Kelsey Family Adventures: Hakone

Day 3 (Tuesday) we drove to Hakone and bought a Freepass which entitled us to unlimited access to the Ropeway, Ropecar and Pirate ship access to viewing the Hakone area. We were so hoping to get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji today as we did 10 years ago.

We started our day out on the Ropeway. Wow, how they have upgraded it in the 10 years since Don and I went on them last. They are nice and new and not quite so wobbly or maybe it's just the company inside the cars...hmmm?

We made it to Owakudani station and got out for a little walk and quite an adventure filled with lots of smells. Don't know what this sign says but it was cute.

Of course what would a Japanese vacation be without Hello Kitty? Here are a few Hello Kitty snap shots we took along the way...

Seen from above on the ropeway, Owakudani, also called Jigokudani ("the Valley of Hell"), is a stirring sight. "Black jewel eggs," eggs cooked in the area's thermal heat sources, are a Hakone specialty. According to legend, eating one is said to add seven years to your life. Visitors to Owakudani can enjoy the authentic taste of this unusual treat.

At the top here we were 1050 meters high. The smell was awful, it was full of sulfur. What looks like smoke is not, it's the sulfur. Kyle most of the time went around with his shirt over his nose or his fingers plugging his nose but I made him take it down for pictures.

Unfortunately we did not get a view of Mt. Fuji. Here we are going down the ropeway car down the other side towards Gora. Then we got off and rode the Ropecar. Then got off and back on the ropeway to get back down Hakone or so we though. When we got back to the top on Owakudani it was cancelled due to weather and we had to find another way down. Uh, we don't speak Japanese and we already bought these all inclusive tickets do you think it paid to get us down another way? Could we walk down? NO!!! Luckily we met a nice young Japanese couple where the man spoke enough English to help us navigate our way to a city bus where we had to shell out more Yen. Thank goodness for the Suica card (Subway card), it can be used on the city bus and came in handy. We made it down and were able to make the boat tour before it stopped running for the night.

Notice how quick the clouds came in on the ropeway.....

View from the ropecar...

Ok, so we finally made it to the pirate boat which was what Kyle couldn't wait for we were like the last ones to board. Don had us run to the top so he could take a picture of us, we had to hurry so he could snap a picture and he could board which is why my eyes are closed but the funnies part was we were bombarded by a group of atleast 20 YMCA kids from Japan, Korea and other Asian places that kept saying "take picture, take picture". They all wanted to have their picture taken with Kyle and Megan. This went on for like 20 minutes, we missed the whole first part of the boat ride. They were giggling and saying how pretty Megan was and how cute Kyle was. One girl even had a polaroid and gave Megan an instand photo. Then they had Don get in the picture and me then all four of us. Never had we experienced this before. Besides a man from Australia we were the only white people on the boat so we were "famous" for picture taking I guess. It was phone. Don told Kyle to tell them it would cost them a kiss for a picture he said "Nah". He said buddy in about 10 years from now you are gonna kick yourself for saying no. But he did blow kisses to them at the end and they all "oohhed and aahhed". It was fun.