I just got out of the onsen, or hot spring bath, at our hostel in Hakone, after a very long day! The onsen is indoors, with a view of a little garden just outside, and is deliciously, almost unbearably, hot. Water trickles serenly into the stone tub, and the steam rose both from our skin and from thge cloudy water. It is all so exquisitely japanese!

We woke early from our capsules this morning, and made our way (collosal backpacks like turtle shells attached, not, might I add, an easy feat in sardined Tokyo Subways) to Shinjuku, where we caught the Romance Car. Not quite sure WHY it is called the Romance Car, not particularly LoveyDovey, though I suppose the the scenery was beautiful as we sped away from the city and suburbs towards the mountain country of Hakone. We bought a 2-day Hakone Free-pass at Odawara, which gives access to all the different types of Norimoto - transport - within Hakone, and there is ALOT of different transport! First we rode the switchback Hakone-Tozan Train (dropping of our luggage mid-way, they delivered it straight to our hostel for a phenomenly low price!) to a adorable little mountain town called Miyanos***a. Passing a handful or dusty antique shops, we ate at a dark, nondescript restaurant called Kappei, which turned out to be DELICIOUS! As we sat waiting for our meal (there were only a couple of other people there) we watched an elderly Japanese man with grey eyebrows that protruded an inch out from his wrinkled forehead make our sushi. John loved the food so much he ended up ordering a second meal! I ate inari (what else? I have been surviving off of this one type of sushi that I KNOW is vege). Johnnys first meal was a set of mixed sushi and sashimi (turns out this place is renowned for its fresh sashimi) and UNAGI (eel) for his second. I love watching him eat Japanese food - he devours it so enthusiastically, yet so thoughtfuly!

From Gora we took a cable car through thick bushes of flowers and greenery on either side up about 200m to Sounzan. The cablecar was practically overflowing with tourists, I`m surprised it was able to ascend so steeply at all! From Sounzan we took the 4km gondola ride down to Togendai. This was, we both agreed, the highlight of the Hakone route. The gondala gave us spectacular views of all around Hakone, and although it was too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji (and this was supposed to be our opportunity to see it ) we were more than content to soak in the views of Lake Ashi, the green green forests that blanket the mountains and hills below us, and the steaming, charred pits of Owakudani. You can hike through this semi-apocalypitc trail, where apparently there are heaps of signs warning travellers not to stay too long as the gases are actually poinsonous. Needless to say, we were fine just having a look from a couple of hundred metres in the air!

From Togendai we boarded a pirtate ship to Hakone-Machi. When I told John about the plan for the day he asked "Why a Pirate Ship?". Because we`re in Japan, Baby! Why NOT a pirate ship lol?!

So, with the wind whipping our frozen faces, we slowly crosses Lake Ashi (Ashi-no-ko). When we reached Hakone-machi, a quaint, tourist-orientated town we wandered around a bit before finding our bus stop. All around Hakone the mouth-watering scent of roasting sweet potatoes rises up from roadside carts - their version of chestnuts in Winter-London, I guess.

As we rode the twisting-turning road across the mountains back to Odawara, I couldn`t believe that this was the same country as Tokyo. It`s such a stark contrast, out here you are just enveloped by all the nature. John noted that although the forests initially seem no different to those in Virginia etc. in the States, this landscape is incontrivertibly Japanese. There is, I agree, just something about it. We both can`t stop singing the theme song of "My Neighbough Totoro". When we arrived at Odawara it turned out we had to go BACK the way we had just come to get to the hostel in Sengokuhara. Still, silly as I felt, at least we could watch more of the countryside, passing through towns of an odd combination of westernised culture (even passed a "Denny`s") and old-time Japanese wooden buildings. We were welcomed with the every friendly open arms of Japanese hostels into the Fuki-Hakone Guest House - and quite relieved to see our backpacks waiting there for us! Then I was rapt to find out that due to a mix-up at the Lake Villa Hostel (where I had originally booked us, but they had made a mistake on their website and were not actually open in October) we would not only be staying in a private room, the 5000 yen difference was paid for by Lake-Villa!!! The room was so cool, proper japanese with our little futon mats to roll out onto the floor. The room is simple and uncomplicated, a low table set in the centre, with two small cushions either side, and bamboo trees outside our window!