Hakone Day Trip

Having been away from the blog for such a long time, I find myself at a bit of a loss as to what to write. I certainly would like to start by giving excuses or making apologies. (I hear the latter is what is done at the beginning of all meetings in Britain.) I’ve been feeling tired more often than I think I should for a long time now. Well, the last few months have been particularly bad, but actually I’ve thought so for about a year now. I listen to a knitting podcast called CastOn and the podcaster was talking about having thyroid problems in the episodes I was listening to in May, and she also recommended people not to sit by and put up with problems, but to go to the doctor and do something about it. So finally, at the end of May, I got myself to the doctor and had a blood test. I don’t have thyroid problems, but I do have an abnormally high number of antibodies for E.B.virus (which is the main cause of mononucleosis). I find that if I take it easy, listen to my body, nap when I’m tired, and eat three meals a day, I’m fine. But I’m particularly weak when it comes to heat, or when I don’t eat properly. Okay, enough of that!

Yesterday, Toshio and I went to Hakone. Hakone is a famous hot-spring resort town for those who don’t know. I mentioned a few days ago that hydrangeas were one of my favorite flowers, so after a bit of research, Tosh said Friday night, “Let’s go to Hakone. There’s a temple there that’s famous for ajisai. You said you liked them.” (What a sweetie!)

Here are some of the hydrangeas we saw that day--these were at Amidaji. I love that color blue!

We were a little bit excited about the trip the night before so we didn’t get to sleep until 2 a.m. and then woke up at 5:30! We got on the 6:50 train to Shinjuku and boarded the Romance Car special express to Hakone at 8 a.m. Toshio made reservations the night before so we had two seats in the front car close to the huge windows that allow the front passengers to watch the scenery go by (which is why it’s called a Romance Car, I guess). Tosh and I had two seats in the 4th row, but they were a bit raised like in a movie theater, so we could see over everyone’s head. There was an open space next to us, where two seats should have been, and there was something that looked like a luggage stand. A few minutes before we left, the driver came in, climbed on the luggage rack thingy, opened a hatch in the roof and pulled down a small ladder that attached to the luggage rack and the hatch opening, thereby climbing up to his perch in the top of the train! It was so cool. I wish I’d taken a picture. T and I enjoyed the scenery as far as Machida, but then we both passed out until we got to Hakone. I would’ve fallen asleep even earlier, but I was fascinated by the area of Tokyo we passed through. It was a part of Tokyo neither of us had seen before, probably because we never take that train line. It really affected me and it felt like when I first landed in Japan, the strangeness and excitement of something new. I kept that feeling for most of the day.

The old-fashioned train going through the tunnel at Tou no Sawa Station.

Then we awoke in Hakone at Hakone-Yumoto Station and our excursions truly began. We got off the Romance Car into a huge crowd and a blast of humid heat that remained pretty unbearable throughout the day. Our first destination was the ajisai temple (officially called Amidaji--阿弥陀寺), so named for the myriad, beautiful hydrangea bushes that surround it. (Ajisai is hydrangea, you see.) We got on the ajisai train (Hakone Tozan Tetsudo, 箱根登山鉄道), which was unbelievably crowded, and went one station over to Tou no Sawa Station (塔ノ沢駅). The hydrangeas along the tracks were beautiful, and we were looking forward to seeing more at the temple.

At Tou no Sawa Station. (Tosh often jokes that I'm going bald because of my weird hairline, and it sure does look like it in this picture. What's up with that?!)

We left the station, which had no attendants and left us on the honors system, and headed downhill. I began to appreciate at once how hilly and steep Hakone is. There were no signs for the temple so we went to two tea shops that were on the path, hoping to get directions, but at 9:45 a.m. neither was open. Then we spotted a woman brushing her front porch, so Tosh asked me to ask for directions. (He was embarrassed and said she would be nicer to a foreigner. If anything, the opposite was more likely to happen, but I have enough confidence in my Japanese that I didn’t care.) She kindly pointed the way and described how to get there. She said it would be a 30 minute walk. I was somewhat disheartened at this, seeing as how I’d only had about three and a half hours sleep and I was hoping for a relaxing day. Oh well. Shou ga nai ne. We set off in the direction indicated and lo and behold came upon a sign that pointed the way, but was situated up the path so that only a person who already knew which way to go would see the dang thing. Tosh said it was probably a marketing ploy by the tea shops to get people to come in and ask for directions and possibly have a cup of tea before making the 30-minute trek. It was so hot, I bet it’d have worked on me if only the places had been open. We bought some bottles of cold tea from a vending machine and were on our way. The signs and the guidebook Tosh had both said it would only take 20 minutes, but the lady near the station turned out to be correct. The temple was a good climb up the hill/mountain, and the path was a hundred thousand ancient steps that wound their way up the hillside. The forest was beautiful and dark and it looked very cool, but it felt pretty hot and very humid. However, I was eager to get back under the trees after a brief walk on the street in direct sunlight. How cool the forest was then! We passed through a temple gate, and I felt something hit my head. I thought I hit a branch or something, but there were no tree branches close overhead. There wasn’t a bug or leaf there either when I tentatively put my hand on my head to check. Tosh said I’m probably being trailed by ghost. At about the time we thought we’d collapse, we began to see some hydrangea. Hooray! It was false hope, but the temple turned out to be only 5 minutes further on.

Here is where something hit my head. I was very impressed that most of the Ojizo-sama had on crocheted hats and bibs!

The hydrangeas were beautiful, but the first thing we did was make a beeline to the water fountain where one purifies the hands and mouth before praying. We poured cool water on our hands and rinsed our mouths. It was so cold and refreshing! Tosh poured some on his handkerchief to wipe away the sweat that was literally dripping from his arms the whole hike up. We approached the temple to pray and heard some beautiful music and singing. It sounded like kabuki or something to me and I thought maybe someone was practicing there, but Toshio heard that it was a monk who was singing and playing the biwa. The lady in the shop part of the temple said that he would give another performance after ten people came, so we sat down for some tea and waited with two other women. We had seen a whole group of people on the path below us, so we knew we wouldn’t have to wait long.

In front of some of the lovely hydrangeas at Amidaji.

After the requisite number of people had arrived, we headed into a low, adjoining room and sat on some stools. I was so glad to sit up off the ground. My jeans were hot and sticking to me and didn’t stretch at all, making kneeling on the floor where we had our tea very uncomfortable. The monk was a no-nonsense sort of man. Tosh tried to sit on the low tables and was scolded a bit. After sitting down (on the chairs) I looked at Tosh and over his shoulder there was a reclining figure that was smiling broadly and staring right at my face! It was a sculpture of a reclining Buddha, but it looked like a real person! It was awesome. Then after almost everyone was seated another man actually sat on the low tables in front and was briskly asked to please refrain from sitting on the tables. Maybe they ought to put up a sign or something, but perhaps the monk enjoyed scolding people.

He began by telling us about the history of the biwa, how it came to Japan from Iran through India and China. It’s shape has changed along the way, but it still is remarkably similar to its middle-eastern lute-like ancestor, though the biwa is much flatter. The type of biwa that he played was made of a hard wood and is meant to be struck as it’s played, creating a percussion sound to go with the melody. He “reminded” us of the Heike Tale, which all persons except myself had studied in middle school. Upon request, one woman was able to recite a small passage from it and he gave her a small present after the performance. The scene he played was a battle seen, and Tosh said he could truly visualize the fighting through the intervals of rough percussion and staccato melody. I understood about half of it, but I must confess I gave up trying to understand the classical Japanese and tried to rest. The Buddha statues behind the monk were the most beautiful I have ever seen—each with a peaceful, beatific smile. After the performance, we were allowed to look around at the many statues and things on display. I took a closer look at the laughing Buddha, and in addition to being life-size, it was woven like a tatami mat! The craftsmanship was unbelievable.

We each bought a charm to protect us from sickness (the six sicknesses to be exact, whatever those may be) and proceeded outside once again. There was a large wheel with a large circle of beads around it above the collection box out front. The string of beads had been put up when we went in before, but now the loop was hanging down, and someone was pulling it hand over hand. It made a great clacking sound as beads hit beads, and the creaking of the ancient wheel seemed to shake the whole temple! Someone said that turning the wheel and hundred beads was equivalent to praying 100 times, so Tosh and I decided we’d better do it. It was very interesting, something we’d never seen before. We took a last look at the beautiful hydrangeas and then were off down the hill. (*note: We watched a tv program today that briefly showed the temple and it said that the monk planted all those hydrangeas himself!)

Here I am, praying with zeal. (Sorry it's not in focus. Neither were my prayers, for that matter!)

Here is T too. It's probably the best shot you'll see of his face on this blog! (Tarzan has stage fright...)

We passed a group of elementary school kids that were huffing and puffing and groaning, and Tosh joked, “We should say, ‘Can you believe the place was closed?’” “And there weren’t any ajisai either,” I added. “Pretty unbelievable considering it takes an hour to get there.” Rest assured, we made these jokes in English to spare the poor hikers. Before long, we thoroughly agreed that as hard as it was going up hill, going down was not much easier. I tried to take some pictures but my legs shook so much that not a one was in focus!

The same gate where my head was tapped on the way up. The statue would be just to the right of this shot. Out of focus due to shaking legs (as mentioned above).

Tarzan, bounding down the hillside. He was so fast, he's just a blur. (Nevermind the photographer!)

At the station we got on the train again and went two stations up to Miya no Shita Station (宮ノ下駅) to go have lunch at the family-owned and run Naraya Cafe. The train line is so steep (the 2nd steepest in the world after one in Switzerland) that there were two switchbacks, one on either side of Ohiradai Station (大平台駅). The hydrangeas close to the train were beautiful and the bridge passing over a river almost made me pee my pants. It was a far drop and I was standing right in front of the window!

We got to our station and I was hoping the café would be close by. Naraya Café was right there, not a two minute walk away (downhill), and it was even more charming than it appeared to be in the guidebook. Tosh got a hotdog and I had potato soup with a bit of fresh baked wheat bread. I wish I’d taken a picture. The food was delicious. We went outside with our drinks to try the ashi-yu (足湯 foot bath), which was the main reason this café was in the guidebook. The ashi-yu was built up so that it was more or less even with the sloping road. One was probably a good 2 meters from the main wooden deck and the other about a meter high with a bench and a few steps to get to them. It was pleasant, but on such a hot day, I would’ve preferred cool water. There were two baths: one warm, one hot. I didn’t even bother trying the hot one. I bet it’d be wonderful on a cold day though, especially after the hike to the ajisai temple. The place had been pretty empty until now, but perhaps we were good advertising because within five minutes, six or seven people had stopped to join us.

Washing my hands in the world's smallest sink at Naraya Cafe. T commented that if some gaijin had just arrived in Japan and used that sink, they would've thought Japanese people were midgets! (esp. with the footstool in front of it!) We ate our lunch at the table just outside (to the far right there).

Here is the 2nd generation, the father (left) in my descriptions and the mother/daughter (right), sitting by the ashi-yu with a television reporter. The masseuse is the grandmother/mother, but I don't have a pic of her. (Both this picture and the one below are from Naraya Cafe's blog)

The same tv reporter with her feet in the ashi-yu. It looks like the cameraman was taking a foot-bath too. You can sort of see the drop-off to the bench and the deck is about one meter below that.

I was getting hot and we’d had enough of the foot bath, so we went back inside for some ice cream. Just as we ordered, the daughter said, “Okaasan, Okaasan! Help!” We all looked over to see her bent over an older woman lying on her back on the wooden deck below the foot baths. At first I thought she had fallen, but since we hadn’t heard anything, it must have been a heart attack or something. All three of us rushed over to see what was wrong; it was leg cramps. We could actually see her leg muscles in spasm, so the mother got to work massaging. It was quite a scene. After five or ten more minutes of massage, the woman was able to make her way to the foot bath. (She seemed a bit whiny in spite of the fact that she must’ve been in real pain.) In that interval, Tosh had gotten his ice cream and we took a seat at a bar-like area looking out onto the deck and foot baths.

Another shot of me at the sink. The counter is in the background with the wooden deck out of sight to the right of it. Our spot on the stools was to the left out of the picture.

Around this time, the granddaughter (around 3 maybe?) awoke from her nap and walked proprietarily around the main room of the café. Two more customers arrived and were ordering when the granddaughter says to her mother behind the counter, “Mom! I have to pee right now! I’m gonna pee my pants!” “Just a minute,” she says, taking the customers’ order, turning to get my ice cream, and with trays waiting to be taken to customers outside. All of a sudden, as I had gotten my ice cream in fact, one of the men outside cried out, “Mata tsutta!” (“She’s cramped again!”). The woman behind the counter’s face was priceless. The mother rushed over to massage some more. We had a great view of the scene and couldn’t help but laugh. As Tosh said, it looked like some kind of comedy, the old woman lying behind the others so we could only see her anguished face and the cramped appendages flailing in the air. The other customers around her were standing out of their seats a bit to see what was happening and the whole situation was so incredible that we were shaking with laughter behind our ice cream cones. The little girl’s father came out with baby sister in tow and took them all potty just in time. She came out with her dress tucked in her panties. At that point, we decided to leave before something else happened.

We walked down the hill to a bus stop to go back to Hakone-Yumoto Station. The train was so crowded, it had lost its cache by that point. Even though we walked downhill, I got a splitting headache and felt heat sickness coming on. The bus was air-conditioned, but the ride wasn’t nearly long enough to get some rest. At the station, we walked up yet another hill to a toy museum that Tosh wanted to see. I figured a museum would be a nice, air-conditioned place to sit, so I was all for it, but the hill was killer! There was a road sign warning a 21° incline. Admission to the toy museum was expensive (well, more than we wanted to pay to see kitsch 1950s and 60s toys at any rate), but I was wiped out, totally spent after that last hill, so I sat on a bench outside, while Tosh pretended to look around the air-conditioned gift shop. I was looking pretty miserable so Tosh said, “Let’s go to the hamburger shop just across the way.” It was part of the plan anyway, but we thought it would be after the museum. It was called Go! Go! Wimpy. Inside were retro posters of movies from the 50s to the 70s, but though about two-thirds of the movies were American, the posters were in French!

Waiting at the bus stop across from Go! Go! Wimpy burger joint. Too bad I didn't have the presence of mind to take pics inside.

My head still felt awful and the thought of food made me ill. All I wanted was a cool place to nap, but that was pretty much out of the question. Tosh was worried about me (and therefore a little bit moody), but I told him to enjoy himself and get a hamburger. The bummer of it was, the hamburgers looked delicious! American-style just like they said! But I couldn’t even bear to look at Tosh’s plate. I leaned my head against the wall and shut my eyes and the next thing I knew, Tosh was shaking my shoulder and his plate was empty. I asked him if we could go home early. (We had already bought return tickets for 7 and it was only 3:30). I was afraid he’d be ticked, but after a moment of frustration and a quick walk, he came back with a smile, directed me to a bus, and we went back to Hakone-Yumoto Station. From there, he put me on a bench and got us first-class tickets on an express back to Shinjuku, Tokyo. It was just about to leave and it was the last express of the day offering first-class tickets, so we were lucky. The seats were large and comfy enough, and we slept the whole way back. I felt like a new person after the nap, and we made it back home around 7:00. Aside from the heat, it was a wonderful day!