Hakone, take 2

I came to Hakone! The last time I came here, I hated the place because it was gloomy, rainy, and it stunk. But the last time I came here, I was young and childish, so I decided to give it another shot. The place still smelled really bad because the onsen at Hakone are filled with sulfur, but the train ride on the Tozen line was beautifully lined with the famous ajisai (hydrangea) of Hakone.

   

We got off at Gora station to get to our hotel and were greeted by ajisai ice cream! Being me, of course I couldn’t resist and bought one for myself. It tasted like fruit loops.

The hotel was fairly difficult to find and Hakone days end really early (around 5 or 6). In addition, there are no street lights, so it’s really dark. Not to mention, Japan has no sidewalks, so you really need to be careful of cars. If you come to Japan and cannot read maps or have no sense of direction, I suggest you get a gps. Without it, I probably would have died out there.

Anyway, the hotel we stayed at was really cheap. It was only ¥3000 per person for a room that fit three twin beds. There was a shared bath and bathroom, but the entire place was fairly clean. There was an old rusty apartment smell, though, but it can’t be helped because of the weather conditions of Hakone (and the sulfur).

There is no food served at the hotel, though, and no restaurants anywhere nearby (even if there were, it would be closed, anyway), but there was a vending machine that sold “hot food” (basically microwaved food). I don’t recommend it, in fact, I recommend against it because it was so bad, so if you need food, go to the convenience store nearby.