Japan Photos 10

If you stare at this photo long enough you can just make out Mount Fuji. The clouds moved in during the late morning and it obscured the view for the rest of the day.
A street in Hakonemachi. By this point I was fairly annoyed with how the day was going.
That's a slightly better photo of the old famous volcano.
Between Hakonemachi and Moto-Hakone is a reconstruction of the Hakone Checkpoint.
Maybe going through the old checkpoint in the olden days is like going through airport security these days.
Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living.
One of the purposes of the checkpoint was to control guns coming into Edo. The other reason was to control women leaving Edo.
Japanese fellow #1: "Hey, what did you get for question #6?" Japanese fellow #2: "Shut up. You're going to get us in trouble."
Well, well.
This is an old photo of the palace that used to be on that peninsula that sticks out into Lake Ashi.
There is now this building there. It's the Lakeside Observation Center.
Since I was having a lousy day, I decided to take a break and have a cup of apple tea and shortbread biscuits.
This was the view as I sipped my tea. I'm sure it looks nicer when the weather cooperates. Apple tea and biscuits: Ľ300. Taking a break and relaxing: priceless.
This is the view on a good day. This photo was taken from roughly the same spot just weeks before I was there. I read that the winter is a good time to see Mount Fuji because the cold air is crisper and less hazy than in the warmer months, but that didn't work out. How did I get this photo you ask? Well actually it was a very sweet gesture that touched me on an otherwise less than fantastic day.
These are the two ladies who work at the little tea shop on the second floor. After I finished I went out onto the front balcony and looked across the lake to where Mount Fuji would be if you could see it. The little woman on the right came out and started talking to me in pretty decent English. She asked where I was from, if I was traveling alone and if the package I had with me was a souvenir. Meanwhile, the other tea lady came out and handed me the photo above. I think they may have figured that I came all this way to see the mountain and since it was practically invisible through the clouds they would give me a little gift to make it a little better. Now it is possible they give a picture to everyone who orders a cup of tea, but I'd rather think that it was a special act of kindness to a guy who was having a lousy day.
Despite the overcast conditions, I did get a decent photo or two. I like this one.
There was still some slush on the ground from a previous snowfall.
Despite the disappointments of the day, it was nice to get out of the city. It is said that the rows of cedar trees on this old road were planted in 1618, at the time when Hakone was established as a rest place for travelers. There are still 412 trees left standing.
Up there is the Hakone Elementary School.
There is a shinto shrine up in the woods along the lake. I didn't venture to see the shrine, but I did see the torii gate that sits in the water.
It was a crowded bus ride back to Hakone-Yumoto station. I gave my seat up for a young woman who seemed surprised that I did. Maybe they don't do that sort of thing over there. Anyway, after a little while I was starting to regret it as I was beginning to feel queasy and faint. I've never passed out in my life, but I think I was about to on that bus. Fortunately I noticed an empty seat behind me. I sat down and started to feel better.
Back on the train for a long and boring ride back to Tokyo.
Since I hadn't really eaten much that day (which was probably why I almost passed out on the bus) and it was getting late, I didn't particularly want to try to hunt for something to eat for dinner. So I broke my rule and went to McDonalds for a double cheeseburger, fries and a ginger ale.
I ducked into one of these pachinko joints earlier on the trip.
They are incredibly loud and rather smoky. This one was smaller than the one I went in a couple of days earlier.

TO KAMAKURA