Day 349: Bullet Train to Hakone
We awoke to some very exciting news: Our BFF/James’s godmother/loyal blog reader Joanna had a baby while we were sleeping!! Sophie!! We are so, so excited. Sophie is one of about half a dozen babies born among our very closest friends in 2019, and we are dying to meet them all.
Great news to start the day, which had us saying farewell to Kyoto.
In packing up this morning we decided we are at “Peak Stuff.” That’s because we haven’t shipped home a bag of souvenirs in over a month AND we have two bags of Christmas gifts for the kids. The gifts are small but they’re in big plastic packaging that we have to keep intact until Dec 25 because honestly half the fun/excitement of Christmas gifts, we’ve learned, is the big gawdy packaging. More on gifts below.
We cabbed to Kyoto Station, which is enormous and gleaming. We passed some time in a waiting room.
I set out in search of lunch provisions for the train.
I passed a number of shops selling fancy boxed desserts and gifts — the lighting was fancy, the stacked packages on display tastefully wrapped in patterned paper and tied with pretty string.
Turns out, though, that these were actually Japan’s equivalent of a Pret a Manger. All those boxes were actually Bento box/grab n go takeaway food. Each one contained perfectly prepared and organized fresh lunches for on the go travelers. Once again, dying at Japan’s dignified way of doing things. Loaded up on lunch stuff.
Have I mentioned that I’m in love with this country?
The train arrived precisely on time and left again precisely on time.
Willa spent most of her train ride dutifully replying to each of her classmates’ letters. I promised an extra Peachy Game on her iPad if she managed to do it all. She did!
We sped past Mt. Fuji, which was awesome to see.
No one wanted to get off. It was our third bullet train of the year (France and China before this), and this one was best.
After three hours we pulled in to Odawara Station, where we were greeted and picked up by a transfer driver named Yoshi. We’re headed to Hakone today, the hot springs resort town.
Yoshi took us first, though, to see the Odawara Castle. It was neat to see, but most of the signage was in Japanese. There was a great view from the roof. More “texture” for our visit.
By about 4 we were pulling into our Ryoken — a traditional Japanese inn — about 20 minutes outside of Hakone. It’s mountainy here, and you can tell we just missed some spectacularly bright orange and red leaf displays.
Hakone is known for its hot springs resorts. Our cozy inn, Ya-Mano-Chaya, sits high on a mountainside, dark wood, warm lighting and the sound of natural running water.
It’s all about the tradition here. We removed our shoes at reception, and in our room we wear traditional robes. James looks so cute in his, and he is loving it. Made me realize how this year has helped him be more “game” for new experiences than he was before.
Our room has a large open room with tatami mats and a table in the middle. At night they lower the table into the floor and lay futons on the ground for bed.
Our room also has a small natural hot spring bath that’s full at all times. We all showered and soaked in our tub, put on our robes and got ready for an 8-course traditional Japanese dinner in our room. Whoa!
The kids fared decently well on the food, but were tired and antsy. It was okay because we were in our own room, but slightly annoying because James was in an over-tired jumpy mood and Willa was sulking because we wouldn’t let her read at the table.
This is something she started doing — pouting about not being allowed to read at dinner — a few weeks ago and we’re torn about how to respond. On the one hand, it’s a dream that she wants to read so badly, on the other, she can’t just read all through a meal. Right?? Ugh, who knows.
When the meal was finished and taken away, the guys came and turned over our room. Four single-bed-sized futons laid out side by side in a row with big comforters on top. The kids thought this was the neatest thing they’d ever seen. Their idea of heaven. Like a camping slumber party with mom and dad!
MISC:
We’re both reading “How to Japan,” which is an awesome companion book for first timers to the country (also making me realize how much of Japanese culture, unlike any other country we visited this year, is deeply entrenched in US mainstream culture — karate, sushi, ninjas, origami, cherry blossoms, Pokemon/Hello Kitty, etc.)
I mentioned that I’ve been wearing the same outfit every day. Here it is. I had Teddy take a picture of it today for posterity.
We’ve gotten the kids a few Christmas presents each. Our approach has been to buy the plastic junk they beg for but never get normally. So, went for thrill over quality. As mentioned, the excitement of Christmas is mostly about the packaging and getting something SO different than what we might make them buy otherwise (eg, a logic puzzle, a wooden toy, a learning book). We never indulge them on cheesy, plastic, flashy, noisy, glittery crap. So we decided to go that route for Christmas. I walked the toy store aisles and selected a few things for each of them that I instinctively knew they’d gravitate toward (and that under any other circumstances I’d snicker at and dismiss with an “in your dreams, kid.”). Pink frilly Barbie (Barbie!!!), giant Iron Man action figure, Ty stuffies, LOL eggs or whatever they are. Etc. It will blow their minds.
