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!

Tsukiji Fish Market

In central Tokyo is located the world's largest fish market, Tsukiji.

One of the most interesting things to see at Tsukiji is the morning fish auction.  The way it works is that two groups of 60 (first group enters the auction between 5:25AM to 5:50AM) and the second group goes after that.

The spots are first come first served, so Onions and I arrived around 4AM and were placed in the second group.

When your group is called you are walked into a generic looking warehouse and see this.  Here we see already sold fish marked with some sign of the buyer.

Buyers go around and inspect the fish.

Then at the appointed hour, this man rings the bell and the auction begins.  It appeared to me that fish get sold in less than a minute.

Once sold, a man comes around and marks the fish and they are dragged out of the warehouse.

Tsukiji is more than just the fish auction.  An entire economy has grown around the buying and selling of fish and all the items that go with it.  Here's a man using a blade saw to cut frozen fish.

Inside this building is the intermediate wholesalers area.  Off limits until later in the morning.

And this is....fresh wasabi!

A mountain of styrofoam.

Within the market there are a number of small restaurants that specialize in....sushi.  Makes sense.  However, since everyone wants to eat there, the lines snake for hundreds of feet.  Most people will wait for up to three hours to eat at one of these restaurants.  Onions and I took a pass.

Capsule Hotel

In many of the large cities in Japan there are Capsule Hotels.  Let's take a tour.

Here in the lobby, you are required to put your shoes in a locker.  At that point you check-in.

The 9-Hours Capsule Hotel in Kyoto has 9 floors.  Women sleep on floors 3 and 4 and men on 6 through 8.  Men and women take separate elevators.

What's on floor 9 you ask? (or floor 5 for women)  Up on the ninth floor are lockers in which you store your luggage.

The showers and sinks to wash up are also located on the ninth floor.  Capsule hotels follow the tradition of providing sleepwear.

So here, on the sixth floor, is where Onions and I slept.  And this is where the name capsule hotel comes from.  In this room are about 25 pods in which guests sleep.

This is what a capsule looks like as you enter it.  At the far end is a panel which has plugs to charge your electronics, your light switch and an alarm clock.

From the inside looking out.

To get privacy, you can pull down a screen and you are now enveloped in your capsule.  Overall the capsule hotel was a unique experience and the only issue I had was that there was no way control the temperature (I was hot) in the capsule.

Kyoto Food

Our second day in Kyoto started out rainy and overcast, so we decided to take a walk through the food stalls in Kyoto's commercial district.  I was amazed by the colors more than anything else.

Japan, being an island nation....loves fish.  Raw, cooked or dried.

One of more interesting shops was one that specialized in knives.

Eel is prevalent in Japanese cuisine....and so there are special eel knives!

Onions eats his first raw oyster!

Look at the color of those carrots!

Hochi tea.....my favorite.  I came home with three bags.

Miso covers EVERYTHING!

Eel

This grinder is producing green tea flavoring.  Green tea flavor is a huge staple of Japanese flavoring.