Japan - Day 4: Tokyo to Hakone (by many types of train)

Tokyo to Hakone (by subway, scenic train, mountain train, cable car, and ropeway): Catherine, Gina, and i embarked on an extremely touristy scenic adventure, carrying an unwieldy amount of luggage. The Tokyo-Hakone adventure route is a well-trodden path by which you take a scenic train called the Romancecar southwest into the mountain range west of Tokyo, then climb over Mount Hakone via an increasingly-improbable string of other types of train. We arrived at the lake and had a short walk to our resort hotel, Hanaori, whose lake views were not exaggerated. We sat on the porch and ate and enjoyed the fresh mochi we'd picked up at our lunch stop, put our feet in the foot bath on the hotel deck, then had dinner at the hotel buffet and called it a night.

bicycles seen out the window: if you don't have a bottle cage, you have to keep your coffee cup in your front basket	one last shot of our tiny hotel room in Tokyo (Gina for scale) and its great view of Ueno Park	we stopped at Delifrance again for more red bean pastry breakfast
Birds of Japan: a crane among seedpods	marsh and a walkway surround the crane	back to the picnic tables by Ueno Pond to enjoy our sesame red bean breakfast
water, marsh, cherry blossoms, city: still a great view	this sundial is off by 20 minutes	Ueno Park temple roofs
cherry blossoms and seedpods on the water	at Ueno Park, you can rent swan boats with bowties	important warning: don't feed the swan boats
something is disturbing the water in the pond	look at that	whoa
on the train to Shinjuku: these dinosaurs are clearly hugging	riding through Tokyo on the train to Shinjuku	train tracks and buildings near Shinjuku
our train to Hakone is called the Romancecar, no sorry, the Limited Express Romancecar	wall art showing historical Romancecar hardware	current Romancecar hardware
in true tourist train fashion, the banks of seats can be flipped around	leaving Shinjuku	roofs of Komae, in southwest Tokyo
bridge over the Tama River	interior of Romancecar	houses on a hill and a yard with a citrus tree
buildings and houses by a canal	houses, roofs, mountainside	after Machida, we start to see mountains in the distance
tracks and buildings near Ebina Station	past Ebina, the mountains are starting to pick up...	crossing the Sagami River
mountains, right?	a cemetery, round trees, houses, and mountains	train tracks at Isehara Station
fields, houses, and mountains	train snack: onigiri!	town in the foothills
crossing a river	hey, waitasec, that's Mount Fuji	it is enormous and the same color as the sky
you cannot miss it	but all of your photos are like 'huh, nice ... bike stand?'	large invisible Mount Fuji
medium-sized invisible Mount Fuji, behind other mountains	okay, enough of that, back to your regularly-scheduled trees and mountains	INVISIBLE MOUNT FUJI
past Odawara, things start to look very mountainy	a cemetery	tile roofs in great colors, and an alley
mountain terraces, seen from the train	riding along the Haya River	train station in the mountains
view through the train, entering Hakone-Yumoto	Hakone-Yumoto, train station and pedestrian mall	tracks for the mountain train we'll take after lunch
the wild boar is a symbol of Hakone in some way	apartment building in Hakone	mountains behind the Haya River
bridge over the Haya River	pedestrian bridge over the Haya from which i'm taking photos while we wait for our table	Birds of Japan: hanging out in a gutter
Hatsuhana Soba Honten, where we're waiting for a table	the view from our table: a green restaurant-owned space by the river	Gina got this egg and yam paste dipping sauce for her soba
my soba came in soup form, precombined with egg, yam paste, and wasabi	a building in Hakone-Yumoto	wild boar theme, you say?
pedestrian walkway and mountains	street and mountains in Hakone-Yumoto	back in the station waiting for a mountain train (please note that the floor is inclined)
Catherine on the mountain train	and we're off!	flowers and a stone wall
the train passes a shrine (Fukazawa Zeniarai Benzaiten, i think)	a bridge over the Hayakawa Gorge	we start seeing hillsides dotted with cherry trees
the train tracks run right by the cliff in many places, separated by a fence	the front of the train by a switchback	view down a valley past many rooftops
hillside dotted with many many cherry trees	the road below us curves through the trees	honestly, this could be an ad for an action movie or a warning to stay off the tracks, it works either way
a waterfall! note intimidating-looking staircase to the left	the walkway to the right of the waterfall is less steep, but also no joke	if you lived in that yellow house, you'd have an amazing view of cherry trees, but i don't envy the maintenance
mountain train tracks	we didn't get to visit the Hakone Open-Air Museum's sculpture garden, but the glimpse as the train passed looked very cool	last view from the mountain train
now we're in Gora, transferring to the cable car	in line for the cable car, a subway-style train that continues straight up the mountain on a fixed track	a train car in Gora with a friendly hedgehog mascot
Gina, on the cable car	leaving Gora	interior of cable car, note the stairstep floor
thatched roof plus round trees	looking back at rooftops and a flowering tree	a more-or-less comprehensible subway map of our route
at some of the cable car stops, they announced multiple times that there was no way to cross the tracks, so be sure to exit on the side you intend	leaves seen from the cable car	view from Sounzan Station, at the top of the cable car
you can see the cable car tracks pointing back to Gora	more cherry-blossom-dotted hillside	a house in the foothills among many types of trees
cable car track from above	view past the observation platform into the mountains	i am in this picture
the next part of our journey is on the Hakone Ropeway	this really is what i would have called a cable car, individual cars suspended from a cable	display case to reassure tourists (look, the cable you will be hanging from is very thick)
the ropeway cars were fairly large with comfortable benches	a fringe benefit of the comical amount of luggage we were carrying is that the three of us got half a car to ourselves	off we go!
view down from the ropeway toward valley and road	explanatory map showing when to look for Mount Fuji while riding the ropeway	the views of the landscape were excellent
clusters of hotels and buildings north of the ropeway track	Gina looking out the window	the view back to Sounzan and Gora below us
about to climb a steep ridge to Owakudani Station	hang on, remember what that cartoon map was saying?	MOUNT FUJI
also some seriously impressive geothermal vents	such energy. so green.	view past the ridge we're climbing
it never got less foggy, but Mount Fuji is still impressive	more geothermal vents	entering Owakudani Station
ropeway cars on the segment below Owakudani	geothermal infrastructure buildings	ropeway cables and pulleys
the last leg of our journey is descending through a forest towards Togendai and Lake Hakone	an epic shot of cable cars, trees, mountains, and Mount Fuji, foiled by late afternoon glare	our first view of Lake Hakone (the pirate ship will be discussed in more detail later)
last glimpse of Mount Fuji in the mist	descending among a number of ropeway cars	approaching Togendai Station at the edge of the lake
the view from our resort hotel room is quite acceptable	sitting area and porch of our room at Hakone Ashinoko Hanaori	view down the lake
fog rolling over the mountains at twilight	ropeway car approaching Togendai Station at twilight	raw fish appetizers at the buffet dinner (squid, octopus, yellowfin mash, mackerel with mustard, salmon with salmon roe)