Hakone – Tokyo

 

And it was time to leave Hakone. 

Indeed it was very sad. Maya got very attached to a girl who works in the ryokan. Useless to say she was spoiled rotten by the whole staff and cried all the way to Tokyo. 

I was pretty sad too, the ryokan was super comfortable and the onsen relaxing…and the food amazing. If only I could use teleportation! 

From tomorrow, I’ll tell you about our stay in Tokyo. If you’re otaku like me, you’ll probably enjoy even more what I’m going to show you. 

I’ll see tomorrow in Tokyo! 

つづく

Hakone Shrine

 

One of the shrines I was more eager to visit was this one. 

I love shinto shrines, they are welcoming and peaceful. Despite the big number of people and the consequent background noise, it seems they belong to a parallel reality. 

When you enter into a shrine, it’s like getting into a bubble and you feel well. 

I don’t have religion but I was happy to follow the ritual to express my gratitude to the universe. It was just respectful and it was just right. 

Shinto religion isn’t intruding, it is respectful and I appreciate it immensely. 

The tori gate on the water was just the cherry on top. I could have admired it for ages. 

That was the only part affected by the amount of people in visit, as we had to make a long queue to take a picture there. 

All the same, I’d love to visit it once again. 

つづく

Onigiri my passion!

 

Once out of the ship, we realized it was lunch time already. 

We crossed the street from the harbor and we found a konbini. Not a random konbini, our favorite one, the 7eleven!

Maya of course went for her chicken croquette but I kept experimenting with the onigiri. 

Onigiri are those triangle shaped rice balls (why do they call them balls in English!?) filled with anything you might think of. 

Since we realized that the combini was the best lunch solution, I decided to try and taste them all, but believe it or not, in 11 days, I didn’t manage…there were just too many!

Anyway is a very tasty and healthy comfort food. 

Japanese food is the best!

つづく

Lake Ashi!

After the scary experience on the ropeway, when I got off I was about to kiss the ground.

Something that I didn’t do as I was distracted already by what was waiting for me: cruise on the Lake Ashi. 

Since I learned that it was possibile to go on a tall ship and reach the shrine by water, I wanted to do it. 

For me was particularly exciting as this short travel meant a mixture of my favorite things: I was in Japan; I got onboard of a tall ship; the tall ship was decorated like a pirate ship; I cruised on a big lake!!!! 

I was so happy I barely behaved properly!

I want to share also a small video with you. Aren’t the waves mesmerizing? I’d stare at them all day long!

つづく

 

Ropeway and volcano!

 

Hakone is not that big and everything we wanted to watch it was a few minutes away from the ryokan. 

Being almost at the top of the mountain and among other mountains as well, there was a bit of travel to do in order to watch the local amenities. 

And here I did something I didn’t think I would do: the ropeway. 

The first thing we visited was the volcano. The panoramic view was unreal, made a bit creepier thanks to the sulfur clouds coming out of the earth. 

Actually I saw them once on the ground with my feet! I suffer the heights and I didn’t really wanted to go on the top of the ropeway, but despite everything I managed, something I’m happy of. 

I limited my peeps out of the windows a lot, although I couldn’t really resist when I saw the lake at the very bottom of the ride, along with a tall ship. 

I knew we were going to board that and that helped! 

つづく

Onsen!

Happy Monday, my dear readers. 

I’ll keep going on with my tale. After exiting the food tunnel, I’ll move forward to illustrate the other nice things we saw in Hakone. 

But before that let me finish with the ryokan. 

In this inn we had two onsen, one inside the structure and the second outside. 

I couldn’t take picture inside as I didn’t know whether someone would be there, but I’m sharing the one outside. It’s kinda private as you have to book your time in. 

Onsen is already a very nice and relaxing experience, but the outer one is unreal. You’re basically bathing in the woods, listening to bird chirruping and watching the sky darkening. 

The temperature of the water was a tad lower than the inside onsen, which was even better for me (I usually love very hot temperature, but that one was even hotter!) and the surrounding was just perfect to relax and put you in touch with nature.

From tomorrow I’ll bring with me around Hakone and will show you some of the fantastic things you can see or visit in the area. 

つづく

Food Top 3 – 1st. The second dinner.

 

After yesterday’s break, I’m back to my travel diary!

And you probably would expect this collage as well. This is what we had for dinner last night we spent at the ryokan. 

Once again I cannot tell what I had, I simply don’t know, but I can assure you it was super delicious. 

I’ve tried the shabu-shabu for the first time and it was a nice surprise. 

If possibile, I’d love to eat like this every day. Dunno how to explain it but I feel nostalgic eating this kind of meal. 

Previous life’s remembrance? Who knows…

Have a lovely weekend people, I’ll see you on Monday!

 

Happy talk like a pirate day!

Ahoy me Lads and Lasses!

Who’s been following this blog for a while knows my passion for pirates! 

So, today I want to celebrate the International talk like a pirate day. Well I kinda did, but then life got in the way and then I’m posting only tonight…but whatever, let’s party! 

I find the pirate figure really fascinating and whenever I can I read books on the matter.

Here in the picture is a bit of sneak peak of what you’ll see later on in my travel diary. I’ve taken this picture next to ACE’s statue. He’s one of my favorite characters in the anime One Pice…which is about pirates of course! 

See ye next high tide, mateys!

Food Top 3 – 1st. The breakfast.

As promised I’ll share with you every possibile detail about my ryokan stay.

This one here was the breakfast we had the first morning (the second one, since there was a train travel ahead, we decided to skip). 

Since I’ve moved to Ireland, I got used to a different breakfast, the savory one. Until I was in Italy my usual one was made with a sweet piece and a coffee or so. 

Although I’m now used to the savory breakfast and it’s not unusual for me having eggs or sausages or even smoked salmon, the kaiseki breakfast was a totally new experience. 

The grilled fish was actually pleasant and that cheese with inside veggies or herbs (the one in the pictures with the soba) was delicious and fluffy. 

This meal brought me straight to lunch time and probably I could have skipped that too, but I was too eager to try to eat as much as I could that I didn’t. 

So I’ll go on with the third meal tomorrow and then I promise I’ll change the topic…more or less!

つづく

Food Top 3 – 1st. The first dinner.

While in Hakone, I ate the best food I’d had during this trip in Japan. 

I warned you in my last post, the following ones will concentrate on details, as I loved our inn and the stay there immensely. 

The collage represent the dinner that was brought to us the first night. 

This ryokan, as per tradition, offers kaiseki dinners and breakfasts. And yes, you’re thinking right, I’ll show you everything. 

Kaiseki dinner is a multi-course dinner, where the chef decides day by day what to cook for customers. It include a great number of different dishes, diverse in taste, color and consistency. 

Portions look small but at the end of the meal you’re very full, believe me….and I eat a lot usually!

I’m sorry I cannot illustrate more of what I had in details as I tried so many different thing I didn’t know the name of. Half of them I didn’t even know they existed. 

What I know is that I’ve tried for the first time raw fish and I found it delicious. 

See you tomorrow, guess with what?!

 

つづく