Ryokan

After spending one night in Hiroshima, our guide took us to the train we boarded for our trip to Hakone. Hakone is the mountainous resort area surrounding Mt. Fuji. This area is home to many Ryokan, or Japanese style Inns. A Ryokan is very unique and usually features an Onsen, which is a hot spring water bath. Staying in a Ryokan is a spa like experience that the japanese people do to relax and get away from the fast pace of the city life.

A bus picked us up from the train station and we took a winding hour long ride up in the mountains. We had to move from the bus to a van to take the last few curves up to the Ryokan. We stayed at the Musashino Bekkan which was absolutely beautiful and perfect in every way!! Our family had the entire 5th floor of the Inn which included 5 rooms. They were traditional japanese rooms with rice paper doors and tatami floors. I'm sure the people working there thought we were nuts as we all kept running from room to room admiring the furnishing and the views. They really just wanted us to pick a room so they could serve us tea.

Here are pictures of some of the beautiful and spacious rooms.





When you arrive at the Ryokan you are given a garment to wear called a Yukata. They also give you Tabi which are socks with the big toe separated from the rest of the toes



A stay at a Ryokan usually includes breakfast and dinner. The menu is decided for you and we were served at my count, 16 different dishes for dinner. Some of the fish was raw or sashimi and some was cooked. One of the most interesting dishes was a live abalone under the heavy cover that was cooked right at our tables.



Our hostess worked very hard clearing, cooking and bringing us dishes. She was so cute and nice.


We did soak in the Onsen where the water was very, very hot. The outdoor tubs were in very beautiful settings. Of course you must go in your birthday suit but at this ryokan you have the choice of using the large communal area (one for women, one for men) or reserving a private onsen. As you might have guessed, no pictures were taken.

Fish Exfoliation

This is perhaps the wierdest thing we did:



Yes, you soak your feet in a pool of little fish that suck the dead skin off. Pretty gross but also very entertaining. It tickled so much I had to keep shaking them off. This was just one of the many odd things we experienced at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun. We also soaked in hot tubs of green tea, red wine, coffee, charcoal, sake (rice wine) and strawberries. It was pretty cool out but the kids enjoyed the water slides anyway because it was HOT water.

Beautiful Hokone

We had a full day in Hakone and we made the most of it by getting up bright and early for our 10 course breakfast then heading out to the Hakone Open Air Museum. This is an amazing outdoor museum set in mountains and the weather was perfect. We took a trolley that dropped us off a couple of blocks from the museum.





Hundreds of beautiful sculptures


Georgous gardens


Plenty of interactive art. That's Miles climbing into the rope playscape.


Another playscape the kids could climb around in.


A stained glass column


A Picasso pottery exhibit

Leaving for the Big City

Our stay at Musashino has been amazing. It's so fun to be immersed in such a different culture. Every moment of the couple days we spent there was filled with new experiences and surprises. I must say though, I was really craving a sandwich or even just a piece of bread at this point.

In the morning a bus comes to take us to the big city of Tokyo. By big I mean the capital of Japan is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. The greater Tokyo area has a population of over 35 million people. Our tour guide takes us to the top of Tokyo Tower, which is the city's highest point. At 1,093 ft it is taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which it was modeled after. It is a clear day so we have great views from the large indoor observation deck.





What I noticed that made this different from the New York or San Francisco skyline is how the skyscrapers just go on and on into the horizon with no end in sight.

Random Tokyo Sights

We spent some time just walking around Tokyo. Here are some random observations.


EVERY dog I saw was dressed.


Pigs were too.


Department stores have a whole floor devoted to ready made food.


but everyone is thin.


So many electronic gadget shops


EVERY toilet had a control panel.

Odaiba

David leaves for the airport the next day but the rest of us are staying in Tokyo through the week. We take the Yurikamome Transit system to go the the artificial island of Odaiba. The unique thing about the Yurikamome is that it is a computer operated train that has no driver. It is also elevated very high so there are great views as we travel across the water. It's interesting that the route takes a 360 degree turn before it continues on to the Rainbow Bridge



The Rainbow Bridge


Much of the man made island of Odaiba was developed recently as a place for leisure and entertainment. It is styled in a very futuristic way.



We visited Miraikan - The National Museum of Emmerging Science and Innovation



Miles really enjoys all the hands-on exhibits at the Miraikan. After several hours we had to drag him away to the next big thing on our agenda.

The Next Big Thing

We walked to Palette Town, another area in Odaiba. It was easy to get there because we just kept walking toward this:



It's the Giant Sky Wheel and at 115 meters, it is one of the tallest Ferris Wheels in the world. The view from the top was amazing. It took 18 minutes to get all the way around.



It was a great 18 minutes of fun and giggles with these three having the time of their lives together.



Now it was time to hurry back to meet some relatives for dinner. The rest of the family had left so it was up to Ron and I to figure out our way back to the hotel. Luckily we had paid attention to which trains we took since we had to transfer a couple times. We made it back to the Keio Plaza Hotel just in time.




We met our Great Aunt and second cousins for a delicious dinner. They were all very fun to talk to and we had a great time getting to know them.

Ghibli Studio Museum

Ghibli is a famous Japanese animation studio founded by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Studio Ghibli (pronounced jiburi or jee blee) is famous for creating the highest quality Anime, both animation wise and plot wise.

Ghibli films are so popular in Japan that they regularly out-perform Disney films at the Japanese box office.

Tickets to the museum must be purchased ahead of time for a particular day and we hear that it is hard to get tickets in Japan. There are a certain number reserved for overseas guests, so we got ours before we left the U.S.

You can see images of one of Ghibli's favorite characters "Totoro" here. "My Neighbor Totoro" is a great movie to get a sense of the Ghibli style of films.

DisneySea

We spent an entire day at the fabulous Tokyo DisneySea. As you could probably guess it is an entire Disney park devoted to the nautical theme. It opened in 2001 and at an estimated cost of 5 billion US dollars, it is the most expensive theme park ever built. Many think it is the most beautiful theme park ever built. Although about 12.2 million people visit the park each year, we were lucky enough to visit on a day where there were no crowds at all. Every ride we went to had a "zero" minute wait on the sign. We were meeting Mom's cousins in the park so once they arrived we took the kids and hit some of the fast rides. I don't know where the time went, we were having so much fun, the next thing we knew it was evening.



Walking through those Disney gates take years off your life. Doesn't Miles look about 5 years old here?









Wondering how fire can stay lit on water.

The park was beautifully landscaped and decorated in Disney style. It was funny to hear Mickey and Pluto speaking and singing in Japanese. Some of the rides like "Indiana Jones" and "Tower of Terror" were familiar adaptations from rides in Disneyland and Disneyworld. Other rides were ones we had never seen before. "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Stormrider" were our favorites and Miles rode "Aquatopia" five times back to back. The fireworks show BraviSEAmo was awesome!