Because I had a JR Pass, I could board a local Shinkansen to Odawara station for free and buy the Hakone Free Pass at a cheaper rate. The pass would allow me free and unlimited travel across all transportation services within the area. When I bought the pass at the tourist centre in Odawara, they even gave me free, specially designed chopsticks as a souvenir.
At Odawara, I boarded the local Hakone Tozan Railway train. First stop was Hakone Yumoto station, where I decided to go the reverse loop and boarded the local bus (also free under the Free Pass) to Lake Ashinoko where there was a giant pirate ship that sailed across the lake (normally, tourists go the other way to the sulfuric gas sites first at Owakudani before heading to Lake Ashinoko).
The bus passed through some rugged mountainous terrain before reaching the town of Moto-Hakone.
The boat terminal was nearby, and the weather freezing, but once the glamorous pirate ship arrived, it was incredibly warm inside. Given it's an actual tourist spot itself, the decor was outfitted really nicely - much better than the ferries I boarded to Vancouver Island - with its classical wood decor and pirate-themed outlays.
The boat passed through some really nice mountainous scenery as it sailed towards the other side of the lake before arriving at Togendai.
Immediately, I could transfer to the Hakone Ropeway, where it ascended towards Owakudani, where the sulfuric volcanic gas deposits were.
The Ropeway offered stunning views of the Hakone region and, despite being a fairly cloudy day, even offering glimpses of Mt Fuji itself.
At Owakudani, I had an early lunch. Impulsively, because it looked good on the pictures, I went for the red-looking bowl of ramen with the sulfuric gas-boiled eggs the area was famous for. Then I started eating it. It was the spiciest bowl of soup noodles I've ever had the pleasure (if you could even call it that), let alone ramen, of eating. But it was really good. Five glasses of cold water later, I managed to finish the bowl (of course, there was no chance in getting me to finish the soup, what with my mouth burning like fire...).
After that ramen run, I went up to Owakudani where the volcanic gas deposits were. It was a short hike up the area, littered with signs warning those with health conditions, especially those with breathing conditions, to seriously reconsider going up (sulfuric gas is technically poisonous if inhaled too much).
There indeed was a lot of gas clouds in the area, although it seems the locals have gotten used to it by now. Of course, as you'd expect, the tourists were out in full force, happily taking pictures of the gas deposits and the surrounding valley.
What I also came here to do was to try out their famous hard boiled eggs. Coming in packets of five, they're black in colour as a result of the mountainous sulfuric gas deposits. Apparently, eating one adds five years to your lifespan, but that's most likely a marketing gimmick and less of a scientific fact. Curiously, I bought a packet and proceeded to the provided tables where there were also a number of fellow tourists peeling off the shells and eating the eggs. Practically speaking, once you peel off the black shell, it's just a regular hard boiled (white) egg, although the yolk was more chromed in colour. Apart from a slight hint of mountainous sulfur, the taste wasn't any different to a regular hard-boiled egg. At least the pack of five eggs meant I could leave some for next day's breakfast, although I couldn't bring any back to Melbourne: quarantine would kill me anyway for bringing in live dairy foodstuff, and the expiry date was the next day anyway.
I also had the chance to try out the onsen manju, a small morsel of red bean paste wrapped in a sweet, caramelised pastry. The lady warmed one up for me after I bought it and it was seriously the most wonderful morsel of goodness I've tasted, a feel-good sweet warmth in your mouth. The soft pastry just melts in your mouth and you're left with the sweet red bean texture. So good, that I bought a six-pack of them to take home.
After Owakudani, I boarded the Ropeway again towards Sounzan station, where I transferred to the Hakone Cablecar for Gora.
There really isn't anything much at those stations, apart from a nice valley view from the carpark at Sounzan and a few cultural and art galleries at Gora - the latter I didn't admittedly have too much of an interest in. In the end, I took the Hakone Tozan railway back to Hakone Yumoto station, which ended up being a significantly long journey as the train had to keep backtracking due to the entire route being single track. The entire journey took 45 minutes for what is roughly 15km.
Outside Hakone Yumoto station, there was this nice bakery called Sagomiya that sold some mountain brownies. I haven't had one for a while so I bought two to eat. Great stuff; the walnuts work well here.
After Hakone, since it was still quite early in the afternoon, I decided then to head down to Nagoya for some rather last minute shopping at the SKE48 store. Getting off at Odawara, I changed to the Shinkansen towards Nagoya and after buying a few things, immediately went back to Tokyo. Of course, this meant having dinner on the train but as far as squeezing every last penny of your JR Pass, this is probably the ultimatum - 5 hours (and ¥25000) worth of Shinkansen trips just for measly monthly photosets at the SKE48 store.
The good thing about Japanese train travel though, especially with larger stations like Nagoya, is that you can do all your errands and shopping there (groceries, ATM, dinner, etc - there's even a Sofmap store inside Nagoya Station for all your electronic and media needs) without needing to head back home first (Tokyo). Everything you need is located inside the station, or at least within short walking distance outside of it.
Breakfast: Yesterday's cheesecake
Canned coffee of the day: Roots Aroma Revolut (3/5 - higher cost due to larger bottle can but still doesn't taste that much different to regular cans)
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