Well, let me just say, this series is going to get finished TODAY! :) I have SO much other things to blog about, but I wanted to get this trip memorialized blog-style before I post anything else. SO, here goes my attempt at brevity...
What's a trip to Tokyo without going to see Mt. Fuji? Yeah, we had to do it. Christina found a travel agency that would get us train tickets to and from Hakone and a pass to go on the cable car and pirate boat to see the sights around the area of Mt. Fuji. Cool, the boys will love that! We ended up passing on the guided tour which included a trip on the bullet train and it's a good thing we did. The bullet train would have been super cool, but it was a looong day, so I don't know if we could have dealt with the whole staying together with a group thing.
Here are the highlights:
Even though Christina and I made a "trial run" there to buy the tickets the previous day, it was still difficult to make it to the proper train station on time. We barely squeaked in on time to our "romance" train out to Hakone to see Mt. Fuji.
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| Elliott has his own seat on this "Romance Car" Train! |
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| On our way to Mt. Fuji! |
Once on the train, we found our seats. We hadn't realized that we were scattered all over the place, in different cars and everything so that was interesting figuring that out. That train ride was pretty uneventful, except for the fact Elliott made new Japanese girlfriends in their early twenties and I thought I might get motion sick. Once at the Hakone Station we had to switch trains to go up the mountain.
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| Christina and the boys on the train up the mountain. |
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| Adam, Jennifer, Deb and Elliott |
We got to ride a cable car up to a mountain that had natural sulfur hot springs. The delicacy up at the top were boiled eggs that were boiled in the sulfuric springs at the top of the mountain. We tried some! Supposedly, each one extends your life seven years. Adam's life will be nice and long now!
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| Hakone Ropeway Cable Car! |
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| Sweet Ride! |
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| Okay, the George boys are SUPER excited, the Kruse boys, eh... |
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| Looking out |
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| Beautiful scene of the town below |
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| In front of the hot springs |
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| Trying a sulfur cooked hard boiled egg |
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| Black egg! |
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They make the black eggs right behind the boys
on the mountain |
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| Yep, Hello Kitty and a black egg. A photo op NOT to be missed! |
We rode the ropeway back down to Lake Ashi and rode a pirate ship around the lake to different parts of a small touristy town. Oh, and I might add, on our trip to Mt. Fuji, WE DIDN'T EVEN SEE MT. FUJI!!! Yep, it was too cloudy. Hmmm. So I'll add a stock photo for you instead.
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| The boys playing dress up! |
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| Jack and Spencer in front of the pirate boat |
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| Ooh, fake pirates aboard, too! |
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| Cool architecture by Lake Ashi |
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| Ice cream break! |
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Stock Photo of Mt. Fuji. Beautiful, huh? Too bad we didn't see it. :(
From there, we headed back to the Hakone Train Station and back to the Kruse's house where we ordered in some FANTASTIC Indian food, yum! We were really wiped out after that trip...even though it doesn't sound all that much more strenuous that our other days. Maybe it was all just catching up to us. |
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| Waiting for the train by this beautiful river |
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| Spencer |
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I thought these flowers growing out of the rock were cool.
Pink and white flowers on the same plant... |
The very next day, Adam was heading home. He had to get back for work. We were all supposed to be going home that day, but because of full flights, we were forced to extend our vacation. Bummer! :)
We decided to do nothing aside from walking down to a neighborhood park. It was just what we needed!
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| Whee! This slide was awesome! |
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| Elliott and Will digging in the sand |
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| This climbing thing was awesome! |
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| More playing! |
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| Spencer doing some science experiments with ball rolling |
Is it really necessary for hello kitty and the black egg to take up that whole bench? How rude! Also, I love the picture of the boys in the cable car. How fun! Thanks for sharing!
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