Hakone and the Quest to see Mr. Fuji

Kyoto to Tokyo......

....goofing around on the train!

We had a quest to see Mt. Fuji, which is about an hour west of metropolitan Tokyo.  We decided to spend the day in the Hakone area.  We arrived in Odawara and then took a cute little train up to Hakone.  However,  just short of the town of Hakone is an open air art museum.  With art spread over a few acres with beautiful views of the mountains, it was a great opportunity to stretch our legs and breath some fresh air.

The Hakone Open Air Art Museum has a collection of works by Picasso, but they are housed in a building.

So much Henry Moore.....why????

After a quick lunch in Hakone, the next portion of the journey was in a gondola/cable car/funicular up to the highest point in the Hakone area.  At this point, we were supposed to see Mt. Fuji, but alas, it was hidden in the clouds.

The next gondola had us descend down to Lake Ashi.  From here we took a nice boat ride to the other side of the lake.

As we were docking at Hakone-machi I looked back and Mt. Fuji made an appearance!  You have to look closely to see the outline, but it's there.  We successfully completed our quest!

I was hungry on the train ride to Tokyo so I purchased one of these beautifully wrapped boxes of food.  You think it looks good from the outside....

You open the box and you get this beautiful presentation!

So this picture of Mt. Fuji was taken about a week later when I was taking the train back to Tokyo to catch my flight back to China!