i’m losing the momentum to blog about japan already –but i must hang in there! otherwise it would become like my bangkok/guangzhou posts, i’m always halfway through. and so, this is the place that we stayed in hakone. everything about this hotel exudes this quaint, rustic charm that i’m sure no one could resist!

some of the reviews mentioned that this hotel’s decor is dated, blah blah blah BUT i think the “dated” decor is one of the main charms of this place! i love oldies. i love the stone paths. and i love big gardens with tall green trees that doesnt have random children running all over the place the most!

i told wee that we must take a walk along the lake before we leave this place and i’m so glad we did! the air was so fresh, the lake was so serene and peaceful. it was super relaxing. there’s this sense of liberation even!

this is my desktop wallpaper at work!

haha i really like the tall green trees. i think ecp has got something like this, but it looks too cluttered.

it’s like shi wai tao yuan- i can’t think of any other words to describe this place!

after soaking in all the nature goodness, we proceeded to have our lunch.

you know, we have got this list of “must-eat”s and we managed to strike off curry rice here in hakone!

and you can try guessing how much did this meal cost

my ebi tempura curry rice costed me 1300+ yen. which is slightly more than 20sgd! and it’s not even a restaurant, it’s like.. a random cafeteria beside the hotel. HAHA. but the meal was good!

have i told you how attractedddd i am to the bakeries in japan? i tell you, THEIR BREAD LOOKS DAMN GOOD. i hope no one was looking as i was happily snapping away. i might just look like some loser who doens’t have enough money to buy their bread

I REALLY WANTED TO EAT ALL OF THE ABOVE!

after the very full meal, we went off to tour hakone! this place is super confusing. if you miss one bus, you would have to wait for close to half an hour for another one. some boats you can take for free, some you can’t. two buses under two different companies (going to the same places) can be under the same bus-stop- and one is free, another isn’t. i think we got a lot of shaking heads

finally we got to the pier that we are supposed to go.

all the way for this this pirateship

this is the second time we are taking a boat ride across lake ashi. so, after taking photos with the pirates (which is the whole point of taking this pirateship boat ride), we slept.. for the whole 1 hour or so.

then! it was cablecar ride! which is a lot more exciting than the ropeway ride we had the previous day cos this one has got seats! feels more like a cablecar and less like a human trolley

and i’ve always thought that it’s very sweet for old couples to go traveling together (:

our next stop is Owakudani, which is an area around a crater created during the last eruption of mount hakone

�this place smells of SULPHUR.

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�dont be deceived by the sunny weather. it was in fact, VERY COLD AND WINDY! you know, i’m the kind that likes to eat ice cream especially during cold days. but this was too cold for me to entertain that thought

and this place is best known for their black eggs, which is said to be able to prolong your lifespan by 7 years. we ate 2 each! it’s not reccomended to eat more than 2.

there’s a lot of snacks which boasts the ability to prolong your life here. haha i bought some preserved black eggs for my parents BUT THEY ARE STILL IN THE FRIDGE!

there’s a hiking trail that leads all the way to the peak of i don’t know what mountain but we had no time 😦

and this is where we got introduced to the goodness of sweet potatoes.

looking at it makes me miss it soooo. i’m going to buy sweet potatoes and bbq them at home

it was already pretty late by now so we had to make our way to the bullet train station

then the most horrible thing happend..

MY BATTERY DIED

😦

which means that i couldn’t�take any photos of the famous shinkansen!

thank goodness siow wee’s battery is still alive

the thing about hakone is, there is no one means of transport that will bring you everywhere. in order to get to the bullet train station, we gotta take a cable car, then another rope way and another 1950s-like train. which was really energy-draining.

and finally-

while in the train, i decided to rub the battery to give it some heat energy which will hopefully convert into whever energy it needs to operate. AND IT WORKED!

the seats were being allocated and the worst thing that can happen (to foreigners especially) was that someone took our seats! after confirming with the train masters that we were at the correct cabin, we tried so hard to convey to the two men who took our seats that they were at the wrong cabin!

after about 5 pictures, the battery died again. hahhaha ok lah, better than nothing.

it was pretty late by the time we reach ikebukuro (our hostel in tokyo) so we decided to have sabu sabu! one of wee’s must-have in japan! it’s the most exciting dinner we had in japan

it’s buffet style and actually we were not sure if we can order as many servings as we can. it’s about $50 per pax so it doesnt make sense if it isn’t but i think one of the staff said something quite confusing so it made us confused too. aiyoh it was a very confusing 30 minutes – the manager came to our table and used a thousand and one sign language and kept using the word ‘free’! hahaha

HAHAHA

and wee only realized it’s pork after she was halfway through the plate

i love the veges!

it was a super healthy dinner i tell you. nothing fried, everything was just�thrown into the hot pot of water

and i couldn’t resist buying the sweet potatoes from this very old uncle

yay i’m finally done with day six!

this is also when we realized our itinerary is too tight to squeeze in both disneyland and disneysea. so we had to take disneyland off from our list. we only have got 3 more days but we have yet to cover disneyland, disneysea, shibuya, shinjuku, ueno, tsujiki and harujuku. it was a difficult decision but since we both have been to disneyland at hongkong, and since disneysea is only available in japan, we chose disneysea!

day seven was to disneysea!

(ps: what is wrong with the weather this week!)

i have been waiting to blog about mount fuji!

do you know that mount fuji is actually made up of 3 layers? the mount fuji that we all know is actually the “new fuji volano” –  under it lies the “old fuji volcano” and “komitake” volcano. i didn’t know that volcanoes can actually be cumulative haha

so anyway. we were super lucky because we managed to get up to the fifth station aka the peak of the second layer of mount fuji. which is like 2500m above sea level (haha i wikipedia-ed that!) i said we were super lucky to get up to the fifth station because it isn’t opened every day! especially during the wet and rainy seasons because it’ll be too dangerous for the coaches.

we had to wake up VERY EARLY for this tour. and if you didn’t realize, it’s like our daily routine to take a photo in front of the family mart every morning. so that we can look back and rmb our funky outfits in japan hahahah

our initial plan is to have breakfast at mac but we were rushing for time! but .. we underestimated ourselves. in the end we reach the hotel too early,

and hungry.

anyway we did buy macdonalds but we couldn’t eat it in the hotel! we wanted to ignore the breakfast until we get onto the coach but i think hungry people cannot wait. so we stood at the hotel entrance to have our breakfast

it was really very funny and pathetic

and TOKYO TOWER!

japan’s own version of the eiffel tower (the best picture i could get)

i think it was a 2-hours bus ride?

and CAN YOU SEE IT?

the sky was damn clear that day so we could see mount fuji in its full glory!

people started snapping away! and i couldn’t stop staring at it- to have mount fuji right in front of me felt a bit unreal.

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then we saw a crazy rollercoaster.

can anyone actually survive this? the rails look so thin!

and the first stop: mount fuji observation centre

actually i think it’s more like a toilet break since we were only give -fifteen- minutes

thank goodness we managed to get up to the fifth station- taking pictures with a mount fuji that is so far away is NOT enough. haha

and here’s our tour guide – whom i think is a taitai in disguise.

she was able to talk NON-STOP. and it didn’t even feel a bit irritating

in fact we were really amused by her!

BTW!

do you know that a set of  kimono costs about SGD$3000?

the japanese girls would usually wear it for the formal events like wedding dinners/graduation balls. i don’t think my parents would spend that kinda money on me though- buying a new set of bed would make so much more sense to them

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and this is the first station

can you see the thick blanket of clouds already?!!

and this is my favourite drink!! it’s like plain water and it leaves a nice sweet lemon after taste. super nice!

SHENA: BUY FOR ME!

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hold your breathe

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it was FREEZING up there.

it was so cold that even the tap water felt like iced water! and you can see that most of our smiles were frozen-

i think we only had half an hour here? it was far too short. it isn’t enough!

i can sit and stare at the mountains, valleys and clouds for a long long time.

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yah, we were leaving mount fuji. 😦

mount fuji is like the highlight of day 5 and it’s over! you can close this window already haha

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compared to mount fuji, our japanese lunch is really not worth blogging about.

i didn’t enjoy the bento

i think the cold weather actually shrank my cheeks. HAHA

ok anyway the tour guide is really super cute! i think she’s one of the best tour guides i had- so attentive and endearing – and they do not take tips!

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after lunch, she taught us how to make a Mount Fuji origami.

i think wee took the only silver construction paper from the lot and the tour guide said she’s very smart. (am i right, wee? i think it’s along the line of smart lah hor.)

actually i have to admit that the rest of the tour isn’t so bad-

i mean, you won’t get to see these in singapore right! haha

then we got onto a boat to tour lake ashi

lake ashi is a crater lake and is known for it’s view of mount fuji – BUT – the weather took a turn for the worse.. dark clouds were drifting along the the gloomy sky. it was clear sky no more!

with the strong wind and cold lake breeze, we were freezing once again!

and this is the place that we would be staying for the night!

that place is unbelievably atas. i’ll show you guys later

and i think this standalone sakura tree looks a little spooky. but pretty nevertheless.

their ropeway = our cable car

and i believe that we went up into the clouds. HEHE

as mentioned, we were the only two who had signed up for a two-day tour. so we had to wait for the shuttle bus to come pick us up

come to think of it, the hotel was just NEXT to the bus terminal we were at. they could have just asked us to walk over but thank goodness they didn’t. they would have made a huge discount to the atas factor

so

#1. we had the shuttle bus all to ourselves

#2. staff awaiting us at the lobby  (disappointed when they realized there’s actually no luggage for them to carry)

#3. the lobby was empty! it was just us and the staff and everyone greeted us at the same time!

#4. the long empty walkway with red carpet and elaborate furnishings and decors

#5. someone to bring us to our room

#6. the someone actually asked if she come into our room to show us around and make sure everything’s ok

#7. the housekeeping person was clad in a suit

OMG

the hotel was so big and empty that we felt like we were the only occupants. which CAN be a little scary sometimes. i guess life’s like that when you are super duper rich – this place actually reminds me of daomingsi’s house in meteor garden hahaha

a queen-sized bed EACH.  andthere were 4 pillows for me to hug! my bag didn’t have to play my part-time bolster

and the bed was so soft that it is unarguably the best night we had in japan

this is like a honeymoon spot can! couples CONFIRM won’t quarrel! how can anyone feel unhappy in this kind of setting!

i wish my bedroom would look something like this- but first of all, i’ll need a room

and i’m gonna get myself one of this! (im referring to the cd!) it’s damn good. close your doors, close your windows, switch on your aircon, play this cd and relax.

then we took a walk around the castle hotel- it’s so big that we have to stop every 50m to refer to the map

AND SIOW WEE HAS GOT UGLY SLIPPERS FETISH.

she loves to walk around in the (ugly) bedroom slipper IN THE HOTEL.

haha and i actually wore it out together with her cos my feet feels trapped in boots!

and let me show you our dinner!

do.

not.

be.

shocked.

HAHA YES! that’s our dinner!

cos that place is so atas that their only dinner costs $80 SGD. and it’s not like we were very hungry so we decided to gorge on snacks instead. hahaha that strawberry cookie is damn nice! but i couldn’t find it anywhere else otherwise i would buy back to let you guys try! and not to mention the seaweed potato chips, it was good enough for wee to go out in the hotel’s sleeping gown to buy a second pack

AH! finally i’ve reached the end of day 5! there will be more of prince hakone hotel on day 6! it’s seriously like a castle. they don’t even need a lift seriously. it’s like only 3 levels high!

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shall end this post with a neoprint we took at the ropeway station!

haha if you know the two of us, you would know who decorated which.