation confirmation. We hopped into the first Internet cafe we could find. The guy at the desk was exuding confidence at the highest level. Unfortunately due to our circumstances it definitely wasn't the time and place for over exuberance.

Checking my email confirmed our fears. Bookings were full and we had missed out on the reservation. We prepared a new line of attack. First and foremost we would head back to the Kent and see if they had any rooms available. If not, then we had a thorough list of backup hotels and locations to approach for lodging. Fortunately we got back and to our luck booked two separate rooms.

We unpacked and grabbed some Ramen for lunch. What a terrible start to Tokyo. The rest of the day we spent exploring Shibuya. This was supposedly the trendy part of town, the place to be. It must have been the weather but we were quite disappointed. It was spent doing some light shopping, dodging umbrellas and avoiding the rain. One highlight of Shibuya was building 109. A building dedicated to fashion, in particular women's clothing and accessories. It was a senses overload, chicks screaming out shop sales, gorgeous Japanese women. My mind was at the point of shutdown. Wow! Grabbed some pasta for afternoon tea. There are some seriously hot chicks in Shibuya.



That evening we explored Shinjuku, the place is huge, we were constantly referring to our map and took numerous wrong turns. It's too easy to get lost here. What a bright city! Large signs advertising different products, even larger projectors displaying the latest J-pop single, Neon signs of every colour imagineable, reds, yellows, pinks, electric blue, the list is endless. Thankfully our hotel The Kent is situated close to the station. What we didn't realise it that Kabuki Cho is on the Red Light District side of town. We were approached by plenty of people. "Do you want to see Japanese girls?". For some reason only I was approached by these seedy pimps.

Used the net that night, the usual emailing, browsing. Found out that Yube is also known as Yuskin. Well i'll be...

Day 10: Ripped off

9th July 2007

My pillow has beans in it. I'll leave a couple of minutes for that to sink in. Beans. In a pillow. Why? Surely feathers cant be that expensive, even cloth! Heck something smaller and more pliable. Sand! Ok, maybe not sand. I have a crook neck time and slept with a sheet over my head only because there was a mosquito that bothered. Breakfast was simple but surprisingly decent. Bread. Plenty of baked items, croissants, snails, puffs, tarts. Carb me up for our day trip out at Hakone. Weather update, more overcast deary grayness, hopefully we'll be able to see Mount Fuji.

Ended up walking back down to Odewera station, the cabbie suggest we just catch a train (or bus) to the Owakudani Cable car depot. Nice view that the cable car, boy these things move at an incredibly slow pace. We travelled over the hot springs gushes of hot sulfuric air escaping from the earth. This place bites. Made our way to the hot springs, mmm sulfuric goodness. Smells like eggs, rotten eggs. For some reason there were a million Chinese tourist around. Took the customary photos and tried some 'special black eggs' the sign claims if you eat one of these eggs it will go far in extending your life span by 7 years! Get out of town! 7 years per egg! Of course they only sold the eggs in batches of 6, I see what's going on here, they're trying to breed a group of naive tourists with extended lifelines. That's the last thing we need, naive people living longer! We ate two eggs each and gave the remaining two to some tourists. Tasted like a normal overcooked egg. Oh the novelty...

Caught a couple more cable cars and explored about, found ourselves down at Ashino Ko, the famous lake of Hakone. Where "on a good day" Mount Fuji can be seen with opportunity to see the reflection off the lake. It wasn't a good day. No Fuji sightings. Apparently these "good days" frequent only a handful of times a year. Thanks Lonely Planet, for nothing! The boat trip set us back around 30 bucks, we didn't get off at any of the stops, each time they announced an upcoming stop we quickly referred to the Lonely planet to see if it was worth disembarking... Consequently, we found nothing worthwhile to get us off the boat. It's not even lunch time and Ive spent close to 90 AUD. ON what?! Some black eggs, a mediocre boat ride and all the cable cars a sane man can endure in one lifetime! Yea not a huge fan of Hakone, although we maintain to this day that it would have been excellent if we had seen Fuji.

Stopped by one of the local eating houses, the Gyzoa Center Gyzoa for lunch. Was a nice little establishment with friendly staff. Food was basic but quite tasty. After lunch headed back towards Odakyu the main station. This place absolutely sucks. And we still have another night here. Found a TIC and decided we might as well check out one of the Onsens. The TIC ladies giggled when they told us that you have to be naked for them. As per usual the queried our nationality. Australia!

We walked out and fried to find the bus stop for the Tanzen Onsen, apparently one of the more upper end Onsens. The guy at the bus stop pointed at the bridge. "Uh, ok"... we walked to the bridge, there wasn't a stop there. We consulted the map handed to us by the TIC ladies, she had put a dot in the middle of the bridge. How odd. Surely enough a bus stopped in the middle of the bridge, a couple of older Japanese men climbed aboard and soon we were speeding round the mountaneous roads.


Tanzen Onsen. We were handed a 'modesty' towel and proceeded to enjoy an outdoor bath. Being naked and all we opted for the bath that was the least populated. Turns out it wasn't populated for good reason. It was 50+ degrees. I sat there feeling every inch of my body slowly braise in the spring water. Mmmm, I couldn't hack it I jumped out into one of the onsens that was more moderately heated... I tried to obey the rules of onsen-ing and enter without disturbing the water. Yea disturb it like Sumo on a 10 metre board. Not very discreet, ah well. I sank into the pool in all nakedness and placed the towel on my head. Relaxation does have a price. Thing about hot water though is it be becomes irritable, stuff this! I'm going to find a cooler pool. Not just a cooler pool, the COLDEST one. So I jumped in! Almost immediately I felt my legs go weak, probably not the smartest idea, I tried to get out. I felt my head spin. Uh oh, what have I done? This is trouble. I left the onsen and showered myself. No towels, how am I going to dry myself. With an express blower that's how. Upstairs they had an meditation area where people lay down on tatami mats and listened to tranquil music. Ah, I wanna give that a go, too bad we have to catch a bus at 4. Missed the bus.



The day, not the most strenuous of our trip has still managed to exhaust me. Not feeling so well, I can feel myself getting sick. Tried a Thorpedo drink, mm diluted yakulty goodness.

Ended up finding out that there was an amusement park Yunessun right underneath our noses. Found a nice looking Japanese restaurant for dinner. Food wasn't terribly great although the photos don't agree with our thoughts. The host gave us a nice curtain. Right.

Jumped back into the local bath house, I couldn't hack another hot tub, I just sat and scrubbed myself, It's so therapeutic sitting and cleaning yourself, hosing water. Something so primitive yet so essential.

Mosquitoes! Huge, blood sucking mozzies, just perched all over the ceiling waiting for us to go to bed. I came back from the communal bathroom to find my companion on his bed with a tissue in one hand smacking at the mosquitoes. 10 minutes later we had rid our room of all visible pests.