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Tokyo Tower and Hakone Onsen

Written by Billy V from Japan
Sunday, 16 March 2008
This morning we had breakfast at the hotel. Dai-ichi Hotel in Shinbashi has an ok buffet. Mostly a mixed clientele of gaijin (foreigners) and Japanese. Mostly for the business crowd that stays in a busy district of Tokyo city. The eggs are always runny compared to American Style (scrambled); Lucky there isnʻt a tour of Local Hawaiʻi people staying there...they would wipeout that buffet in seconds flat, leaving the local people to find other restaurants to still satisfy the leftover hunger. Itʻs also expensive for Hawaiʻi people but moderate for Tokyo City. I think itʻs about $300 a night. Obviously weʻre only staying one night. After breakfast we packed the bags and headed out to Tokyo Tower. It's a highlight of sightseeing tours; like going to the Empire State Building in New York City. It has the observation decks so you could see around Tokyo. It was a really bad day for Tokyo. There was no wind and pollution all around. I've been used to the pollution in the past, but it was really bad today. Thick and worse than Los Angeles if you can imagine that. I looked out towards Roppongi and other landmarks that I knew, but it was just so bad; visibility was about a mile or two if that. There was also long lines to get up there...the wait was about 45 minutes. My son didn't care how long it took though...he had been waiting for it for weeks, so nothing was going to stop him. We even had fun walking down the last 600 stairs to the bottom. Those stairs are exposed to the outside elements and it was a crisp 50 degrees. Nice for my son and I; cold for my wife. But both of us were warm from his smiles. He's happy to see Tokyo Tower\ He's happy to see Tokyo Tower\ Pretty big and impressive\ Pretty big and impressive\ Sawako and Leion heading up to the tower...\ Sawako and Leion heading up to the tower...\ Tokyo City and all it's....pollution....\ Tokyo City and all it's....pollution....\ A look towards Shinjuku\ A look towards Shinjuku\ Leion enjoying the view from above\ Leion enjoying the view from above\ Before we got to Hakone Onsen and our hotel, we stopped by the Hakone ropeway. It's a midway point between two mountains. and then leading down to Hakone Lake. At this one stop, the sulphur and the heat from the earth heat up the waters. That is really what an onsen is. But in this place, you purchase eggs which they put into holders, then they lower them into the waters. It comes out black on the outside, but the inside is perfectly boiled and because of the waters it also comes out not needing salt at all. My son wanted to stop and buy some of those, and to buy some for his Grandmother. It is said that for every egg you eat that comes from there, you add on either 3 years or 3 days to your life. I'll have to check which it is. The first picture below is taken at the ropeway. From there we headed Hakone, where we were going to stay at the Hakone Onsen. It's a REALLY nice hotel, with their onsen as being on the outside. It makes for it being really crisp cold air, and being inside a hot tub that's heated to 41.5 degrees celsius. It's so relaxing. I like being on a stool seated and washing, then getting into a steaming tub to relax. It is truly one of the great things to experience in life. We stayed there the night, and from our onsen tub, when the winds were right we could see Mount Fuji. This is a shot of all three of us in the room's onsen\ This is a shot of all three of us in the room's onsen\ A shot of the hotel room\ A shot of the hotel room\ Beautiful Mt. Fuji in the distance.\ Beautiful Mt. Fuji in the distance.\ We stayed at this hotel twice before, before my son was born, and after he was born. This will be the first time that he will remember it. He had fun. We went into the onsen as soon as we got into the room and enjoyed for about 30 minutes, or as long as my body could handle the temperature. We headed out to eat dinner which came with the hotel stay...or at least we purchased it that way. When you go to eat as onsen places, they usually take great pride in the area that they are from. All of the dishes are from that particular area. From the vegetables, the maybe even the rice, definitely the fish. By Hawaiian Standards, this meal would have left you wanting more. They bring it out in servings; with each serving being no more than 8 or 10 bites. At least until the main course. It did leave me perfect. If I had any more I would have been stuffed. Any less and I would have still been hungry. But all of the food was definitely delicious! We went back to the room and went right back into the onsen. We went back into the room and watched TV. Then back into the onsen. by this time my son was growing tired. So he went back to bed....and the wife and I went back into the onsen......
Last Updated ( Saturday, 29 March 2008 )

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