Hakone and Fukuzumiro

Hello,

I won`t mention Tokyo yet because we have only had one full day there, and we have four more before we leave Japan. So let`s start with Hakone;

We had a couple of nights in the Hakone region of Japan famous for it`s Onsen (natural hot spring baths) and views of Mount Fuji. I had booked us into a traditional Japanese Ryokan for Sueann`s birthday. The Ryokan is a 100 year old inn originaly run by a samurai. While in the Ryokan we wore yakata and walked around in slippers. We quickly dismissed the single sex communal onsen and had a dip together in the family onsen by ourselves. Totally relaxing.

For breakfast and dinner we ate our way through about five courses of the finest japanese food. We had familiar things like raw tuna, fish tempura, and bowls of noodles with scallops and other sea food. As well as indescribable tastes and textures. My mouth is watering thinking of it.

Our time in the Ryokan was perfect from start to finish

We did a bit of sight seeing on our full day in Hakone which was really nice. As is usual for the region it was to cloudy to see Mount Fuji but we had fun going up the hills in a cable car and across the river in a ...erm ...pirate ship!?!? Then back to the Ryokan for a soak in the onsen, mmmm.

Here`s a few pictures of the Ryokan. Hopefully they will show how great it was.

This is us having a spot of dinner









This is dinner. One of many courses. Yum.









Here is the view from our windows.









Me in the garden surrounded by the rest of the hotel. It is actually darker than the picture but still beautiful.









Sueann making herself pretty.












Bye for now.