Hakone

Corbett | March 16, 2003 10:19 AM

After finishing up our meetings in Tokyo, Irene and I looked at each other, "So where we going next?" We were both kind of burned out on Tokyo and wanted to see something outside the city. Our Taiwan friends loved Hakone for it's hot springs and rope cars, and it was only a 75 min train ride from Shinjuku, so we decided to go straight to the station and try to find a hotel.

We arrived at Hakone, which immediately reminded us of a larger cleaner Peitou in Taiwan. Japanese style hotels, hot springs, a main street, and a sulpher spring river running next to the train station. We had our Odakyu tourist map, and the next day we did the "Recommended Day-Pass Tour" connecting the dots between bus to boat to rope car to cable car to train. It was nice being cold and seeing snow again.

Good break, though I think the hot spring baths in Taiwan are hotter and more interesting. Only 5 min from my house and you see some interesting gangster tattoos.

Walking around the deserted streets of Hakone at night, surrounded by old grey and brown buildings, Irene summed it up best. "This is the kind of place you go to if you're a writer and you are writing a looooooonnnng book about people who are dying." We were on the 8:39 train the next morning back to the airport.

I realized after 15 years that Japan is just not the place for me.

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Category: Mr. Asia

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