My room attendant was back this morning. I woke up about 3 minutes before she came to serve breakfast.

After breakfast, there was time for one more trip to the onsen. I landed the private on this time.

Unfortunately we had to check out and head out for the day, but I would have liked to stay at the ryokan for the rest of my life. I will go back, for sure.

Heading to the front, I found everyone’s shoes laid out so that they were ready for them to depart.

Hakone has a bit of a circuit, which we did in clockwise fashion.

We took the bus up the mountain to Lake Asti. That’s short for something longer, and I am not in the mood to google it right now.

The way to travel on Lake Asti is… you got it… pirate ship!

The ship deposits you at the rope car, which is basically a gondola that takes you over a volcanic area. It was closed yesterday due to volcanic gasses, but open today. Woohoo!

Yea, nobody did that.

I can’t tell you why they built things all over the volcanic area. Power maybe?

Not sure who the lady is.

To complete the circuit, we took the funicular back down the mountain and then the train back to our ryokan.

After returning for a last visit to the ryokan to get our bags, we headed to Tokyo. On the way we grabbed some Udon for lunch at Odawara station. Yum!

And you’re up to date. I am sitting in the hostel in Tokyo drinking a beer and writing. Nate and I will probably head out to grab dinner in a bit. Chinedu is off doing a cooking class in Kyoto, and will arrive late tonight (and fly out tomorrow).

Cheers!