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Back to Sendai for a visit and then to Hakone to explore more of Japan's nature and mountains!
Sendai
We started by heading down to Sendai by plane from New Chitose airport, and then we met up with our friends Hiro and Yuko for supper again! Yuko chose a good place, and Hiro made good choices in what he ordered, and of course it's always nice to go out with friends (and have more people to talk with!). Jesse and I were wearing our t-shirts from Shiretoko, because I know Yuko is going to visit at the end of July. (And they are incredibly cute!)
While also we spent another full day in Sendai, it was filled with visiting our favourite cafe, I visitied Hiro at his cafe to chat some more, and both Jesse and I had dental appointments (such fun!). We also tried to visit our favourite restaurant named Paraiso Curry which serves delicious Indian curries, but they were closed again. It's the 2nd? 3rd? time we have tried to go back since we moved to Hiroshima. The owners were really sweet and we would love to see them one more time before we leave, and the food was delicious too. Fingers crossed that we can make it to Sendai one last time when they are open!
Travel to Hakone
After Sendai, it was a busy day of travel to our ryokan in the Hakone mountains. Hakone isn't far from Tokyo, so we started by taking the Shinkansen from Sendai into Tokyo, and then we took a rapid train (which is a local train that skips some stops). After that we took the local busses into the mountains proper. While I liked driving in Hokkaido, I was very glad someone else was driving through all the narrow and steep hairpin turns through the mountains.
We arrived at our ryokan early enough that the visitor center nearby was still open so we went there and learned a little bit about the natural area of the mountain, and we scoped out the ropeway and pirate ship terminal. On our way back to the ryokan for supper we found a path into the woods by a bus stop so we followed it for fun. It led to a lookout which was neat, and then as we took a road back we found some very fancy houses.
Kaiseki
For supper we had the traditional Japanese meal of kaiseki. This time however, instead of having a dedicated dining room we were served our meal in our room and all the courses were provided at once. I liked that you didn't have someone checking in on you throughout the meal, but I also found it really overwhelming to have so many dishes on the table at once. The only thing we weren't served initially was dessert. When we were ready we called the front desk and only then did they clear the dishes and bring us our dessert course.
Rainy Day in Hakone 🌧️
We have had pretty good weather considering it's the rainy season, but it sure earned it's name today. We were supposed to go for some hikes or up the ropeway but it poured all day long. The sheer volume of water over the course of the day was incredible, but regardless, we still got up and headed out. First up was "The Crafthouse" which is a place with a bunch of workshops to both make and sell a range of things. There was a pottery painting studio, a glass bead studio, and a couple others. I spent the morning at the pottery studio painting, while Jesse braved the weather to explore around nearby a bit. Hakone is known for their woodworking including a technique called Yosegi zaiku which uses pieces of different woods assembled in geometric patterns to make patterned veneers. The veneers are then applied to things like trays, tissue box covers, and wooden puzzle boxes. By the end of our trip, Jesse had a couple puzzle boxes, and we had a wooden magnet for our fridge.
After a curry lunch (which was especially appreciated on a cold rainy day) we visited a museum for one of the many Edo-era checkpoints through the Hakone mountains called the Hakone Sekisho. See, there were very strict controls over who could leave the capital, particularly for noble women since in order to control their husbands, the women and children had to live in Edo (now Tokyo) full time while their husbands were required to spend half the year in Edo and the other half in their personal districts. The long processions of everyone going back and forth doubled as a way to make the lower samurai spend a lot of money and kept them from accumulating wealth. The checkpoints also allowed the shogun to control what weapons made their way into Edo but when we visited it was raining so much we didn't want to take out our phones for pictures. The website has some pictures from a much sunnier day if you are interested though!
After visiting Hakone Sekisho, we went back to the hotel and got ready to go for supper. Our shoes had gotten soaked, so we weren't looking forward to putting them back on, but the ryokan staff had dried them out! They had these small heated fans which you could place the shoes on and the warm air was blown through the shoes to dry them. And then, they lent us rainboots to go out for supper which was marvelous since there was so much water in the gutters and on the roads it was ankle deep in many places. (Above: the gardens at The Crafthouse)
Hakone Shrine
Thankfully the rain let up the next day while we visited Hakone shrine. First, we took the bus from our ryokan a few stops down the road to the ropeway terminal which is also one of 3 ports for the pirate themed boat that runs across lake Ashi. The lake is in the caldera of the volcano which formed Hakone mountain, and is filled by rain and water runoff from the surrounding mountains. After taking a boat to the Hakone Shrine stop, we were able to stash our overnight bag in a coin locker which is always appreciated, and then we walked to the tori gate in the water. Jesse wanted to take a picture with his drone so while he waited in line there, I walked up the over 100 steps to the main prayer space. It was a somewhat grey day, but the shrine was still busy! The commercial area near the shrine is very much the main touristy zone so there were a number of places to rent paddle boats most of which are swan themed, so it makes for an interesting contrast to have the majestic tori gate in the water with pretty nature all around, and a cluster of swan paddle boats all around the base.
After the shrine and a quick perusal of the stores, we headed back to Asahikawa (via 1 bus, 2 trains, 1 plane, 2 more trains, and a 20 minute walk).
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