Day 4 Hakone Round Course

A quick visit of our day in Hakone traveling the Round Course.
*Be sure to purchase a Hakone FreePass. This ticket allows travelers to use all modes of transportation without buying separate tickets for each.

First Stop Hakone Tozan Cablecar.
This train like vehicle travels up the mountain on a steep incline. There are a few stops on the way to the top each with their own attractions, but with only one day to complete the circuit we had to choose our stops wisely.
We headed straight to the top -Sounzan Station.




Here we picked up the Hakone Ropeway.
Come to find out, the day before when we experienced the fierce winds, the ropeway had to close down for safety.  *Tip - always have a backup plan!

The ropeway terminates at Lake Ashi (Togendai-Ko Station). 

Once at the dock we boarded a Pirate Ship.

The ships cruise the entire length of the lake and make stops along the way.

 

Our destination was Hakone Machi-Ko, on the other side of the lake.

 

Here we found delicious food!                                                

tonkatsu...so good!

Hey there Inu!

After our meal we headed out on our walking trek.

Although we were not able to visit all the sites in this part of Hakone, we did manage to find the rest area at the Hakone-Sekisho museum. One thing I love about Japan, there is a clean bathroom on almost every corner!

The next destination was the Detached Palace Garden. 

 

We accidentally got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji in the background.

Since we were between travel centers, we decided to head to the next stop 

(Motohakone-ko). 

*Motohakone-ko has a 7-11!

 So much walking, but so worth it for the scenery, until...

the snow started to fall again

and this time it was a mini-blizzard. We were going to take the bus back to Gora Station but couldn't figure which one to board and decided that being on mountain roads in a snow storm, wasn't the best idea. So we took the last pirate ship back to the ropeway, hoping the ropeway was still in service.

By the time we got to the ropeway the sky was clear. 

On the way back to Gora, we got off at Owakudani Station.

This station is in an active volcanic zone. Here is where the legendary black eggs are found.

Although the sulfur turns the shell black the inside is just like a regular hard boiled egg. 

Hellooo Kitty

Is she giving me the finger?

 *Please be wary if you have asthma, this may not be the place for you to visit.

 Oh but wait there's more, just before we left we got a cool site...

Fuji-san made an appearance

Well, that was a nice ending to a fun day.

thought I would show this one more time...

Next stop, Kyoto.