Hakone was rushed because we only had a day there, ended up arriving late, and also just had unfortunate timing because the ropeway was closed due to volcanic activity. I suppose that is a good reason to be closed. We also got there so late that hiking via the replacement bus just didn’t seem worth it because that would require an additional chunk of travel time. We decided to settle for the Hakone Open Air Museum and onsen.
This was my first experience with an open air museum – it was lots of fun! I’m so jealous of the children that got to go into the more interactive installations.
Hakone was also my first experience with an onsen. I have no pictures from the onsen, for obvious reasons, but it was actually pretty easy to bare all because it was so relaxing in there. We needed it because when we got off the train to go to the onsen, we found out that the rain had changed from drizzling to pouring over the course of 30 minutes. And so we were running in the downpour, frantically trying to locate the onsen, except then we went the wrong way because we don’t read or speak Japanese so we were thoroughly soaked by the time we figured it out.
And here is an excellent sandwich I had in Hakone.
