Crazy Floating Tourist Trap on Lake Ashi - One of Several in the Hakone Flotilla

Hakone and the Fuji Hakone Guest House

The Hakone bound bus winds along for 50 minutes up a beautiful mountain road passing river towns, waterfalls and lush bamboo forests. We finally disembark at a non-decript bus stop and stroll downhill to the Fuji Hakone Guest House. Remembering Mrs. Hirota I inform our new host, Mrs. Takahashi that Mrs Hirota of the Hirota Guest house sends her warm regards. We are shown around the premises of the guest house – the Onsen, (natural hot spring bath) the showers, laundry, our Tatami room on the 2nd floor, and we schedule a 9:30 pm soak for later that evening.

Later we head out into a dense fog (surprisingly thicker than the kind in San Francisco) in hopes of finding a sushi place. We have no luck in our walk and taking a chance we plunge bravely into a strange little restaurant populated by two guys in their 60s served by a husband and wife. The teeny place was lined with all sorts of Sake bottles and the two gents at the counter contently ate while guzzling beers and smoking. We pop into the room every bit as mystified with them as they are with us. One of the diners, a Mr. Honda speaks English and he informs us that though he has not been to mainland America in 30 years he is interested in chatting with us. He had been to Maui, but his grasp of English was decent enough. Soon he assists us with ordering dinner with a warm smile and a lot of laughs. We order a tall Yebisu beer to share and are each provided with a platter of Sashimi consisting of Tuna (Maguro), the most delicious raw Octopus (Tako) I’ve had and an unidentifiable third item that resembled the beak of a conch nestled atop a bed of julienned daikon radish.

Shortly we suggest to Mr. Honda that we’d like to try more adventurous cuisine and we are provided with a helping of the special house smoked chicken and smoked raw bacon. Both are delicious, though the notion of eating smoked, uncooked bacon leaves us a bit suspicious. Then I make the subtle social mistake of mentioning Uni (sea urchin) and we are offered a large portion of raw Uni and then an equally large amount of boiled Uni. The boiled Uni is significantly more palatable than is the raw but being a good guest I eat it all. In a surprising move Mr. Honda offers us the better half of his dinner which consists of a delicious bowl of clams in the shell bathed in an aromatic Shoyu broth and some sort of freshwater fish sashimi roughly piled up on a plate with minced ginger and thinly sliced green onions. The fish carcasses are decoratively displayed on skewers framing the pile of sashimi.

In another surprise Mr. Honda buys us a round of expensive Shochu (cold sweet potatoe sake) on ice and then he orders up two large tureens brimming with Chinese Ramen noodles – one salty and one shoyu flavored – both are delicious. We exchange business cards and great thanks after having chatted about many things in Japan and America and how they compare. The cook and his wife bow seeming to understanding how grateful we are and the whole experience has been a rather magical affair. Now I regret not having taken a photo while in the restaurant. We leave hastily, mentally clouded by booze and thinking that our allotted soaking time back at Fuji Hakone guest house is at 8:30 only to be embarrassed by realizing it’s at 9:30. To kill time I throw a much needed load of laundry in the coin operated machine.

We kill an hour viewing some wackier Japanese TV including a show about a Japanese Family and how they smoke various foods: eggs, tofu, fish, sausages and meats while on a camping trip. Then we crash only to be interrupted by mosquito bites and my desperate need to brush my teeth after having eaten so many interesting but bizarre seafood dishes.

Friday: Adventures in Hakone

I rise at 6:30 AM to relieve myself and wind up in a lengthy political debate with an opinionated guy from LA (Reed College Grad) about George Bush, Japan, Korea and the left not agreeing with the right. He’s clearly a die hard Bush supporting Republican but we split amicably after I inform him that being from the US’s most liberal enclave there is no way I could agree that George Bush had done anything positive for the country.
Invading Iraq is just wrong. Our conversations were terse but polite.

About an hour later we breakfast with the Fuji Hakone house guests on fresh fruit – Fuji Apples (of course) melon, banana with coffee, tea, green tea, yogurt and rolls with jam and butter… Conversations and introductions ensue. One couple had just departed from Seattle – she was of Indian descent and grew up in Teaneck, NJ, he was from a small village in Scotland and they were off to see Japan, Hong Kong and other more distant places.

After breakfast we departed with Peter from Melbourne, Australia (who had actually studied Japanese in College) and took the first bus that came along – (counter to the general Hakone Free Pass circuit.) This would result in financial consequences later that day but the initial experience was pretty humorous as we queued up and then hopped on board a giant Pirate Ship: “the Victoria” across Lake Ashi. This thing was a ridiculous kitschy attempt at a Pirate ship with masts, fore and aft decks and a statue of some pirate like personality.

The lake crossing was beautiful; the water crystal clear, the mountains dramatic and heavy laden with clouds. When we disembarked we wandered a bit through the ever present tourist vending shops and we were convinced to buy a trick pencil box, demonstrated by a cute old guy who showed us the trick to making pencils dissapear. It seemed perfect as a gift for Stuart, but I am not sure we’ll be able to get the trick when this thing reaches San Francisco.

Our Friend Peter from Melbourne, Australia on a Fog-Bound Ropeway Trip

We caught a glimpse of some of the Ancient Cedars planted along a lakeside trail hundreds of years ago and then decided to grab a bus to a Rope Way off the Hakone Free Pass circuit. This was an expensive diversion and I wound up paying for Peter’s passage up to the lookout over Lake Ashi in exchange for his help with Japanese on our many different modes of transportation throughout this day. On the way up we caught an eyeful of the cable car on the descending side packed with a full load of cute school kids in identical uniforms which was a bewildering site set off against the mountain foliage.Thankfully, we also managed to catch an actual glimpse of the much talked about (but rarely seen in murky July) visage of Mt. Fuji, albeit just a vague conical profile, but a reasonable view nonetheless. The top of the Ropeway was an unexciting cold concrete observatory with vending and games, but a clerk showed me a couple of interesting photos he took in November ’05 with the Mountain in full snow and the surrounding hills shrouded in “silver thaw.” We headed back down but the view was much less dramatic and foggier; devoid of any solid signs of Mt. Fuji.

Upon returning to the base lodge we figured out that our next bus would be more than an hours wait, so instead of eating we shopped in a huge tourist dive gift shop filled with hundreds of Japanese School kids out on a summer picnic with their teachers. Each kid was permitted to purchase small items as a souvenir. For me it felt sort of funny to be on long line with a handful of gifts surrounded by dozens of tiny school kids, but I managed to get our gift buying business out of the way and we soon caught a bus to a mini train station. We got on board for a few stops and then took a rather steep funicular tram at the Gorda Station, and then a ropeway with foggy views of a vast geothermal area.

Ultimately the fog won the day and after a brief look around the summit we returned the way we came, and though it took a bit of hunting we found a modest little restaurant for lunch. Kris had the ever present soba with a few vegetables and I had soggy tempura with rice. Peter’s choice of Chinese Style egg noodles with pork in broth was the best of the three and I was envious.