Hakone

 Kimball has been telling me since we arrived in Japan that we should visit Hakone. Its not too far from Camp Zama (about a 1 hour drive) but somehow we just never made it there - until this weekend. 

The weather forecast was perfect on Friday and I was finally released from my 2 week quarantine so we both decided to take off work and make it a day trip!

Hakone sits at the edge of an old caldera and there is quite a history of volcanic activity in the area. Several mountains near Hakone were formed by different volcanic eruptions. And there is a beautiful lake at the bottom of the mountains.

There are a quite a few art museums in the area. We chose to go to the Open-Air Museum. It has an awesome setting with beautiful, well maintained grounds. There were lots of different types of "art" but mostly I enjoyed being outside and walking the grounds.

My favorite sculpture was the boxing rabbits. One of the most impressive exhibits was a stained glass tower. You could walk to the top for a great view of the whole park.

I also liked the funny spongy furniture that was all over one of the hillsides.

They had one building dedicated to the works of Picasso. We could not take pictures inside but it houses several original pieces by Picasso.

                                                Gorgeous Red Japanese Maples!

                                                          Yes, scared to death but loving it.

                                                There is a really fun kids play area inside this structure

                                            Can you see my head sticking up in the middle?

After we visited the museum we drove to Owakudani. Its a place with active sulfur vents related to volcanic activity. All the sulfur vents have killed the vegetation around that area and it looks pretty bad. Unlike Yellowstone where they tend to let nature takes its course, here they are trying to shore up the hillside to prevent future landslides and erosion. It doesn't seem to be working too well.

This place is also famous for having black hard boiled. They are regular chicken eggs, but they are boiled in a hot springs nearby and the outer shell turns completely black. They sell them there but we didn't buy one because its a regular hard boiled egg on the inside and they only come in half dozens...we just don't need that many hard boiled eggs.

                                        You can take a tram ride but we opted to drive up the mountain

Our last stop was at the lake. There is a famous Tori gate where people take a picture. Its a fun picture but we had to wait in line to get it.

 

After that we walked around the lake and came upon the biggest stinkin 7-11 ever! We stopped in to get some refreshment - Pokey Sticks and Mochi ice cream. Along the path there was a sign telling about the lake, etc.. and it said that on a "rare occasion" if the sky clears up you can look across the lake and see the Tori Gate and Mt Fuji. As we were sitting on some steps at the edge of the lake, the sky cleared and there it was - Mt Fuji and the Tori Gate!