Yesterday was one of the most enjoyable days of the trip. I said goodbye to my AirBnb where I spent the last week, and headed off for Hakone, ultimately in route to Tokyo (where I am sitting now).

The morning started with a stop at Mister Donut. We saw Mister Donut the night before and decided it was a must-stop before departing Kyoto.

The first part of the day was mostly spent on travel, moving through a few different trains and their stops to get to Hakone. I spent most of that time reading Dan Brown’s new book, Origin. Its about what I expected — moderately predictable, but a good story that feels like it was written to be a screen play. I am almost finished so we will see if my predictions were right.

Along the way, we got some views of Fuji from the train.

We arrived in Hakone with epic timing, right in the middle of a parade (Friday was a holiday of some sort). we navigated through the crowds with our luggage, turning a 15 minute walk into a 25 minute walk, but hey… life goes on.

Hakone is apparently a really popular retreat from Tokyo. My overall impression of the area was that it was over-crowded. But, safe inside my ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel), it was heavenly.

We stopped in at the ryokan but were a little early for check-in, so we left our bags and set out to explore the area a little bit before returning for dinner at 6:30. We was Nate and I, as Chinedu planned a later departure and met us in time for dinner.

Hakone is mountainous. In fact, I learned today that there was a volcanic eruption (minor) there in 2015. We took the train line, which wraps up the side of the mountain, even performing switchbacks along the way. At the top of the train line, we were close to riding the funicular “train”, so much so that we were inside waiting for departure, when we realized we should probably start the trek back so that we could make it to dinner.

We decided to walk part of the way back.

 

We caught the train the rest of the way back (just 1 stop) and then arrived at our ryokan.

I didn’t know this before planning for my trip, but a ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel. Many of them have onsens, which are natural hot springs — a perk of being situated on a volcanic island. We stayed at Hotel Fukuzimiro, which is a four star hotel.

It was, without question, the best hotel experience of my life. From the beginning…

First, you are greeted by the nicest people you have ever met… your room attendants. Throughout the entire visit, they ensure that you are not only happy, but that every last detail of your existence is undebatebly (perhaps a new word?) perfect. This includes everything from a walking tour of the hotel to serving meals to (in Nate’s case) being assisted with dressing properly for visiting the onsen.

So when you walk in the door, you sit down and take off your shoes in the lobby (duh, this is Japan) and exchange them for inside slippers. They are placed, in this cool box in a compartment associated with your room.

Nate and I split and were shown our rooms, which are simple Japanese style but very nice.

The first thing I noticed is that they had already placed my bags in my room. That’s normal for a hotel, but when I say placed, I really mean that they placed them.

Like all things in Japan, this was orderly, well-thought-out, intentional, and worth taking a picture of.

I really like the simplicity of Japanese rooms, as well as some of the elements of their architecture and construction.

Gardens are also very popular inside ryokans. This one was quite beautiful.

On to the room…

Of course, you are served tea when you walk into your room, and it is readily available throughout the evening at any time you choose. I had a nice seating area right next to the windows, complete with a view of the river. I left the window opened the entire stay and loved hearing the rushing water outside.

Before dinner, I had time to walk over and take a dip in the onsen. In Japan, nudity is not really a thing. To enter the onsen, you first have to take a thorough shower, which is done sitting down. Once you are clean, you proceed to the water.

Male and female onsens are separate, but they rotate at 7pm so that all guests have a chance to see all onsens. There is also one private onsen, which I was able to check out this morning.

And onsens are scalding hot. When I say scalding, I mean it. I was able to dip a foot in for about 5 seconds, and then I felt like I was going to emerge with burns. A few other Japanese were in the room with me, and they agreed. We ran some cold water and it eventually was tolerable. And beyond tolerable, it was amazing. I stayed around 20 minutes, and when I could take no more, I dried off and returned to my room to await attendant, who was going to fetch me for dinner.

I read for a while, drank some tea, and tried to stop sweating. Around 6:30, it was time to head to dinner in Nate and Chinedu’s room. Dinner. Was. Amazing. Best meal of the trip.

 

 

There are a few elements missing. I believe we counted a total of 7 courses.

The room attendants were awesome, doing their best to talk in English but often speaking rapid Japanese that none of us understood, but we smiled and laughed a lot. We were invited to return in 2020 when the olympics come to Tokyo. Hmmm..

After dinner, I made a return visit to a different onsen. I wish I had pictures but… you know… taking pictures around naked people..

After the onsen, I did some more reading. While we were at dinner, the room was changed to prepare the futon for bedtime. I crashed sometime around midnight and slept amazingly.