Hakone for the win!

6/15-6/16

I went on the school arranged trip to Hakone. The entire area was completely gorgeous mountains. It's definitely high up on my list of "Awesome Things/Places/Events/People/Etc. in Japan" We had a bus with a sweet little tour guide. Laura and I think she had a crush on our student guide. He was translating her Japanese into English for us and she blushed every time he talked to her.

Our first stop was Owakudani. Here we saw (and smelled) sulfur springs. Despite the smell the place was really cool. Local legend said that if you ate one of the kurodamago (black eggs-so named for the black shell they gained from being hardboiled in the sulfur vents) you would live for seven years longer...I had two. They were really delicious, I don't know if that stemmed from my hunger, the prospect of living an extra 14 years, or if they were actually different tasting because of how they were prepared. Owakudani had a whole franchise going around these black eggs: Hello Kitty wearing black egg costumes (I've determined you're not a real Japanese tourist attraction unless you have some sort of specialized Hello Kitty souvenir), egg ice cream (surprisingly delicious), black egg keychains (I bought one because my panda that's on my phone lost the bottom half of his face), etc. Since my watch battery decided to die I also bought myself a new watch. Its analog but instead of regular numbers it has kanji!

Next stop was an open air art museum. Not something I would have thought to do on my own but actually one of the highlights of the trip. There were tons of large art pieces basically strewn about the side of a mountain. Many of them were interactive, including two giant sunny side up eggs whose yolk you could bounce on. Ryan had lost his camera so we stuck together and had lots of fun taking pictures (with my camera) of each other posing with various pieces of art. After that we went to Kintoki Shrine. After a while shrines are pretty similar, but this one was unique in that it wasn't really touristy. Since it was up in the mountains we were the only people there. Gave it a very natural feel-it looked like something straight out of a Miyazaki film (we kept waiting for Totoro to jump out). The feel of the place really made you want to act reverent. Of course that didn't stop us from exploring when we saw a path leading up the mountain. Every few feet along it there were large piles of stone balanced on top of boulders and usually near tablets with kanji on them. The fact that we had no idea what they were for made it all the more exciting.

Everyone was pretty much worn out after that so we were glad to hear we were headed to our ryukan (traditional Japanese inn hotel). It was called Hakone Kogen Hotel. Each room had tatami mat floors, futon to sleep on, and yukata to wear around. We all immediately stripped down, put on our yukata, and went to the onsen before our dinner. This was a little different than the one I had been to before. For one, there was only one bath inside and one outside. Also, considering the number of people in our group (twenty something), there were a lot more naked white chicks than at my first onsen. After everyone had relaxed for a little bit we all got back into our yukatas and went to our traditional Japanese style dinner. There were little pads to sit with your legs folded underneath you (a position that didn't last long for most of us) and many small plates set in front of each seat. I can't even begin to describe all the food (mostly because I don't know what most of it was) but it tasted pretty good. There was also a karaoke machine provided for us in the room. I even got up and sang Hotel California by The Eagles with a few people...and there wasn't even alcohol involved. After that the girls all decided we wanted to see the outdoor onsen, which we took over for the night-not deliberately but I think the Japanese ladies got intimidated with all of us . It was a lot of fun and afterward returning to our rooms we had what pretty much boiled down to a sleepover. When we returned the staff had put out the futons for the four of us in our room. They were all one next to another on the floor just like sleeping bags spread out for a sleepover. We made tea (which took two tries because I put in way too many tea leaves the first time and turned the water a strange dark yellow color) and stayed up until obscene hours of the morning talking.

The next morning was a buffet breakfast and one last trip to the onsen before departing for our two stops of the day. First was Odawara Castle. Very cool, they had even converted the inside into a museum and there were suits of armor from the samurai who had lived there. For some reason in one of the courtyard areas there were monkeys (in a cage) and an elephant (Japan's oldest-also in a cage). Next was Saijo Temple. This one was really cool. We had to climb over 700 steps to get to the top where you could buy your fortune. Even though it was in Japanese we all had our student guide help us translate them-mine wasn't too bad. Unfortunately my camera had died so I don't have very many pictures, which is sad because this place had so many neat things to see. For example, Japan's largest geta (those weird shoes with the two supports-think Mugen from Samurai Champloo) and tons of statues and studying monks.

Overall Hakone was one of my favorite places so far!!!

The fog in the background is from the sulfur vents. It did not smell very good.

One of my kurodamago . It was really good and I get to live for another 14 years because of them ^.~*

Hello Kitty rocking the kurodamago style.

There is no way I can do the Art Museum justice but I want to put up pictures of some of my favorite pieces...and some of the funnier ones of me and Ryan. If you don't know why I like this one you don't really know me. dragon+person flying=what I want to be when I grow up...I don't know what that would be exactly (probably a Dragonrider of Pern ^.^) but I'll figure it out once I find a dragon

One of the first things you see when you walk in are a pair of giants eggs that you can play on.

One of my favorite pieces.

Another one of my favorites and this one I could play in.

Ryan and I having fun on art

You won't believe how bitter I am that only small kids were allowed to crawl inside of the nets. If you look closely you can probably see the Japanese children who were actually allowed to climb around in it.

I took another picture that tried to make the hand look like it was floating in air but it was blurry.

This piece was entitled "Miss Black Power"

The outside of this building was cool enough...

...but the inside was what was really impressive. You could also climb a double helix staircase to the top and look out over everything.

Kintoki Shrine

Our room at the ryukan before the futon were put out.
My roommates and I (me, Laura, Kat, and Liz) wearing our yukata at the hotel.

Japanese food of unknown variety.

photographic evidence that I did karaoke (Ryan, girl-who-happens-to-be-from-NC-but-I-can't-remember-her-name, me, Liz)

Odawara Castle. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures inside.

Some of the few pictures I managed to get at Saijo Temple.

There were so many beautiful things like this. Plus stopping to take pictures was a good excuse to stop and take a breather as we were climbing hundreds of steps.

This cool looking shrine greeted us after a few hundred steps (only a few hundred more to go)

After passing under this my camera died :(