Japan Day 9: Odawara, Mishima, and Hakone

January 9.

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All good things come to an end, and hanging out with Vivian ends today, sadly. My train leaves Tokyo station at 6:26am, so, as per usual on my trip, Checkout happens so early there usually isn't someone even at the front desk. Conveniently though, most hotels have an automatic checkout machine that just eats the room key, making this process super efficient.

The tricky thing I know about going into today is timing. This is the night I booked the super fancy Ryokan, and check in is at 3pm. Typically, I've been going to the hotel in the morning, dropping bags and running around until about 7-8pm, but in this case, I actually want to be at my hotel at 3pm and stay there for the rest of the day. Dinner is on a strict schedule at the Ryokan as well, so if I don't arrive by 6pm the latest, I might miss out on my meal. Meanwhile, there's a few sights in the area I'd like to see, which includes some of the art museums in Gora.

What I learned on arrival to Odawara station is that the train that climbs the mountain to Gora was heavily damaged during the Typhoon last summer, and is being replaced by busses. The bus schedule is fairly easy to understand with the help of Google Translate, but it looks like Gora is going to be significantly trickier to travel through than I initially thought. If I had a car rental any day of my trip, this day would be the day for it.

Instead, I took off for the lake that's down the mountain from Gora, Lake Ashi. Lake Ashi itself sits at over 700m above sea level, and sits in the crater of an old volcano, ten miles southeast of Mount Fuji.  My plan at Lake Ashi is to take the pirate ship from the north side, soak in the sights along the way, and then disembark and head into the Hakone shrine on the south side. But before I can even buy tickets for the pirate ship (essentially just a fancy ferry), I notice an advertisement for this thing called the "Skywalk," at 400m long it's "the longest suspension bridge in Japan" that is in the shadow of Mount Fuji. I need to go to this.

As I bought my tickets for the pirate ship, the woman selling me them gave me directions for the bus that will take me to Mishima, and that the bus uses the Skywalk as a station, so it's very easy transit. Right now though, I'm going on a pirate ship called "Royal II" across Lake Ashi for my first close-up view of Mount Fuji.

Pirate Ship Cruise with Mount Fuji, Lake Ashi.

On Arrival to Hakonemachi, I was able to basically instantly hop on the bus to Mishima and ride down to the Skywalk. Yes, on several occasions I quoted Star Wars to myself, as walking over the bridge would make me a "Skywalker." The bridge is only wide enough for about 3 people to walk shoulder to shoulder, but even though it's not massive by any means, it's a beautiful walking bridge. The views down to Mishima on the shore are gorgeous, but the big ticket item is the view of Mount Fuji. Mishima Skywalk is actually further away from Mount Fuji than Lake Ashi (as the crow flies), but where it's outside of the crater, it's view is spectacular.

Arrival to the Skywalk, Mishima.

Bigger Better view of Mount Fuji on the Skywalk, Mishima.

Super Panorama Photo from the center of the Skwalk, Mishima.

I bought an ice cream from the stand at the bus stop, mostly because it was pretty, and took a bus to Moto-Hakone station, which is just the next stop after where I left the cruise ship, saving me a 20 minute walk. It's just a quick little walk around the corner before I arrived at Hakone shrine, hidden in the woods along the lake. There's a Torii in Lake Ashi that makes for an solid photo op, but the line was too long for my liking, so I planned my way back to Odawara and hopped on a bus.

Hakone Shrine Torii, Lake Ashi.

My arrival back in Odawara was 2pm, which meant I had time for a quick bowl of ramen and two options. Option 1) Go straight to the Ryokan for arrival at 3pm. Option 2) Go to Odawara Castle first,  and arrive at the Ryokan around 5pm. Quick Math time. If I stay at the Ryokan the full length I can, 3pm-9am when I need to catch my shuttle, that's 18 hours. $470/18 = $26.11/hr. Is Odawara Castle worth it's entrance fee to the tower $4 AND $52.22? The answer: Yes, YOLO.

Odawara Castle Gate, Odawara.

Odaware Castle Main Tower, Odawara.

Odawara Castle dates back to the late 1400's and has had several demolitions and restorations through the years, whether through, battle, earthquake, or political reasons. The current standing Odawara Castle was built in 1960 with reinforced concrete, and restored and updated between 2014-2016. The palace grounds are beautiful, but most of the flowers and trees are not at their peak beauty, being the winter, and there's a shrine in the lower corner. What's really cool are the exhibits in the palace tower (no photos allowed), and the view from the observatory (photos allowed).

View from Odawara Castle observatory, Odawara.

Finally, it's time to go to the Ryokan, and my time at the Castle wasn't too bad, as my arrival at Yama No Chaya was at 4:44pm. Google maps gave me an address for the place, but for some reason wasn't showing up right in the app (looking at in now it's correct), but the concierge at the Ryokan it took me to was very kind in giving me the correct directions to YNC, which was across a suspension bridge over the Haya River, and up the hill. Where I told the Ryokan I should be arriving around 3pm, they were expecting me, and two of the bellhops ran down the hill to help me with my bag. I really didn't need/expect them to take it, but they were very friendly and willing to help, so I let them.

Yama No Chaya spares no expenses when it comes to guest services. When I reserved the room through their site, it required me to put all my information in advance, food restrictions, special requirements, and passport (passport usually happens on site), but they want their guests to be able to relax from the start, so the only thing required of me on arrival, is take my shoes off. No shoes in the Ryokan anywhere, but there are slippers available.

I have my own personal assistant for the entire time I'm at the Ryokan, and she'll also be the one who prepares my room for dinner and breakfast. I feel bad, but I honestly don't remember her name because I am awful with names (I had to look up who Vivian's friend's name was on Facebook...). She brought me to my room, and quickly went over the details of YNC and the facilities they offered, which included my own personal hot spring in my room, as well as the 4 public onsens in the facility. One of these onsens is blocked out as private use only by appointment, which they have 2 appointments still available. One would be at 5pm, right now, and the other at 8pm after dinner. I chose right now.

Me, Skull Crab, Snorlax, and Mountain Dew in an Onsen together, Yama No Chaya, Hakone.

Just a boy enjoying his hot spring, Yama No Chaya, Hakone.

There are some numbers floating around stating that 55% of onsens in Japan don't have any rules pertaining to tattoos, and of the 45% remaining, some have special rules, such as using a different bath than the public normally uses, so there's a minority of onsens with full restriction to tattoos (and some onsens go even further with a no-foreigner policy as well). YNC doesn't have a tattoo policy, so I don't have to worry about other guests and my tattoos. There are a few simple steps to using an Onsen:

1. Get naked, no swimsuits allowed. Bring a towel, but do not place it in the water.
2. Rinse off before entering the hot spring. You're sharing the water, so be clean.
3. Enjoy the warm healing properties of the hot spring.
4. Leave the hot spring, shampoo, body wash, etc.
5. Enter the hot spring again, soak in the warmth.
6. Towel dry, robe back on, return to room.

There are other basic rules too, like: No jumping, diving, running, drinking, glass, eating, cell phones, splashing, etc. As long as you see the onsen as a standalone chill place to rest and relax, you'll be fine. Drink at the bar, eat in your room, relax in the bath, it's easy! 

Speaking of eating, as soon as my private bath hour was over, dinner was ready to be served. Now I knew going into this that the food is prepared on site by their chef, and that the selection would be sourced locally, but I didn't realize dinner would be EIGHT COURSES. Eight courses of the best food I've ever had in my life, going from sweet to savory to tart, and everything in between. I specifically didn't photograph any of it, because that would pull away from the experience, but man that cuisine put me on another plane of existence.

The rest of the night involved a lot of relaxing, and a lot of hanging out in my own private hot spring. I spent 1/3 of my hotel budget on this one place, and let me tell you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Good Night!

Private Bath in my room, Yama No Chaya, Hakone.

January 9 by numbers:

• Photos: 341
• Miles walked: 10
• Steps: 20266
• Total Calories Burned: 4077
• Bowls of Ramen: 1

-Joe