[ Digitalian : Daremo Shiranai ]

気づかないうちに時間の砂は落ちて行く

どれくらいまだ此処に居られるかは誰も知らない

当たり前に感じてるlifetime　誰もが急かされてるday by day

本当はかけがえのないドラマばかりさ

We don't even realize the sands of time are falling

Nobody knows how much longer they'll be here for

A lifetime that we take for granted　Day by day, everyone's being rushed

The truth is, it's full of irreplaceable drama

Day 4, April 11th : Hakone, The Spring in Winter-Tail!

The weather forecast said that it was going to rain, so we just prepared ourselves with thick clothes and raincoats. First thing in the morning, we head to JR Ticket Office to exchange our Exchange Order with 7-Days (Ordinary) National Japan Rail Pass- which we bought in JTB, KLCC prior to this trip. They will require you to fill in some form before giving you your JR Pass which lasts for 7 days, naturally, and can be used for any JR line. We chose this date to exchange because for the next 7 days we would be travelling via Shikansen and JR lines to-and-fro from Osaka to various places.

We took the morning train to Odawara; we were supposed to take the Shinkansen- either Kodama or Hikari to Odawara, which would take us about 40 minutes. Instead we mistakenly took the JR Tokaido Line (ends up at Odawara anyway) which took us almost an hour and a half to reach Odawara T___T, so we lost a bit of time there.

And we reached Odawara, finally!

This is how your Japan Rail Pass, Ordinary, 7-day pass looks like. And pamphlet of Hakone at the back.

From Odawara, we bought the 2-day Hakone Pass for ¥4000. (If you have time, take fully the two whole day for Hakone because there are a lot to be explored, to be honest)
From there, we took the Tozan-Hakone Railway train to Hakone-Yumoto station: ate ice-cream and bought souvenirs:

Tozan Train~

The sakura trees along the train ride ♥

Hakone-Yumoto station

Stopped by here to buy souvenirs,
(yup, you read that right, Strawberry cheese cake Kit Kat)

And eat ice-cream

View from the train station

Far across, the mountain with sakura trees~

Closer shot... that's as far as the camera can go

From then on, we took the train again to Gora Station to change to Hakone Tozan Cable Car. We skipped the Open Air Museum (at Chohokunomori Station) in the interest of time. 

Gora Station

Cable car coming~

Kamikoen Station

From Gora, we stopped at Kamikoen station to visit the Gora Park and took pictures. It was raining, but the flowers were so pretty!

Hakone-Gora Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made our way back to the station to take the remaining cable car journey to Sounzan Station and changed to Hokane Ropeway.

Waiting for the Cable Car, one of my favourite scenery 

Hakone Ropeway

Up, UP we go! Owakudani, 1044m above the sea level, the highest station along the Ropeway

Of course, it was still raining, so no we couldn’t see Fuji-san, or much of the scenery for that matter; made a stop at Owakudani and bought some souvenirs and ate the black egg, kurotamago.
This is the description I found about Owakudani: It is the area around a crater created during the last eruption of Mount Hakone some 3000 years ago. Today, much of the area is an active volcanic zone where sulfurous fumes, hot springs and hot rivers can be experienced. The sulphur smell hit your nose once you boarded out the station.

During the journey, mist surrounding us

Yup, still light drizzling

The scene as we got out of the station. You can hardly see that far, let alone Fuji-san.
AND! It was cold! Brrrr!!

These cookies were really delish! :9

So, what is this kurotamago? They are eggs that were cooked in natural hot water and the shell became black due to the sulphur. They believed that eating 1 egg equals to prolonging your life by 7 years XP

From there, we boarded the Ropeway again to Togendai, stopped to pray before boarding the last sight-seeing Cruise to Hakone-Machi Port at 5 p.m. The ride takes roughly about 30-minutes.

At Togendai, the 2 cruise ships

Waiting to board the ship. Hot choc, the best during cold weather!

Off we go!!

Initially, we thought of taking the cruise back to Togendai and board the bus to Gotemba (Gotemba Premium Outlet is here) but as you can see, we were really pressed for time and we boarded the last ship anyway. So instead of walking around Hakone-Machi port area (there are interesting places to visit like the palace, the garden etc.) , we took the bus back to Odawara (and had a good sleep on the bus). After all, it was still raining.

The view from the cruise ship. If the weather was clear, we might have the chance to see Fuji-san during the cruise journey. Unfortunately it was misty.

Taking the bus back to Odawara. So in a day we took the train, cable car, ropeway, cruise and the bus! XD

From Odawara, we took the train -this time around the right train, Shinkansen- back to Tokyo. We reached Tokyo quite early, so we had a little more time to stop by Konbini (short for Convenience Store) to buy some ice-cream and to pack for Osaka.

10 years ago when I first visited Tokyo, it was almost summer and my cousin treated us to ice-cream one night. Red bean wasn't something that I'd go for for an ice-cream but after that night, I changed my mind. Looked for it every where back in KL but to no avail! Now, after 10 years, I got to taste Azuki-flavoured Haagan Daz again♥♥♥♥♥♥♥~~!!

Next : Warm Osaka