Pronunciation: Hakone (ha-ko-nay)
Hakone is a mountainous town located about 1-2 hours from Yokosuka. It lies within the area of Mount Hakone, an active volcano and is popular for tourists because of it's hot springs (onsens). Because Damian and I did not have time to have a getaway in Hakone during our time here we decided to do a tour to see the "highlights" before we left Japan! The picture to the right is what it looks like on a clear day... we however went on a rainy/foggy day and were not able to see Mount Fuji (booooo).
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| That's me in the middle... |
The first stop was Hakone Shrine located on the shore of Lake Ashi. It has a beautiful "floating" torii gate as well as a lot of steps to get to the top! As I mentioned above, Mount Hakone used to be a very active volcano... the people in the area took the "explosions" or eruptions to be an expression of evil. The story goes that the evil was caused by a nine-headed dragon... (please note, I did not make up this story). Anyway, a monk on the mountain was able to exorcise the dragon and turn it into a protector of this shrine where he lies today. At the actual shrine you can wash your hands in a fountain that looks like a nine headed dragon.
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| All glass... |
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| Foot bath |
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| Too cool... |
The next stop was on a boat ride across Lake Ashi- it took about 45 minutes and was really beautiful and peaceful. After that we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum for a Japanese style buffet lunch (yummm) and a few hours to walk around the ground of the museum. The concept of an open air museum was really neat! The open air museum has been there since 1969 and has over 100 sculptures. We spent over 2 hours walking all over and exploring the many sculptures and buildings on the property. They also had a bunch of really neat structures for children to actually climb on. This was an extremely unique experience. They even had an entire building dedicated to less famous Picasso works. And of course we stopped by the hot spring foot bath to rest our weary feet... and it felt amazing! There were nice smooth rocks on the bottom to massage our feet as well as oranges floating on the top which smelled good and were there to provide "mental calmness" I think- still looking into the oranges!
After the open air museum we took a cable car ride up "Owakudani" which literally mean "great boiling valley." This consisted of an active volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. Trust me- the smell of the sulphur was extremely strong! The specialty of this area is "kuro tamago" which means "black egg." They boil the eggs in the sulphur hot springs which turns the outer shell black. They do this in large crates with dozens of eggs at a time- see picture at left. It is said that the black eggs have regenerative properties and eating one will add 7 years to your life... eating 2 will add 14 years to your life... and according to our tour guide, "eating 3 will make you blow wind." (I can't make this stuff up!) But seriously it is said not to eat more than 2 1/2 eggs (an extra 17.5 years to your life)! You can hike up the actual hot springs and buy 5 eggs for 5oo Yen (about $5- what a steal)! How could we not eat at least 1 black egg... it is just a hard boiled egg with a black shell... At first I was a little skeptical, but after seeing it peeled it was no big deal. In the end, Damian and I each added 14 years to our lives with these eggs! I mean, even Hello Kitty has jumped on the black egg bandwagon...
Japanese Word of the Day:
Tamago (ta-ma-go): Egg
The first stop was Hakone Shrine located on the shore of Lake Ashi. It has a beautiful "floating" torii gate as well as a lot of steps to get to the top! As I mentioned above, Mount Hakone used to be a very active volcano... the people in the area took the "explosions" or eruptions to be an expression of evil. The story goes that the evil was caused by a nine-headed dragon... (please note, I did not make up this story). Anyway, a monk on the mountain was able to exorcise the dragon and turn it into a protector of this shrine where he lies today. At the actual shrine you can wash your hands in a fountain that looks like a nine headed dragon. 
After the open air museum we took a cable car ride up "Owakudani" which literally mean "great boiling valley." This consisted of an active volcanic valley with active sulphur vents and hot springs. Trust me- the smell of the sulphur was extremely strong! The specialty of this area is "kuro tamago" which means "black egg." They boil the eggs in the sulphur hot springs which turns the outer shell black. They do this in large crates with dozens of eggs at a time- see picture at left. It is said that the black eggs have regenerative properties and eating one will add 7 years to your life... eating 2 will add 14 years to your life... and according to our tour guide, "eating 3 will make you blow wind." (I can't make this stuff up!) But seriously it is said not to eat more than 2 1/2 eggs (an extra 17.5 years to your life)! You can hike up the actual hot springs and buy 5 eggs for 5oo Yen (about $5- what a steal)! How could we not eat at least 1 black egg... it is just a hard boiled egg with a black shell... At first I was a little skeptical, but after seeing it peeled it was no big deal. In the end, Damian and I each added 14 years to our lives with these eggs! I mean, even Hello Kitty has jumped on the black egg bandwagon...
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