7/16/2023

Hello Blog Readers,

This morning we left Osaka and took the Shinkansen up to Hakone, which is an onsen town in the Japanese countryside. The town is near an iconic lake called Lake Ashi, and on clear days the lake offers incredible, expansive views of Mt. Fuji. The town is also famous in the anime world as being the home of “Tokyo-3,” a fictional “new” Tokyo city that humans are working to build following the destruction of the original Tokyo and much of the world by alien forces, in the famous and iconic anime known as Neon Evangelion Genesis. Evangelion is one of my favorite anime shows. If you’ve never seen it before, check it out! It’s on Netflix. Anyways, a statue referencing the Evangelion connection greets you in the town.

The forecast for the day was showing sunshine and clear skies, so we were excited. We were also excited because we would be spending the night at a ryokan – a traditional Japanese hotel.

We made it to Hakone around 2 pm. The town sits in a deep, verdant canyon (sort of like how the town of Dunsmuir does in California), and all around the sounds of nature could be heard. Gorgeous hydrangeas and wildflowers grew naturally in their native habitat within the canyon, providing a range of color to the scene, and trams and ropeways crossed the canyon and helped visitors navigate the area. It’s a stunningly beautiful place. We made our way up to our ryokan, dropped our bags off seeing as it was too early for us to check in, and headed to the nearest ropeway to cross over the canyon and down to the shores of Lake Ashi.

Hakone is a famous onsen town in Japan, and so everywhere you can faintly smell the geothermal sulfur that heats the area’s hot spring waters. As our ropeway climbed over the canyon, it passed by a majestic volcano. We made it to the other side of the volcano and then…an “oh no!” sensation came over us. Though being a clear day, a cold, heavy fog had developed over Lake Ashi, blocking views of both the lake and Mt. Fuji. We would be unable to see the famous mountain and lake views today. We took a quick photo of the foggy lakeshore, and turned around and headed back towards our ryokan.

Luckily the ryokan offered plenty to do for the rest of the day. Here, we relaxed, drank phenomenal sake and sparkling wine, enjoyed our private, in-room onsens, and were served a traditional, multi-course Japanese ryokan dinner, known as a keiseki. The hotel itself is also just gorgeous, and maintains a good balance of celebrating tradition while offering modern comfort. It’s been amazing here, and by breaking away from the city we for the first time feel like we’re at a place that is authentically Japanese.

Anyways, let’s hope that this fog breaks up so that we can see the lake and Mt. Fuji in the morning. Otherwise, it’s off to Tokyo!

Cheers,

-Rob