Wow. What an adventure, and an amazing way to kick off being 22. I took a huge amount of photos over the last few days (300+) so this is the first part in a probably two or three update series on my trip to Hakone. Today’s will be the most wordy. Unfortunately, a huge amount of mist decided to come with us on our journey. As a result, these photos don’t really tell you much. So guessing can be half the fun! (Read: I’m a bad photographer who has no clue how to deal with mist).

We stayed at a really fun cheap Ryokan with an onsen (hot spring) called Kappa Tengoku, which was great because it was really close to the station, cheap, and the dinner was ‘here is a mountain of food and a really hot metal tray. Go wild!’ Once we’d dumped our stuff in our rooms we fought the urge to just head straight into the onsen, and instead headed out on our epic four hour journey.

From the town we stayed in you can do a large loop of the area that takes you up the mountain on a train, then across the peaks in cable cars, then around a lake in a boat. Finally, you come back to the start by bus. It was amazing, despite the mist.

You see the smoke coming off the mountain below the cable car? That’s actually sulfur. The entire mountain looks like it’s burning from the inside. When you’re inside it it’s really amazing – you can’t see very far and the whole place reeks of eggs.

Speaking of eggs, the Hakone special of black eggs (which are eggs left in the pools of boiling hot sulfur) were being made just as we came past, netting me this pretty cool photo;

We didn’t stick around to try them out though. Instead we opted to make our way down the other side of the mountain in a cable car, escaping the egg smell and cold. Or at least we escaped the cold until we got on the boat and made our way across the lake that hugs the side of the mountain range. From the boat it’s possible to see a giant red temple gate set into the sea, but unfortunately we were too far away and it was too dull to make it out. But at least the boat stood out!

After the boat trip, which we spent mostly hiding inside from the cold like tiny babies, we hopped on the bus back around to the town. We then spent the next 6 or so hours frying in the hot spring, before eating and drinking far too much, and then burning it off in the onsen. We were all asleep by about 11. (Again, tiny babies). It was a great day despite the weather, and it just made us more hungry to get out and see everything once it cleared up. Of course, we weren’t at all prepared for what was coming…

Hey guys! I am currently in Hakone! Which means there is no way I could have posted this blog! How did I do it? Some sort of zombie science of course!

Anyway, I’m 22 today!

That’s right! I’m not 21 anymore. 20 seems like a long time ago. I can barely even remember being 19!

So yeah… happy birthday me!

Yes, that’s right! We are for the most part past the cold, dark and depressing winter season! But we’re not yet into the hot, sticky and exhausting summer season! Yes, spring is here! Japan’s best season (at least in my opinion!) I’ve missed being able to leave the dormitory without thirty layers on. I’ve also missed being able to see past 5pm. (Although the copious amounts of alcohol don’t help)

Speaking of consuming alcohol, my mother is visiting Japan for nearly two weeks! (I’m going to get it for writing that). We have lots of exciting cross-country travel plans (more on them in a bit) but as it’s the first two days, we’ve been busy having lots of reunion parties and also checking out my local area. The first day was rainy, but it seems we’ve timed it perfectly as the beautiful pink cherry blossoms are just starting to open.

As you can see, they’re very pretty. They’re opening all over the region at the moment, which made the tour around the otherwise embarrassingly grey and drab area I live in a little more fun. It’s really amazing how fast Tokyo, especially it’s suburbs, lively and colourful, almost overnight, once the winter goes.

Anyway, we kicked off by wandering around Warabi. We visited the junior school I volunteered at (quotes from which are coming soon!) and put in some serious distance. Then we met up with Mako and headed to Sophia. Now I’d forgotten this but some of the departments, including mine, were holding their graduation so we got to see everyone dressed up in their lovely kimonos and suits to celebrate. We ran into two of the 4th year students from my circle. Here they are being far better dressed than me;

Nice! After that, we headed to the imperial palace, which I’ve visited before, although this time we couldn’t get inside. Still, I managed to take what is called ‘Japan’s most taken photo’. I think you can see why;

It really has everything you could ever need! The palace! A non-Japanese style bridge! Overhung sky! (I dare anyone to manage to get their trip to the palace to coincide with a sunny clear day!)

Today we had lunch with my friend Kanna and her super sweet little son Kazutoshi, and also headed to Asukayama park in Oji (I blogged about it back in ’07), expecting to catch a glimpse of a few early-blooming Sakura. Instead, we got a view at an entirely pink park, with hundreds of people in it. Yes, the Hanami viewing parties have started. (Again, I blogged about one I went to waaay back!) I’m hoping to get to one if I’m still alive after all the travelling I have planned doesn’t kill me…

Yeah, we have a lot planned. Big long lists are boring (even more boring than blog posts!), but in the next week or so I’ll be visiting Hakone, Kyoto (again) , Kamakura (again) , Chiba, Tsukiji Fish market (again), and even more exciting than all of them combined, Narita Airport! YEAH!

Anyway, that’s quite enough for now. I posted this so I could have a clear backlog as the next week is going to see a huge amount of posts. So to tide you over until the Hakone and Kyoto pictures arrive, here’s some more beautiful pink flowers.

That’s right! It’s only taken me about two years since the last video, but here we are! It’s finally time to announce the fourth part of the series. Click the image below to watch!

The entire drink reviews series is available here.

日本語：「ディズニーランドで三年間楽しみにしていたことができた！」

Almost three years ago, I went to Tokyo Disneyland, and it rained. “Oh well, one day I’ll get to enjoy Disneyland in the sun!” I thought to myself. This time around looked promising. No rain in the morning, and no rain on the commute. So, did it rain at any point in the day?

It didn’t just rain. It snowed.

Yeah, didn’t see that coming. But it was still a fantastic day! I didn’t take my camera but luckily my friend Jon did, so these photos are his.

Here we are, all happy and optimistic! Look at how there’s no water, frozen or otherwise, falling from the sky! It was pretty cold but nothing unbearable – pretty standard early Tokyo weather. We had the choice to go to either Disneyland or Disney Sea, which is more of the same but near the sea. Whoever named that deserves an award. We opted for land for two reasons: Firstly, it was probably colder near the sea. Secondly, when I went three years ago Space Mountain was closed, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going on Space Mountain at least once!

So it was a fun filled day of queues, Japanese practice, and staring. Now I’ve accumulated about 21 months in Japan, and I think I’ve got pretty used to the staring. But this was just something different. I guess early March is not international tourism season for Disneyland because there was about 5 foreigners that I could spot. As a result people were being even more blatant than ever – I think we were in some cases more entertaining than the ride itself. I remember flying past the waiting line on one roller coaster and laughing at their expressions as they followed us with their eyes – Aah! Flying foreigners!

We went straight from the entrance to get fast pass tickets for Space Mountain, which told us to come back at around 12.40. Somehow a wait of three hours had accumulated before 9am. I guess some people really like Space Mountain. We then headed around the park checking out the other rides. At one point the parade went by, and I got to see my favourite character, The Lion King’s Simba. He is grossly under appreciated in Japan. They’re all addicted to that blue alien Stitch.

Anyway, at 12.40 my three year wait ended and I got to go on Space Mountain. At the front, no less! It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who wants to experience a roller coaster in the dark. Classic quote comes from the guy sitting behind me, who shouted ‘TOO FAST! TOO FAST!’ throughout the ride about 500 times. It’s a roller coaster, dude. Not a driving test.

The biggest surprise came later on in the day, maybe around 5pm. We were in the 90 minute queue for Space Mountain (to go on it for the second time! It might be 2013 before I get the chance again!) and it started to snow. Snow. Now it wasn’t a huge deal (a lot of the place is indoors or covered) but it makes me wonder what will happen next time I try to go. Fire rain?

It was an awesome day and I would go again in a heartbeat. There’s talk of us going to Disney Sea in the summer, so let’s all look forward to the inevitable ‘There was a black nova at Tokyo Disney Sea’ blog post…