Bowling and Hakone

We started off the weekend Friday night with a little bowling. This was the first time that I have been bowling and probably the third time for Michael. The setup was the same as in America, the only real difference was getting shoes from a vending machine and paying after we bowled. It was a good time, but since I haven't bowled in more than a year I was a little rusty. Over the weekend, Michael and I took a trip to Hakone. It's about a 3.5 hour drive from Utsunomiya and maybe an hour or so from Tokyo. We took the interchange which guided us through Tokyo. It was pretty surreal driving through Tokyo. We were able to drive through Shibuya and past the exits for Ginza. Never would I have imagined that we would be driving in Tokyo. Well, technically Michael was driving. We were able to see Tokyo from a different perspective since we always take the train. It seemed so calm and quiet. After about 4 hours we arrived in Hakone. We decided to have lunch on the south end of Lake Ashi before heading north to Gotemba where our ryokan (Japanese style hotel) was located.
After lunch we visited Hakone Shrine to check out the torii in the water. It was just along the end of the Lake with a little walk path out to be directly under the torii.
From there we drove up some mountain roads to go to a Glass Forest. It was an Italian style set up with lots of beautiful glass scupltures. They even had a small display of Chihuly glass. There were also some very intricate glass decor with flowers and people that was so small and so detailed that we had to look under a magnify glass. Too bad we couldn't get a picture to show the justice. After the glass forest we headed towards our ryokan so that we could go to the onsen before dinner.
Shortly after getting settled we headed for the onsen. It was so beautiful with the snow covered trees. After the onsen, we rested for a little bit before heading to dinner. Dinner was fantastic. We got tons of food and we even ordered an extra sashimi plate because I love sashimi and it was really cheap. Hehe. Unfortunately, we miscalculated and it was too much food for us. We had yakiniku for appetizer along with sashimi and a few other small items. After that, we had soup, salmon/ikura donburi, tsukemono, and tofu. For dessert, we had 2 types of cake and ice cream. Somehow, we managed to eat all of the dessert. On Sunday, we started off with a nice breakfast buffet of Japanese and Western style food. It's so crazy how we have adapted to the culture in Japan because I no longer find it strange to have miso soup in the morning for breakfast. After we left the hotel we headed for Togendai on the northeast side of Lake Ashi to catch the ropeway to Owakudani.
Owakudani is the area around a crater created during the last eruption of Mount Hakone some 3000 years ago. Today, much of the area is an active volcanic zone where sulfurous fumes, hot springs and hot rivers can be experienced. There was sign that said the water was 80 degrees celsius (176 degrees farenheit). When you get off the ropeway, there was definitely the distinctive sulfur smell. Owakudani was also famous for black eggs (黒たまご) which are eggs boiled in the hot springs with a bit of a sulfur smell. It's suppose to increase longevity. It tasted just like a hard boiled egg. After our Owakudani journey we headed back for Utsunomiya. We hope you had a lovely weekend! Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!