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This past weekend, we took a daytrip to Hakone. Hakone is one of the most popular tourist destinations from Tokyo, both for its numerous onsen (hotsprings) and its sightseeing opportunities. One of the most popular attractions is the various norimono (???) or means of transportation. Following the recommended route through Hakone on the norimono was our goal, so we bought the “Hakone Freepass” for 3900 yen, and all of our transportation for the day was covered. We took the train one stop to Mishima and met up with one of my students who works at the Mishima Tourist Agency:

After she helped us buy our “Free Passes” we rode the bus to Hakone and caught our first and probably most unique norimono: a pirate ship across Ashinoko (Lake Ashi) with real pirates on board:

From the pirate ship, we jumped onto the ropeway on our way to Owakaduni - famous for it’s sulfur mine and stinky gas vents:

It also happens to have a famous delicacy known as kurotamago (????), or black eggs, which are basically eggs hardboiled in the sulfur springs during which they turn black:

They tasted completely normal. Even Hello Kitty chose to take part in the kurotamago sensation, apparently because of the seven years longevity that comes prepackaged with black eggs:

From Owakaduni, we took the ropeway to the cable car to the train, finally ending up in Miyanoshita which is the location of one of the three most famous hotels in Japan: the Fujiya hotel. We didn’t get any good pictures because there was a wedding going on, but you can check out their website here. Although we intended on going to an onsen in Miyanoshita, we were entirely exhausted and decided to head home for the day. However, we got some nice pictures of Lake Ashi (and it’s all-natural water fowl) as we waited for the bus home: