HELLO HAKONE:
Hakone-Yamoto, Hakone, Japan.
October 16th, 2013, 7:21pm.
Well, we've arrived in Hakone! My god, it's so beautiful here. If you don't know where Hakone is, you can type it into Google maps or something and you'll see where it is. It's South West of Tokyo, South East of Mt. Fuji, and it's close to the Pacific Ocean. Its surrounded by mountains and lush green forests. Our train ride here was an experience in itself. Well, once we left our Ryokan in Asakusa, we made our way back to "The Electronic City." Akihabara! We wanted to buy a cheap camera or something so that I could continue documenting our trip. Akihabara is known for having really good prices, and most stores are easy to bargain down a bit. We found a locker at the Akihabara Station so that we didn't have to lug our suitcases around the whole time. We walked around for a little bit, and finally decided to ask someone for directions. They spoke a little English, but their first language wasn't Japanese- it was French! I was able to communicate with them much easier in French than in English! And they spoke Japanese so we were all able to communicate using common languages. It was awesome. It's moments like that that make me thankful that my parents put me in French Immersion. We figured out where to go thanks to them! I thanked them in French, and walked towards a giant store called "Yodobashi Camera." It was massive!!! Thankfully the camera section was only on the 3rd floor. We browsed a little, and I found the same camera I had (one version newer) at a pretty good price. It came with the body, 1 lens, all the necessities i.e. battery, charger, cable, etc., for a little over 65,000 yen. The exchange rate it about 92,000 yen for 1000 Canadian dollars, so that's about 700 Canadian. However, there was another deal beside it, where you get a 500 dollar "mega-zoom" lens added to that deal for a total of about 90,000 yen. Thats about 978 bucks. Was it a good deal? Was it a good value? I didn't really know. I considered the whole thing while Real consulted my mom via text. The lenses I buy can be used on my camera that I already have, so I can always sell the extra camera and extra lens when I get home. And the memory cards I have work with this camera... Being the bargainer I am, I managed to get them to sell that deal to me for 79,000 yen. (860 Canadian dollars.) This shop was duty free, which was a plus. And if you buy the deal with the two lenses, you get a free camera bag! Which was good too because I had already shipped my camera and camera bag home! The only thing that upset me was that I probably could have kept the UV filter, and the lens, and only bought a body- which would have saved us quite a bit of money. Oh well. We'll figure it out when we get back. And I mean, $860 is pretty good for a whole camera, plus two lenses! Especially if the one "mega-zoom" one is worth 500 bucks! We checked to make sure everything worked properly, because apparently is doesn't come with a warranty. (That concerned my mom a little bit, but I think Real reassured her that it'd be okay!) And hey, with this new lens, maybe I'll get that awesome shot of Mt. Fuji that I wouldn't have gotten with my other camera! Who knows! Happy and hungry, we left the Yodobashi Camera store and found a restaurant to eat at before out journey to Hakone. We ate, and made our way to Shinjuku. It's kind of a long story of how we ended up in Hakone, so I'll keep it simple. Basically, the internet told us to go to Shinjuku Station to go to Hakone. That was wrong, so we had to detour to another station. From Shinagawa, we took a bullet train to Odawara. BUT- we got on the wrong train!!! Luckily, this one was going to the same place as the one we were supposed to go on. It set us back a bit, since the one we were supposed to get on was a direct line, and this one had a couple stops along the way. Oh well! It gave us more time to enjoy the scenery passing by! We got to Odawara, and had to transfer to a different line. This was a much different experience, since this tiny little local train went a fraction of the speed of the 300/mph bullet train! We arrived in Hakone-Yatamoto, and walked to our new hotel. This one is called the Hakone Senkei. The walk here was so absolutely gorgeous! It felt like walking through a Banff resort, only tropical!!! You could tell the forest was so deep, because you could see into a couple areas. And no where on the mountains were bare! They were all covered in an assortment of trees! I could hear the roaring sound of a river nearby, and sure enough, once we turned a corner to walk across a bridge, we saw the craziest river setting I think I've ever seen in my life! It's so hard to explain! The river is almost like a waterfall- rushing downward at a fairly steep angle. The ground on which it flows down is natural on one side, but man made on the other, making it look modern and intriguing. The man made side has rounded, mossy stairs for the water to run down, and the other side looks like a normal river. It's so abstract to look at, and the surroundings make it a hundred times more beautiful! There are Japanese style buildings all over. They were all dimly lit by lanterns and street lights as the sun was setting upon our arrival. It was breathtaking. I found it hard to navigate through to find out hotel, because I was so captured by the environment! We arrived at the Hakune Senkei, which is such a treat compared to our stay at the Ryokan in Asakusa. It's very Japanese. We entered our room, which has a table and pillows for you to eat on the floor. The beds are made across the room, but in the closet, there are extra sheets in case you want to sleep on the floor like a traditional Japanese household. I think I might do that, just for the experience! Real says we can do that in Kyoto, though. They provide these house coats that also look very Japanese. You can see them in the picture of this blog. I'm sitting at the table on the floor drinking green tea! I love it! I can't wait to explore the rest of this area. We're thinking of doing a gondola tour through the mountains. I'm especially excited because apparently, the best time to see Mt. Fuji is directly after a typhoon. That is when the view is the clearest. What perfect timing! Maybe that crazy storm wasn't such a bad thing after all! Well, I should go now. I think we're about to go exploring Hakone by night, and maybe try to find something tasty to eat. Hope all is well where ever you are!
Love always,
Lindsay Lehr