Some days you wake up and decide to do something really weird, and for my photographer this happens every other day. I am always up to go along for the ride as I love how memorable these adventures are. This crazy idea was to use as many different forms of transport as possible to get to our next destination, like the Grand Theft Auto challenges but without the bad driving.
This adventure began at 7am like most other Japanese adventures because we wanted to try and avoid the worst of the heat. I left the comfort of Hotel Gracery and waved goodbye to my suitcase which was travelling to Tokyo by lorry (transport form number 1). My photographer and I jumped on 2 subways (not at the same time) and headed across to Kyoto station. I wasn’t ready to leave Kyoto but I didn’t have any extra time to extend my stay. However, it is a great excuse to visit again in the future. The sadness didn’t last for long because I was once again going to ride on the Shinkansen (happy dance).
Transport number 3 came with a very unhealthy 7eleven second breakfast of chocolate éclair and matcha latte. I never realised a blue dinosaur could love a green drink so much. This was made better when I was finally able to recreate my photographer’s favourite scene from Spirited Away. The train zoomed across a huge bridge over the biggest body of water I have ever seen, like riding a train across the ocean. A magical moment made better by the kind Japanese man in the seat next to me pointing out Mount Fuji, which was appearing from behind the clouds. I was just excited to be heading to another area of Japan’s beautiful countryside, never in a million years did I think I could spot Mount Fuji from a train whilst eating a chocolate éclair (definitely one for the bucket list!).
I left the Shinkansen at Odawara station and did a sprint to make the local train which departed 5 minutes after my arrival. I love local Japanese trains because they just feel so old fashioned, it’s like travelling back in time. Odawara to Yumoto station was a beautiful 15 minute journey through the mountains and small Japanese villages.
Leaving the train, I left the station to find form of transport number 4, the public bus, well a bus in miniature form. I have a new found sympathy for tinned sardines after my journey because people were so jammed into the small space it was unreal. But, the good thing was how it stopped anyone from falling over as we zoomed along some of the windiest and hilliest roads I have ever seen in my life. The journey was long but at least I could look out of the window, unlike my photographer who somehow ended up trapped under a pile of backpacks and humans. Luckily, I stayed on the bus until the final stop so I had time to dig my photographer out and get off the bus in the beautiful lakeside town of Hakone.
Lake Ashi is ginormous and I thought it looked more like an ocean. The town followed the lake along one main street, so I decided to explore on foot as I had spent a lot of time sitting. I walked through the Torii gate and decided I would find some lunch before doing any more exploring.
Surprisingly, there are a lot of options to eat for such a small area. There are so many options for soba noodles but none of the options I found were veggiesaurus friendly. Instead I opted to go to the lakeside Bakery & Table which has three floors of food. I went to the restaurant on the top floor but the bakery and the café both looked delicious as well. The menu didn’t have very many vegetarian options, which isn’t a surprise in Japan. The only things I was able to choose off the menu were a side salad and some sweet potato fries, so I ordered both because I thought they would be small dishes. The salad was huge and I also had the biggest bowl of fries I’ve ever seen and everything was delicious. The meat dishes also looked really tasty but I didn’t try any of them because the Japanese-English translations on the menu weren’t the best.
After lunch I wandered along the side of the lake to burn off my giant salad and enjoyed watching the pedalo boats on the water but sadly I didn’t have enough time to ride on one because my photographer had a surprise for me.
Transport number 6 was a pirate ship, yes you read that right, which was to take me across the lake to Hakone Togendai. I love boats and will never say no to the opportunity to ride on one, and a pirate ship is something I have always wanted to go on (without the pirates). This more than made up for the lack of pedalo transport because we were hoping to spot a rather famous mountain from the boat but the captain announced there was a 3% chance of seeing Mount Fuji in the summer. I wasn’t holding out much hope because I had already seen Fuji from the bullet train. Besides, what is better than going on a pirate ship!
The boat had only gone a short distance around the corner when Mount Fuji appeared from behind the clouds, I couldn’t believe my luck. Some people on the boat were visiting for the third and fourth time in the hope of spotting Fuji and I had managed to do this twice in one day. At first it looked photoshopped because Fuji simply towers over all of the small mountains around Lake Ashi.
Hues of green and blue merge as the forest meets the lake, with the vivid red Heiwa no torii gate standing at the edge of the lake. 25 minutes of sailing across the lake was like having a mini cruise because the scenery changed so much from one side of the lake to the other. The crossing was calm and relaxing, unlike pirate ship journeys I have seen in films and I was sad to see all of the staff in naval uniforms rather than pirate costumes.
Leaving the pirate ship and crossing the road, I headed into the aircon filled escalator up to my next form of transport. However, I think riding a huge escalator counts as a form of transport so I am going to count it as number 7. A cable car from Togendai station was number 8 took me up the Hakone ropeway towards Owakudani, an adventure I am going to write about separately because it was like going to another planet.
My final modes of transport were a cable car from Owakudani station to Sounzan station, where I once again witnessed the majestic beauty of Mount Fuji towering above the mountains. I finally jumped on board a funicular to take me down the mountain towards my hotel. The hydrangeas were blooming on either side of the track which was running down a really steep hill. I had travelled miles into Kanagawa prefecture and this was the first time I really felt as though I had ventured out into the middle of nowhere.
The final mode of transport of the day was a short 1km hike through Hakone to reach my hotel where I could finally put my feet up and relax after going on ten different modes of transport in a single day. I wonder if anyone can beat this number because I think I might have set a new record.
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