Hakone

We spent most of our last day in the Tsujido area with Aunt Yuko and Uncle Shoji. They decided to treat us to a visit to Hakone, which is home to the famous Mr. Fuji. Or Mt. Fuji. Hakone is a mountain range, and has many hot springs, which are very popular in Japan. In fact, our first stop was an onsen or hot spring. Aunt Yuko made reservations for us in a private bath. With a private resesrvation, we were able to go into the bath together. And yes, we bathed traditionally. ;)

(A note about Japanese hot springs - bathing is very different in Japan. It is done communally and onsens are a very popular activity. Usually women and men are separated - there are separate change rooms. You remove all your clothing and store it. Then you move on to the shower area where you soap up, and thoroughly. An unfortunate reality of being gaijin (foreigner) in Japan is that you get attention. And in a place where you are naked (and a bit overweight!) you can count on being watched - you must clean yourself thoroughly as you will watched! Once you are clean and no longer soapy, you can move into the bath where you soak. Ahhh...heaven!)

After the hot springs, Uncle Shoji took us up a mountain to try to see Mt. Fuji. The mountain road was about 2.5km long with about 25 "s" turns and very tiny little guardrails. It may have been the scariest drive of my life - and thankfully there was no oncoming traffic! At the top, there was a tiny restaurant. We were able to see a mountain that may have been Mt. Fuji, but it is very misty during the spring time, so it was hard to tell if it was really Fuji-san himself. :D

We also travelled to a another kind of hot spring - jigoku or hell. These are NOT for bathing! :) In fact, they are so hot, that they boil eggs! At the hot spring that we went to, you could see the boxes of eggs being sent up on a pulley system. Once at the top of the mountain, the eggs are sent to an untimely end via boilage. Poor egg. Yummy, poor egg.

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