Thursday 28^th August, 2012

Had to wait for washing so reorganised packed and left stuff for Keiran and Emma at Kimi to collect on the way back through to Sendai and Shirakawa.

I got the ticket to Odawara but need to remember to check which platform (so I don’t need to go all the way back to ask!). Arrived at Odawara and bought Hakone Free Pass but we need a different bus company to get to Ubako. The bus dropped us literally in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road so we had to walk down to the station. The track was very rough and rustic. The hotel was the only other thing in the vicinity so no hope of missing it or looking for other accommodation or meals (good thing I had booked the package). The hotel was pretty classy, grand piano pianola playing western classical music in the foyer, welcome drink, lots of willing helpers to fetch trolleys etc.

Went for a walk and ride on the ropeway – Mt Fuji was co-operating beautifully with us for some great photos. Took the cable car to Owakudani but didn’t look round much because the cable car was finishing up for the day.

 

Watched the sun set behind Mt Fuji from our balcony – simply stunning! Then we went to use the onsen before dinner. The views from the onsen were fabulous too – shame we thought it would be busy and left the waterproof camera in the room. As a special treat, between 5-6 pm, there was free hot sake served to you in the rotemburo (outside bath). That’s service!

Our waiter was a source of great amusement and dinner was a multi course food fest of traditional Japanese food featuring local produce.

The only complaint really about this place was the lack of coverage for the advertised free WiFi – you had to sit in the lobby opposite the service desk to get more than a  one bar signal. This makes blogging difficult!