of fish and sulfur and random arrests

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A weekend. Away from my apartment. A chance to finally be outside, to ride trains and buses and apparently, a ropeway. To try new things, see new places, visit with an old friend, relax a bit, make a fool of myself and laugh at things that are just so "Japan."

Yes, a weekend trip to Hakone (Kanagawa Prefecture) planned for the first weekend of April, with a friend I clicked with right away after arriving in Japan, and who I hardly get to see, as she lives rather far from me. So we planned. Wrote excited facebook messages back and forth. Exclaimed our perpetual ruts and need to get out into the world and laugh again. If it sounds over-dramatic, well, it probably is.

The weekend started off with my first long train ride since going to the U.S. in December. It lasted about an hour and a half, all of which I unfortunately had to stand. This was a Saturday morning, and when I saw the train before mine leave the station empty, I was happy that I would find a seat on my train. However, this was not the case, as the train was completely packed, and not one person got up from any of the seats the entire way. Not even at the big cities that most people get off at. No - I stood. And stood. And stood some more. Sometimes I sighed loudly when no one got off at the stops. Where were all these people going? I will never know. I was at the second to last stop on the train line when I got off... so my only assumption is that they were ALL going to Tokyo - the slow way.

Met up with my friend, bought a travel pass, and hopped on the bus for a fifty minute ride up into the mountains. And for some reason, the roads are ridiculously windy. No, the stereotypical kind of windy that you see in cartoons. Where the car tips at the edge. That's sometimes what the bus felt like. As someone recovering from motion sickness, I had to resist the urge to hurl. At least I had brought a pack of saltines, and quickly downed them, hoping that would help out my stomach.

If you are waiting to hear me say that I actually threw up, well, sorry, but I didn't. I survived, and we got off the bus in Moto-Hakone, exclaiming over the slight dip in temperature from where we had been just an hour ago.

After a soba lunch and some sweet potato ice cream, we hopped back on a bus to Yunessan, a water park. There are two parts to the park, an onsen (where you strip down to your birthday suit) and a public bath/pool area. They've got all kinds of baths, waterslides, pools, etc. Our eyes got big as we entered the giant building, giggling excitedly and then tried to navigate our way to the entrance. My friend noted the way the building was laid out, that every floor below the entrance was essentially a "tourist trap." Since, you have to pass through the shops and whatnot to get to the entrance. (Well, then she bought some socks.)

Our afternoon was spent lazing away in various baths, including coffee, wine, sake and green tea baths. Not to be outdone by beverages, a charcoal bath also persuaded us to try it, and a walking bath (you just walk through hot water over awkwardly bumpy rocks that really just hurt your feet). Kids were everywhere, screaming and splashing everyone around them. For some reason the parents take them to all the baths instead of just leaving them in the pool areas with the "spa guards."

Aside all the dead skin flakes in the baths, they were quite nice and relaxing. I suspect the green tea and wine baths were really just color-dyed, although one brave kid actually dipped his hands in and drank some of the "wine" water. He didn't really react, although he didn't try it again.

We also were wondering if the wine had gotten to one couple, who looked all too absorbed in each other and putting on such a PDA show that I almost felt like we weren't in Japan for a moment. And of course, the entire time they were doing this, two blond girls across the bath were snickering and staring at them. (Would you bet that one of those girls was me?)

After we had our fill of skin-flake baths, the next logical stop was to have our dead skin taken care of. Japan (and many other countries) have what some call "doctor fish" - little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. It was our first time doing this, and I was absolutely ecstatic over the fact that fish would want to just eat away my dead skin. They do all the work! As we dipped our feet in the fish pool, the fishes swarmed around my feet and went nuts. Felt like little electric jolts, but it wasn't painful or anything, tickled mostly. When they told us it was time to stop, the fish didn't seem to want to let go... They seemed to love my feet more than anyone else's in the pool. Though some may think it sounds disgusting, I was happy - at least they took good care of my feet. They were so nice and smooth afterward.

Next was the onsen, to clean off the rest of the dead skin flakes and relax in actual clean water. After drying, was fresh fruit juice, churros, and relaxing. Then, decided we should head to the hotel, which took us twice as long as it should have, as we exited the back of the giant building, walked in a complete circle and ended up in the front of the same building (laughing, at the fact we had just walked around the building). Walked to the wrong hotel and then headed back to our starting point to take a shuttle (that we didn't know about beforehand) from the water park to our hotel. All this while still not having eaten dinner, and concerned we would miss dinner time and have to eat convenience store food. Though, all ended well, as a yakitori restaurant was open until 9:30. The sakura (cherry blossom) ice cream I had for dessert was amazing (and sadly I don't have a picture of it to share with you).

Sunday was filled with tourists as we took the "tourist" loop from where we were back to where we started the day before. A cable car from Gora to Sounzan. The ropeway from Sounzan to Owakudani to Togendai. A pirate ship (ferry) from Togendai across Lake Ashinoko back to Hakone-machi. Normally, the views are spectacular and Mt. Fuji can be seen up close and personal, however, the entire day Sunday was cloud-covered, thus leaving me to sigh heavily over missing a perfect chance to capture Fuji-san. The clouds and haze still provided an interesting backdrop though, mysterious and intriguing all at the same time.

The cable car, at Sounzan (the top of the mountain).

The Hakone Ropeway - longest ropeway in the world.

Ropeway in action:

Going over the infamous "sulfur pit" to Owakudani.

In Owakudani, they boil eggs in the sulfur hot springs, turning them black. The legend goes that eating these eggs adds seven years to your life. In any case, I'm sure they make people cheerful, as the egg is so happy and cheerful itself:

Where they boil eggs:

Down to the lake to meet our pirate ship.

The pirate ship:

By this time, we had been standing in lines for awhile, surrounded by overly-exuberant Japanese people, loud, ignorant foreigners and screaming children, and really both just wanted to go home and sleep. Our patience had dwindled, our excitement lost. Even the crisp, freezing cold mountain air was making us cranky. We probably sounded like two old women, walking around and grumbling loudly about the crazy Japanese people who always cut us off or stop in the middle the walkway and cause a traffic jam, and the foreigners who just get in the way and never shut up. Even I, someone who loves children, felt like throwing them overboard or grabbing their arm and scaring them into silence. We were unhappy, tired, and cranky, we knew it, we were being impatient, and we didn't care.

So would I recommend taking the typical tourist loop in Hakone? No. I would say, do everything the tourists won't typically do. Unless you really want to ride the ropeway. I must admit, that part was pretty interesting. The cable car definitely wasn't, however. Perhaps you may want to try a sulfur-cooked egg. I passed, as eggs just aren't my thing. I honestly don't know what intrigues people to walk through sulfur gas-filled stench to see a bunch of orange rock and sulfur hot springs, but I suppose it was interesting in its own pungent way. I was happy to bring home a new Kitty-chan mug from Owakudani to add to my collection.

After all of this, and a sickening bus ride back down the mountain, and 45 minutes on the train whilst having to pee, I hopped off at a random station to use the restroom and get a quick snack. I see a police car pull over a car on the road just outside the train tracks. The police inquire the man, then practically drag him out of the car and put him in the back of the squad car. The two women and children hustle out, worried looks on their faces, watching. Eventually, when the police don't get out of their car, the women and children take off walking down the street. I tried to non-nonchalantly walk down the platform in order to get a better view without tipping off the policemen I was prying, while greedily stuffing Pocky in my mouth, but when I wasn't looking, the pulled-over car had disappeared, and the man was gone from the back seat. Perhaps they let him go? The next time I glanced over the police car was gone too. I have no idea what happened exactly, if they were just speeding and the man didn't comply with the cops or something, but then again, I haven't really sat and watched Japanese police pull speeding cars over. Maybe it's standard procedure. (I doubt it). Random, yes.

Now that this post is longer than my weekend, I should probably end it. The other funny stories shall come next time. If you can wait that long.