Hakone

So we're going to go back to Japan.

Maybe we'll do Kanazawa or Hakone or something outside of Tokyo.

But we definitely still want a few more days in Tokyo as well.

And then we're going to add on that trip to Guam, I think in the middle.

July 29th.

Started for Hakone.

After the railway journey there was a tram ride for several miles along the old Tokaido road.

A beautiful avenue of cryptomeria shaded it most of the way, and on one side gleams of the blue sea shone between the tree trunks.

In its building the village must be very old, and is not so Japanese looking as the buildings of the plain.

There seemed to be no gardens, but in the space between the houses grew banks of blue hydrangeas, crimson phlox and great white lilies.

After a long and rather weary pull up the hills, where the road was bad and very stony, we crested them and looked down on the lake of Hakone, girt with cryptomerias.

In the evening I was housed in an old dwelling where daimyos used to sleep when they travelled along the Tokaido, by the lake whose farther shore was cut off by driving clouds.

You want to make sure, of course, if you're traveling different times of the year, that you're going to be prepared for rain, some cooler temperatures, inclement weather and all of those things.

Places I would recommend to visit, although the country itself is beautiful, but certainly Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto are the places that we went to and Mount Fuji or Hakone.

Getting around the train is the best way to get around.

And as I said, people walk a lot in Japan as well.

If you've got a question, I've got an answer.

Points Traveler says, "The Hotel Indigo in Hakone, Japan, was interesting.

It had an onsen spa on our dock." That's nice.

Sounds cool.

Oh, speaking about...

Remember how we mentioned Evangelion? We actually stayed in Hakone.

And the Hakone Mountain is the site of Tokyo 3.

So when we went to the top of Hakone mountain where there's like a giant sulfur mine, it's famous for the, the black egg that you, if you eat it, you live like longer, which we did do that too.

Um, everything up there is Evangelion themed, like all like the, all the, the souvenirs are Evangelion themed.

Um, I actually bought a, a, a, like a Suica, a wallet for my Suica card and it's just Evangelion themed.

Yeah.

Um, chilling in the onsen in Hakone.

Fantastic.

Right.

I'm doing a few days in Tokyo.

I'm going to a ryokan up in Hakone.

And then I'm coming back to like two more nights in Tokyo before I fly back.

And when I come back, I'm staying at the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed.

So with that in mind I would charter a boat and I would sail across the inland sea of Japan and do that instead.

Uh, number 22: What's the single most cinematic road, train journey or ferry ride in Japan? Um, there's a road that goes around the, um, around Hakone and everybody going to Japan s- goes to Hakone once.

Most people don't drive there, they get the train or bus and do it that way but if you can rent a car and I think it's called the Hakone Skyline and Hakone is in a caldera in a volcano overlooking Fuji.

It's a really fascinating place, really cool like topography is next level which is a sentence that I didn't think I'd say today but the topography's great and you go on the, the rim of the volcano right? Or the skyline, the Hakone skyline and from there you can look down into the volcano of Hakone where everyone's splashing around in hot springs and having fun and then you can look beyond the summit across, um, like a chasm and over to the towering Mount Fuji four kilometers tall almost towering above.

From there you get best of both worlds looking into Hakone and looking out across Fuji.

Hakone skyline super cinematic, super fun Just pray the weather is with you because if it's cloudy, you won't see Fuji and you'll get depressed like I do every time I go and try and take a bloody photo of the mountain.

23, which part of Japan would you recommend to somebody who actively hates Japan? I mean, don't know really.

Actively hates Japan? Go to Osaka because the locals are awesome and fun and will talk to you and have a chat.