Japan Day 14: Morning Onsen, Hakone mountain tour with Kei & Hiroshi, Black eggs, Check point museum

We awoke early to the sun rising and I wanted to go up to check out the outdoor hotspring at the top of the ryoken for a morning dip. You could really see that all the money in the hotel went into the onsen because it was landscaped really nicely with rocks and the water looked steamy and welcoming.  There was no one around so I took a dip. The sound of birds and the light rays shining through the trees added to the great and relaxing experience if my first Japanese onsen experience! 

After 10 min I got up and dressed for our full day tour with Kei and Hiroshi. They offered to drive us all around Hakone which saved us a lot of money on transporting ourselves aroun for which we were grateful (above getting our own private tour).

We met K&H at our hotel lobby and headed to their cars parked close by. Hiroshi drove a 2 seat convertible so I called dibs.

We started our driving tour by driving through the twisty mountains to a little town with a great bakery and famous Fujiya Hotel. Many Japanese celebrities stay here and we took a tour through the lobby. It was built in 1930 so it itself was a museum.

Next we stopped off at a wild flower sort of garden park area in the mountains.  beautiful place to walk around and it was lots of fun spotting the bugs and lizards!

We then headed off to Hell Valley, a volcanic hit spring up in the mountains. When we got out of the car and started hiking up towards the springs the sour stench grew stronger. It smelt pretty bad. Lol.

As we were walking up there was a little cable car full of black boiled eggs making their way back down the hill. The boiling and eating of eggs boiled in these sulfur springs are fairly popular. Kei and hiroshi bought us a 5 pack which we split. The egg tasted pretty much like a regularly boiled egg except it had a slightly different taste to it. It was good.

When we made it to the top of the hot springs the smell was in full force and we quickly took some pics and headed back down the hill.

We drove back down the mountain to Ashi no ko, which is an elevated lake in the mountains. We parked and walked along the little town by the lake.

It was very scenic and we ended up on an old footpath that used to be used 100's of years ago for Japanese traveling between Tokyo and Hakone. It was a 2 day trip. Trains are great.

We then toured around an old checkpoint used back in the day to regulate passage through the area.

By this time we were getting hungry so we stopped at an old local diner for dinner. Eliza and I had the Japanese curry which was more comfort food than anything. It tasted great and was just what we were
craving.

It was getting late and we decided to head back to the hotel. After a scenic drive back down the mountains we arrived at our hotel. Eliza and I took another break at the foot bath before heading to our room.

I told Liza that I wanted to go into the onsen so we went upstairs to check if it was busy. There was noone in either elizas or my onsen (girls and boys are separated) so both of us stripped down and went for a private soak. The water was nice and hot but not too hot.  It was really relaxing and a great way to end the day and get all warm and sleepy.

Dressed in our Japanese robes we went to sleep after another great day. Big Thanks to Kei and Hiroshi for driving us around. We hope to visit them in Seattle if they visit their daughter.