No Regrets!

We checked out of our Tokyo hotel and left Kabukichō behind. While Tokyo is famously neat and tidy, it was early enough in the morning that the streets of Kabukichō were still littered with trash from the previous night’s revelry. It looked jarringly un-Japanese.

We descended into Shinjuku Station and navigated our way through the labyrinthian and airport-sized terminal. This place is huge, perhaps the biggest train station in the world, with over 200 exits and more than 50 platforms. It’s also the busiest train station in the world, handling up to 3.5 million passengers per day. We’d timed our departure for weekday rush hour, and the frenetic pace of mostly Japanese commuters was astounding. But despite the number of people, the place is nearly silent. No chatter, no cell phones, just the steady shuffle of shoes and the hum of order. The signage is surprisingly good, ventilation is excellent, and we found our platform with time to spare.

Our train, the suggestively named Romancecar, picked us up on Odakyu Platform 2. We boarded and headed southwest toward Hakone. Mostly tourists on this train. Regrettably, there was no romance on this leg of the journey.

The train cut through the tightly packed residential outskirts of Tokyo before the landscape gave way to rugged, green hills. A lengthy synth jingle preceded every announcement, and there were a lot of announcements.

As expected, our departure from Tokyo and our arrival in Hakone was exactly on time. We took our offensive humor up a notch, joking that if the train was either one minute early or late, the train conductor would likely have to commit seppuku.

At Hakone-Yumoto Station, we crossed the platform to get onto a much smaller, bright red, rickety train bound for Gora. Standing room only for us. The little mountain train followed a series of interestingly engineered back-and-forth switchbacks through the trees and up the side of a mountain to Gora. From Gora Station, a short but steep taxi ride carried us to our resort at the top of the mountain. Uber worked a treat, amazing how it works even in this tiny mountain town. This was our first complicated travel day, and we nailed every connection without stress. I like these little travel accomplishments.

Our resort, called Gora Hanaougi, is an onsen retreat. That’s the big draw here. People come to enjoy the thermal springs and baths called “onsen”, some public and others private. In the public ones, you typically get naked with the same sex, but our room featured a private onsen, which was just fine for us and our swimsuits.

We stopped at Gora Brewery & Grill for lunch and, for me, a much-needed break from sushi. While waiting for the restaurant to open, I enjoyed an outdoor public footbath. After taking our seats at the counter we placed an online order and watched as the chefs prepared our tapas-style plates right in front of us. Due to items being a lot bigger than they looked in the online menu thumbnails, our meal was massive but delicious, with a finale of lamb chops that were delectable. I washed it all down with a refreshing matcha mojito.

Then a walk downhill to check out the Hakone Open-Air Museum. It’s really just a sprawling sculpture garden and sensory exhibit, but it was a good way for us to kill a couple of hours. When given opportunity to stop and soak our feet in one of the public footbaths, Dave muttered, “Pubric foot bath not crean!” So we kept walking. The grounds also feature a small Picasso museum, probably impressive if you’re a fan. I’m not.

Uber, so reliable up to this point, let us down when it was time to head back to the hotel. A taxi driver accepted our ride, never showed, and then began the ride in the app, effectively charging me for a trip we weren’t in. Moments later, we saw our taxi driver cruise past with other passengers in the car. We shouted and waved at him as he drove by, but he just gave us the little X symbol with his fingers. What a “gesu yarō” (asshole).

Back at the resort, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our private onsen. The room opened up to a view of the surrounding mountains, and I sat in there and gazed outside long enough to watch the sky go dark. It really chilled me out.

The fancy kaiseki dinner required that we put on yukata (traditional cotton robes) and head to the dining room for a semi-private, extended tasting menu. More weird stuff, but all delicious, all served to us by a traditionally dressed, dainty, and exceptionally courteous “nakaisan” who bowed deeply before delicately placing each dish on the table.

Back in the room, we put on Game 6 of Nippon Series, staying up to watch the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks win the championship over the Hanshin Tigers. So that’s it. That’s as close to Japanese baseball as we’re going to get on this trip.

Worn out from the day, Dave passed out instantly, snoring within minutes. I stayed up to blog before eventually falling asleep with a tummy incredibly full of lamb, chicken, steak, fish, squid, eel, rice, and potatoes.

I did not sleep well, perhaps some combination of the different meats competing for digestion privileges in my stomach, the hardness of the bed, or the warm room feeling even warmer in my thick resort pajamas. In the morning, I informed Dave that he snores pretty loudly, and he fired back with a counteraccusation that I snore pretty loudly. I told him that I used earplugs to drown out the sound of his snore, and he told me that he was going to do the same.

We put on our yakuta and headed to our kaiseki breakfast, an unexpectedly huge spread. Neither Dave nor I are breakfast people but that didn’t stop us from stuffing our faces. “Sugar in tea bring perfect samurai balance of sweetness and sadness,” said Jeff in his gruff samurai voice. “Decaf tea good for Dave’s poops”, replied Dave in his.

From Gora, we headed back to Hakone and then onward to Kawaguchiko. There’s no direct route, so we took three different buses. One stopped at an outlet mall in Gotemba, though neither of us had the slightest interest in shopping American brands like Gap or Timberland. On the last bus, after emerging from a tunnel, we were treated to our first glimpse of glorious Mt. Fuji. We made it into Kawaguchiko ahead of schedule. “I rove it when a pran comes together.”

Kawaguchiko is a mountain town known for its onsens and magnificent views of Mt. Fuji. The mountain, really a volcano, is truly a beauty, with a perfect symmetry and gently curved slopes drawing the eyes down each side. Really helps that there are no competing peaks around it. A bit of snow dapples the top from the first snow that fell just a few days ago. I’m sure the mountain is more impressive in the winter when it snows heavily and Mt. Fuji has a cute little white hat on it.

With crispy air on our faces, our first order of business was to pop into the local 7-Eleven for a sandwich lunch. Tummies happy, we headed to our hotel, checked in, and got settled in our minimalist room.

Hotel Konansou overlooks Lake Kawaguchiko, surrounded by tree-covered mountains where the first hints of fall color are just beginning, with Japanese maples leading the charge in bright red. We headed out for a walk around the lake in the hopes of catching magnificent views of Mt. Fuji, but Mother Nature had other ideas, buffeting us with cold wind and rain after just few minutes. We retreated back to the hotel, got into our yukata and slippers, and enjoyed a few glasses of wine from the wine vending machine in the lobby. Even got some ping pong in.

Another kaiseki dinner, this one served to us in our room. Because everything has to be a bet, over/under on the number of different items was 15.5 (I lost on the under), and over/under on the number of items with mushrooms was 6.5 (I won on the over, and we both hate mushrooms). The food was varied and pretty good. Now that we’ve had so much of this food in Japan, I’m starting to understand how to identify foods, how to articulate their flavors, and perhaps most importantly, how to distinguish the good from the bad and have some real preferences.

Halloween is not much of a thing here, especially in this small mountain town. Happy Halloween. Good night.

Tomorrow, we’re up at the crack of dawn to catch the sunrise on Mt. Fuji.