Tour to Mount Hakone and Ashi Lake

 Firt Blog Post: On the way to Japan Tokyo -Day 1

Second  Blog Post : On the way to Japan - visiting Fuji-san 

Japan is a country where over 30% of the population is over sixty-five years old. The lifespan of Japanese people is longer than in other countries. Japan also has the most centenarians. Furthermore, the Okinawa prefecture has more people over 100 years old than the average for all of Japan. When scientists investigated, they found that people there consume 10% less salt than in other parts of Japan. That's one reason.  I noticed that after eating Chinese food, I'd need to drink a bucket of water. With Sri Lankan food, I'd need at least half a bucket. But after eating Japanese food, I don't feel very thirsty. They use less salt and sugar. There are other reasons for their longevity; this is just one.

 

After seeing the Fuji volcano, we went to Sounzan, a hot spring bathing facility located in the Owakudani valley, to have lunch.  It's a place where you can bathe in hot springs. You can bathe and eat here . However, we didn't go for a bath. Even though the restaurant had a buffet prepared for us, we decided to choose from the menu.  You have to take off your shoes before going inside. If you're going to Japan, don't take socks with holes in them. We went and chose a table where we could comfortably sit on the floor. For tea, they had jasmine tea and green tea station to fill as much as you like..

Since we had a huge breakfast from the hotel, we chose tempura and a soba noodle soup. Even though it looked very simple, they give you an overwhelming amount of noodles. We chose those because we'd seen them in Japanese TV shows. The tempura included a large langoustine (Norway lobster), broccoli, and two pieces of fried fish. There's chili powder on the table if you want to add some. That's enough then. The presentation is also very important in Japan.  We also drank a melon juice. Since we were wearing socks, if we went to the restroom, there were separate slippers to use. Restrooms in places like this in Japan are generally very clean. The picture was taken in front of that place.

A Ryokan is a place, similar to where we went to eat, that offers bathing, dining, and if needed, sleeping facilities, along with saunas and other amenities. It's said that these have existed since around 700 AD.

After that, we were taken to the Hakone Ropeway, also known as the cable car station, or gondola station. From here, we're going up to a station called Soun, which is directly over the Hakone volcano. The cable car, or gondola, can hold about twenty people. The trees and plants on both sides of the path going up really look a bit like Europe. The bottom of the gondola has a glass panel, so you can see straight down.

What appears as fog in the pictures is actually smoke rising from the volcano. This entire area is filled with sulfur gas, and you can smell it – it's like the smell of rotten eggs. The cable car switches at the Owakudani station. The only other place I've seen smoke coming out of the ground like this is in Iceland.

When you go up the mountain, you can eat black eggs that have been cooked or roasted in this smoke. As you ride, Mount Fuji also looks beautiful.

 

On this route, after seeing Mount Hakone and the steaming vents, we came down to Lake Ashi. This lake is actually a caldera, or a crater formed by a volcanic eruption. It's just like what I saw on Santorini Island in Greece. I've also uploaded this trip to YouTube. This lake is located in the Kanagawa prefecture. The volcano erupted in the year 1170 C.E. There are hot springs all around it.

It's forbidden to enter this lake, or caldera. While it has a depth of between 15 and 45 meters, that's not the reason for the prohibition. The reason is that the water suddenly heats up to over seventy degrees Celsius. About five hundred years ago, a samurai went for a swim. Suddenly, the water became hot. As he swam back from the middle of the lake, he was burned and died. The Shogun who ruled the country then prohibited entry into the water, and that rule is still in effect today.

There are two or three beautifully designed pirate ships available to cruise around the lake.

After that, we arrived at the Odawara train station on the same bus we took earlier. From there, we traveled from Odawara to Tokyo on a Japanese bullet train, specifically a JR Tokaido Line train. Since it travels at speeds of about 250 km/h, we reached Tokyo in about 40 minutes (compared to two and a half hours by bus). During this trip, I noticed how many apartment buildings there are in Japan. The only other time I've seen so many apartment buildings was in the former Soviet Union. These homes are cheap and small, but every building and house is kept very clean.

All the pictures were taken by me.

- Ajith 29/02/2025

On the way to Japan - visiting Fuji-san

Previous blogpost:  On the way to Japan Tokyo -Day 1

Our taxi arrived ten minutes early, and we set off to the meeting point. It was called "Love Square," whatever that means. Many people were already waiting, including numerous European and Indian tourists, some from Latin America, and a couple from Italy on their honey-moon were in our group.

The tour guide gave us a seat map. They numbered each row, consisting of four seats with two seats on each side. We sat on the right side. A few minutes later, a couple came, and the man claimed that we were sitting in their seats. I showed them we were in Row 8, but then he claimed, "Our names are on the door side and yours are on the other side." The couple in the previous row had also mixed up their seating, but they didn't mind. However, "the guy insisted," so we got up and went to the other side of the same row. (The picture shows the seating arrangements.)

The bus started moving on time. Initially, both sides of the road looked the same, and our side was the mountain side. We started taking pictures, and the tour guide said, "On your right-hand side, you can see the elusive Mount Fuji, and you can take pictures until we reach Station Five, where we stop the bus." Station Five was about 2500 meters high. Aha, I looked at the guy who asked us to get up. His face was like a lemon squeezed dry of juice. He had an expensive camera, and he was craning his neck to take that elusive picture. "Take that, Karma, baby!"

("By the way, I was just considering an alternative perspective. He was correct, and we are currently on his side. They arrived late, which made other people wait while we switched seats. The point is, he was given the opportunity to sit on the right side and he ruined it himself.)

The tour guide introduced herself to us and named the driver, asking us to clap for him, so we did. Each place we stopped, he would say hello and thank you. It's nice to be recognized and respected like that.

The Japanese call volcanic Mount Fuji "Fuji-san." "San" means man or woman. Morespective word is  "Sama", "kun" is a boy, and "chan" is a girl. Mount Fuji is a living thing for the Japanese; it is actually an active volcano.

There are so many poems and novels written about Mount Fuji, and many artists have created paintings with different angles. The Japanese artist Hokusai Katsushika made woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style and created a book called "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji."

These are some of my pictures:

Going there, I can see why it is inspirational. It's a magnificent alp of Japan, itself a mountainous country. Our tour bus stopped at Station 5. Mount Fuji itself is about 3776 meters high, so we were very close. Each year, about 200,000 hikers go to the summit. It is also a spiritual destination from a Shinto perspective, about being one with nature. Most of them are repeating the feat, although a famous Japanese proverb states that "a wise man will climb Mt. Fuji once; a fool will climb it twice."

Mount Fuji is a national symbol of Japan.

This is my poem: 

A giant bold head 

White snow spread 

to replace the white hair 

An old wise  giant 

Pride of Japan

23/05/2025 Ajith Dharmakeerthi

Station 5: