Day 8: Hot Springs are REALLY Hot

It has been a super packed day and tomorrow promises to be just as big. I was up this morning at 6:30am, much earlier than previous days, and ready to go by 7:10am. Today we were waving goodbye to Chigasaki and hitting the road to Hakone. It was a sad moment, saying goodbye to our families from the weekend. We had had such a great time and were so grateful for their generosity.

Homestay Mum and Dad - Thanks so much!

Our first stop on the tour was the Asahi Beer factory. It was a beautiful day and the gardens were absolutely gorgeous with autumn colours. The inside was not overly exciting - although it was interesting to see how the beer was made and, for me at least, admire the automation of the packing process. The coolest thing we learnt today was that the uniforms for the tour guides are recycled PET bottles. They felt like normal fabric, which was incredible.

Such a pretty place

Kaoru trying to look like she is meant to be in the photo

The fountain outside was sadly not beer

Front desk - reception was basically empty

Everyone thought the couches were comfy though

Me and our tour guide in her PET bottle outfit

Did I mention it was pretty

For lunch we had Yakiniku - grilled meat. We arrived at the restaurant to a table with two plates of meat containing chicken, pork, wagyu beef, lamb and pork sausages, and another large plate of mixed vegetables. In the centre of the table was a gas powered flame grill. It was an amazing lunch, although very fatty as the fattier meats were cooked first to stop other things from sticking to the grill. We also had problems with the fats catching fire and burning the rest of our food. All in all, everyone was extremely well fed. Then it was back on the bus for another drink to Hakone for some eco-trekking.

Before

After

Eco-trekking was an intense experience. We were climbing part of a mountain that wasn't overly steep, but involved a lot of big steps that had been made in the ground out of rock which I found very challenging with my short, stumpy legs. It also didn't help that my calf muscles didn't feel like co-operating and even now as I write my shins hurt a little bit. Thank goodness tomorrow is mostly a bus trip or I don't think I'd be walking much more in the trip. Along the way we learnt about the ways this path was traditionally used as a walking track back to Toyko, and Steve wore (for the entire walk) the traditional shoes worn during this time. We also visited a Shinto shrine that was up in the mountains and on reaching the top enjoyed the ever pleasant smell of sulphur from the volcano that heated the water which feeds Hakone's famous hot springs (onsen).

At the start of our eco-trek we could see Mount Fuji

Steve and his fashionable new shoes which he got to keep

Part of the house near the Shinto Shrine

Six guardians of your six lives

The path up to the little shrine

Pretty Autumn

More pretty colours and our guide - Jimmy - who we all thought looked like Russell from Up!

That steam was actually sulphur dioxide and stank!

Through the gas you could see volcanic rocks

A piece of the view from the top

Quick panorama on our way up

Because today was a public holiday, the traffic down to the hotel was horrendous and a forty minute trip took over an hour and a half. So we all had a bit of a nap and enjoyed the party bus atmosphere.

Bus Ceiling Light - no idea why

We were so late to the hotel that we had half an hour from arrival to dinner. We were supposed to visit the Onsen before, but due to time that was rescheduled. What was super impressive was in that time, all three of us girls in my room managed to have showers and was our hair. Dinner was an array of different foods from Japan, no specific theme, but I was too full from lunch to really eat too much.

After dinner we had our last cultural experience of the day. The Onsen - a hot spring of approximately 42 degrees - is a relaxing public bath in which all people are completely naked. It goes against all of our western ideas of modesty and privacy but when you arrived, everyone else was naked so it didn't really seem so strange. I didn't last long in the water though, it was far too hot and made me feel a little sick from the hot humid air. I am still sweating even though I was out of the pool about an hour and a half ago. If the water was a little cooler, or perhaps if it was open air and the humidity didn't build up, it would have been very nice. It was quite relaxing.

Finally, more photos from Kimono day were uploaded tonight, so here is the collection:

IAC and us

Cleaning before Tea Ceremony

During the Tea Ceremony

Us and those that performed the Ceremony