Japan 2023

February 27th, 2023

Since also today very good weath­er was pre­dict­ed, we got on the road again very ear­ly. At 5:30 a.m. we were already in the car to expe­ri­ence the sun­rise at Fuji. The des­ti­na­tion was the loca­tion from yesterday’s sun­set, Lake Yamanakako. We drove to the same place where we had been the day before. Appar­ent­ly, how­ev­er, we were not the only ones who had the idea.

All around us we found sev­er­al pho­tog­ra­phers who had set up cam­eras of all price ranges on tripods. One pho­tog­ra­ph­er had obvi­ous­ly even spent the entire night at the loca­tion. We found his car again at the same place as the night before, in front of it he had set up a cam­era, appar­ent­ly to cre­ate a time­lapse. When we arrived, the swans were still sleep­ing near the shore.

At sun­rise it was again very cold at Lake Yamanakako, as you can see from the ici­cles on the tree trunk above. After a short time, the swans were also awake again.

After an exten­sive pho­to ses­sion, we drove on to Hakone at Lake Ashi. There is a shrine and a very pho­to­genic torii direct­ly in the lake again. Here is a first pic­ture with the drone:

Hakone Shrine (jap. 箱根神社, Hakone-jin­ja) is a Shin­tō shrine on the shores of Lake Ashi in the Japan­ese city of Hakone in Ashigarashimo Coun­ty, Kana­gawa Pre­fec­ture. The shrine is also known as Hakone Gongen (箱根権 現).

Luise and Simone first picked up their tem­ple stamp for their stamp book there once more. After­wards we took a pho­to of the Torii. Then we want­ed to have a break­fast in a café.

The shrine was found­ed in 757 dur­ing the reign of Emper­or Kōshō. The orig­i­nal shrine is said to have been locat­ed at the top of Mount Koma­gatake. Part of it, now known as Hakone-Motot­sumiya, can still be found on the top of the moun­tain. Lat­er, the shrine was moved to the shore of Lake Ashi. The rea­son for its con­struc­tion was said to be the paci­fi­ca­tion of the nine-head­ed drag­on liv­ing at the bot­tom of Lake Ashi by the priest Mangan.

Minamo­to no Yori­masa prayed at this shrine for guid­ance and pro­tec­tion after his defeat at the Bat­tle of Ishibashiya­ma dur­ing the Gem­pei War (1180-1185). After he was appoint­ed Shō­gun, he became a patron of the shrine. Dur­ing the Kamaku­ra peri­od (1185-1333), the shrine became very pop­u­lar with the samu­rai. This sup­port con­tin­ued through­out the Sen­goku peri­od. Toy­oto­mi Hideyoshi’s army destroyed the shrine dur­ing the Bat­tle of Odawara by set­ting it on fire. Toku­gawa Ieya­su had the shrine rebuilt and grant­ed it 200 koku from the pro­ceeds. The Toku­gawa shogu­nate con­tin­ued to sup­port the shrine. The shrine has had its present form since 1667.

Lake Ashi is a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion for tourists due to its good trans­port links and beau­ti­ful views of Mount Fuji. There is a reg­u­lar fer­ry ser­vice that cross­es the lake in a north­west / south­east direc­tion. Some of the fer­ries are designed like pirate ships.

On the north shore of the lake was our next des­ti­na­tion, the Tōgendai val­ley sta­tion of the Hakone cable car, which goes up to the active vol­canic zone of the same name.

After break­fast at a nice bak­ery over­look­ing the lake, we want­ed to take the cable car up to the Owaku­dani moun­tain sta­tion to see the hot sul­fur springs and fumaroles there. Eggs are cooked in the sul­fur springs, which then turn black. They are said to pro­long life. They are sold every­where up there and are prob­a­bly a very good source of income.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the cable car was not oper­at­ing due to main­te­nance work, instead a bus ride was offered for the same price. The tick­et sell­er had - appar­ent­ly impressed by Luise’s good knowl­edge of the Japan­ese lan­guage - giv­en us the tip that you can go there much cheap­er with the reg­u­lar bus, which we did. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, how­ev­er, the tour to the springs and fumaroles was closed due to a cur­rent­ly increased vol­canic activity.

But we could still see the steam clouds ris­ing from the hot springs. With the sul­furous smell, it was already a lit­tle eerie. From the top, we had anoth­er nice view of Fuji-San with the drone. After a stop at a Star­bucks, we drove back to Lake Kawaguchi behind our hotel and vis­it­ed Nagasa­ki Park, a small head­land with a nat­ur­al shore area. There were also some cher­ry trees there. Here again we had a beau­ti­ful view of the majes­tic Fuji-San.

Because of the good weath­er the day before, we had already vis­it­ed all our pre­vi­ous­ly planned spots. With still very nice weath­er, we first drove west again to Lake Saiko. Here, too, we had a beau­ti­ful view of Mount Fuji, as did two young Japan­ese women. Here I let the drone ascend once again.

Since the sun­set was slow­ly approach­ing, we searched the Inter­net again for the most suit­able loca­tions for it and found again and again Lake Yamanakako, which we had already intu­itive­ly select­ed the night before. So we went there again. It was a great expe­ri­ence for us once more and our swans were there to enjoy it as well.

For our last din­ner at the Mount Fuji Luise had cho­sen a Shabu Shabu restau­rant for us. There was an “all you can eat” menu for the equiv­a­lent of just under 22€. For addi­tion­al the equiv­a­lent of 9€ we got “all you can drink” includ­ing alco­holic bev­er­ages (quite well sort­ed incl. beer, wine, liqueurs, whiskey etc.). You had 100 min­utes after the first order and could reorder at will via a tablet avail­able at the table. What we also did diligently…

The orders were then deliv­ered by a serv­ing robot. The food was again very tasty and we had a very amus­ing evening. Some­how Luise got us back to the hotel safe and sound.