Destination: Japan
Duration: 5 Days 5 Nights (Oct 22~Oct 26, 2013)
Day 5: Rainy Day in Hakone – Where is Mt Fuji??!!!
Literally being SHAKEN awake by an EARTHQUAKE in the wee
morning of 2am! Clearly panicking and wonder what should I do! Do I run down to
the lobby and out of the building? However, there wasn’t any door opening or
closing on the floor and everyone seemed to ignore or slept through the quake. There
was an emergency news report on TV stating Level 3-4 Earthquake in Japan. How
come no one seems to care? *facepalm*
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| Earthquake!!! What should i do??? *panic* |
Finally fallen asleep after the earthquake scare but woke
up at 5am to catch the 5.59am Shinkansen bound for Odawara as 1st
leg of the journey to Hakone. Basically this is the route by Hyperdia.
Shin-Yokohama (shinkansen kodoma 631 -05:59) ->
Odawara (Hakone Tozan Railway 06:28) -> Hakone-Yumoto (Hokane Tozan Railway
07:00) – Gora (7:37)
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| Bento for Breakfast!!! |
Basically the Hakone Free Pass covers everything from
Odawara onwards.
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| The Hakone Free Pass |
The reason for the early departure? Well, according to
the internet, Hakone is a vastly popular destination for foreigners &
locals thus it’s not advisable to visit during weekend due to traffic jam &
queues. Since I need to catch the 10pm plane tonight, I had no choice but to go
early to avoid the jam & queue.
Everything went according to plan EXCEPT THE
RAIN! It was raining cats & dogs! We had a few transfers with Hakone Tozan
train which looked antique if compared with other trains in Japan. The last leg
of the train from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora was interesting in the sense that the
driver and conductor had to switch position several times to turn the train for
different direction.
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| Switching Train again... |
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| More Antique-looking Train from Hakone-Yumoto Station to Gora |
Finally arrived at Gora – the main station for Hakone at
7.37am to catch the cable car to go uphill for Sounzan. It was quite a slope
there and it was still RAINING!!! There was no queue at all and hardly anyone
else! I guess everyone stayed at home due to the rain.. >.<||
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| The Hakone Cable Car |
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| Going up! |
The Ropeway was not opened yet when the cable car reached
Sounzan – there was no queue either! Darn! Should’ve wake up later! I’m never
going to trust internet anymore… =( You can actually go out from Sounzan
station for sightseeing but the mist and rain made it difficult to see anything
at all.
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| Oops... too early? Internet DECEIVES me! |
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| It's Raining Cats & Dogs! |
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| This is How Hakone supposed to look like!!!! |
The Ropeway finally opened and up went to the highest
peak of Hokene – Owakudani. This was where you can see the volcanic gas, sulfur
& MT FUJI. I did see the volcanic gas & sulfur in a foggy vision but
where is Mt Fuji??? Hiding behind the cloud! *gasp in horror* OH NO!!!!
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| Ropeway Finally! |
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| Sammy in the house! |
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| Sulfur & Smokes before reaching Owakudani |
One of the must-do things at Owakudani is to eat the
hardboiled egg which was cooked in the volcanic water. Apparently one egg can
increase 7 years of your life. The shell was totally black and it tasted
exactly the same as normal hardboiled egg…
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| Sammy at Owakudani Station! One of the most popular Ropeway in the world! |
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| Very Misty there... =( |
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| More Mist? |
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| Sammy with Hello Kitty! |
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| Hello Kitty enjoying Hardboiled Egg!!! |
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| The Way is SHUT!!! |
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| I think it's starting to clear up.... a bit... |
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| Panoramic View from Owakudani Station |
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| Here are the Eggs! |
Togendai Station was the Ropeway’s last stop – the
station took you directly to the pirate ship counter for a cruise in Lake Ashi.
It was also mentioned that you could see Mt Fuji between Odawara & Togendai
station BUT NOT TODAY… *sob* I just had no fate with Mt Fuji…
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| Going to Togendai Station |
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| Hey! Some leaves have turned Red! It's AUTUMN!!! =) |
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| Lunch? |
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| Almost reaching Togendai Station with Lake Ashi in front... |
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| Should i say this is for "Display Purpose" only? *sob* |
From the pirate ship, you can see the trees had started
to turn red for Autumn – unfortunately the weather was still quite misty. Love
the red archways of the two shrines that floated on the lake which made the
lake uniquely Lake Ashi.
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| Getting on the Pirate Ship |
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| Cruising at Lake Ashi |
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| There is the Archway with some Trees with Red Leaves |
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| See how small the Archway looks! |
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| A Close Up! |
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| Fellow Pirates! |
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| Reaching the 1st dock... |
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| Which bring us closer to a 2nd Archway! |
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| See a Red Bridge at the Right? |
After docking at Moto-Hakone-ko, walk to the left side of
the station to the direction of the red archway! Now we can finally take a
photo from the inside of the archway. =) After that just walked back to
Moto-Hakone-ko to take the R-line Bus to Hakone-Yumoto Station.
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| Archway from the Inside! |
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| Sammy was there too!!! |
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| The Walkway to the Holy Hakone Shrine |
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| A Close Up |
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| Lots of Stairs!!! NNOOO!!!! |
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| Here it is! |
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| The Entrance |
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| Back to Hakone-Yumoto with Bus |
Back to Shin-Yokohama to grab some late lunch and last
minute souvenirs before getting on Narita Express for the 10pm flight. Hey, MH
actually served something nice for supper! Soba as appetizer with seafood
noodle! Yum! The trip ended with a flight delay (well, this is MH… what do you
expect?) for the KL-PG route. Funny thing was the plane was already headed for
takeoff before it was called off! Now that’s when my mind was full of “Mayday”
series. Hhahhaa…. They never explained what happened but after sitting on the
plane for 30minutes then it took off again… Hmm… loose screw? =P
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| At Shin-Yokohama Tempura Restaurant |
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| Yummy Yummy! |
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| Hey, It's Yokohama! |
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| Cute Toast at a Convenient Store |
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| Leaving Japan... |
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| Sammy enjoying a Beer.... |
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| Soba as Appetizer! Finally something nice from MH! |
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