Hakone Trip – Day 2 – Volcano Valley and Lake Ashinoko

Day two started with us venturing to Gora Station to hop on a cable car which then led us to the Hakone ropeway!

The ropeway brought us to Owakudani, a volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. It was created about 3000 years ago as a result of the last eruption of the Hakone volcano. We walked around the area and got some of their famous black eggs. These eggs are steamed after being carefully boiled in the heat of the spring waters, which gives it its characteristic black shell. They say eating one egg adds seven years to your life (seems like people working there should be immortal!) We shared five between us four. They tasted like regular hard boiled eggs.

After taking in the sights, we continued on the ropeway to get down to Lake Ashi so we could to the Hakone Sightseeing Cruise. We had about an hour before the next ship came so we stopped for lunch. You should be able to see Mt. Fuji from the lake but today was just too cloudy. Fuji sure likes to hide.

I don’t know what Jackie’s talking about, I could see Mt. Fuji just fine.

The cruise is fun because the boats look like old pirate ships! I don’t think they were modeled after real pirate ships, but 18th century battle ships, but they call them pirate ships and that’s all that matters lol. The boys seemed to really like it, although Jonathan got frustrated because he couldn’t run around unaccompanied, so he threw a giant tantrum. It was a beautiful trip though. It took probably around 45 minutes to get to the port we wanted to stop at.

Lakes are awesome and this one was especially beautiful.

We walked about 10 minutes from the port to visit the Hakone-jinja shrine. This shrine dates back to 757 and many military commanders and travelers have prayed there for safe travels. It was a pretty walk with views of the lake and the shrine was up some stairs, hidden in a lot of huge trees. They were gorgeous trees!

After visiting the shrine we walked down some steps to see the Torii Gates of Peace…a very popular photo spot. There was a very long line to get photos under the gate. Initially we were going to wait in line and Taylor took Jeffrey to run around in the forest, but after not moving much we decided to just get some shots from the stairs and head back.

We got tickets that allowed us to ride the cruise and ropeway as much as we wanted for the day, so instead of taking a bus back to Gora Station we decided to go back to the ship and take the ropeway back to Owakudani to get some of their black ice cream.

Jeffrey needed a little rest by this point

Then back home for a late nap.

For dinner we decided to go to Ninja Cafe. More of a quick eats place than a restaurant, we even sat outside because the weather was so nice. They had an assortment of food from pasta, to fried rice, and fried fish in the shape of ninja stars. The waiter was the nicest ninja ever!

Jeffrey wanted a picture by these little cats

After dinner the boys had a nice relaxing onsen bath and then ninja pancakes for dessert!

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