Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan
Jackson and Abigail's 10 Fun Japan Facts of the day.
Since we are departing Tokyo on our first Shinkansen (bullet train) today, our facts are all about these impressive trains.
31. Launched in 1964 in time for Japan's first Olympic games.
32. 320km/hour is the maximum operating speed, although test runs are up to 581 km/hour.
33. No fatalities despite frequent earthquakes and typhoons.
34. "Shinkansen Theatre" refers to the clean-up crew who can clean an entire train in 7 minutes.
35. You can't eat on the majority of trains in Japan, but you can eat on a Shinkansen.
36. Shinkansen means "New Trunk Line" in English.
37. Average delay is less than 40 seconds. If a train is delayed over 1 minute, it is considered late. In the US/UK, a train has to be delayed by more than 10 minutes to be considered late.
38. The Shinkansen only stops for 50 seconds on average at each station.
39. In the event of an earthquake, the Shinkansen are designed to stop immediately.
40. There is a Hello Kitty Shinkansen Station with everything Hello Kitty.
We had time for one more temple before we departed Tokyo. It was only a short walk to Sengakuji Temple, a small Buddhist temple, famous for being the burial ground of the 47 Ronin (the "Masterless Samurai from Ako") are buried. This now famous story has been retold in various plays and even in a partly fictionalised Hollywood movie starring Keanu Reeves.
A quick recap of the story for those who missed the movie: it was the year 1701 and Lord Asano Takuminokami of Ako attacked Lord Kira Hozukenosuke at Edo castle after being continually provoked.
Only Lord Asano was punished and sentenced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). His family, and thus samurai, were left without a job. The remaining 47 ronin (samurai without a master) vowed to avenge their master. They ultimately succeeded by bringing Lord Kira's head back to Lord Asano's grave. They then turned themaelves in and were all sentenced to commit seppuku too. The graves of Lord Adano, his wife and the 47 ronin are all here at Sengakuji Temple. It is customary to lay some burning incense sticks on each grave, which we did.
It was a beautiful morning, the temple wasn't crowded, the cherry blossoms were blooming and it was hard to believe we were in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. This has to be one of our favourite temples.
It was quite a nice neighourhood and we joined some local children playing in their neighbourhood playground. There is no grass, but it was a fun playground complete with a climbing frame and flying fox.
Bento boxes purchased (a tough decision giving the variety and choice of so many delicious options!!). It was finally time to enter the Shinkansen gates and board our first bullet train. We were excited as we had seen them flying by us at various times since we arrived in Tokyo. Today was just a short journey to Odawara, enroute to Gora, in the Hakone region, which is a hot springs resort area. Given that it is so close to Tokyo many tourists just take a day trip to Hakone, however, you can't see or experience all the region has to offer in just a day.
We will.be staying here for two nights
The Shinkansen can travel 500 kilometres in just 2 hours and 25 minutes. It took us 27 minutes to travel 90 kilometres. V line and VIA Rail, we need some Shinkansen!!!
It was a day for trains as we had to take two more train rides and a tramway cable car to reach our accommodation. The second train ride was just a standard train. We sat with an Intrepid tour groupd for this leg of the journey. There were some Brits, Irish and Australians in their tour group. We had a lovely time chatting with them. We actually haven't met or noticed too many Australian tourists which has surprised us.
The last train ride was the most exciting as we had to climb up the mountain in Japan's oldest moutain railway. The small train weaved its way through across valleys over many bridges and through tunnels.
We had to change directions at three switchbacks to get up the hill. They said it was the second steepest railway line in the world. (Mum did some research and it looks like it was actually the 8th steepest with a 8% gradient.) Regardless, we enjoyed the journey. Finally, we made it onto the cable tramway for the steep ride up the hill in Gora. Our stop was 654 metres above sea level. The weather had turned cold!!
Our accommodation tonight was at a traditional Japanese Inn, complete with an onsite onsen (Japanese Hot Spring). Our room was really an apartment. There was a room for sleeping and a room with a kitchen and sunken dining table.
Finally, there was the toilet and bathing room.
There are some strict rules when entering a traditional Japanese room/house/apartment. All shoes must be removed when you enter the room. No shoes or slippers can be worn on the straw mats. When you use the toilet, you have to wear special "toilet" slippers which are left in the toilet. Speaking of the toilet, let us tell you how nice the heated toilet seats were in the cooler weather! We all had a traditional yukata to wear as well.
Since our sunny days were forecast to end tomorrow, we decided to head further up the mountain on the cable tramway before transferring onto the gondola to go up and over the top of the mountain. On the other side, if the weather is clear you are rewarded with panoramic views of Mount Fuji.
Upon boarding the gondola, everyone is handed a mosit handcloth. This is to cover your mouth and nose to help you cope with the sulphur smell. Clear skies allowed us to experience the sulphur steam (& smell) rising out of the valley. Sadly, on the other side of the mountain, clouds had already closed in over Mt Fuji. We could just make out the faintest outline. Oh well, we can't beat mother nature!
We shared our gondola with a couple from Amsterdam. They too exclaimed how surprised they were at the number of bikes in Tokyo. They had hired some of the tourist bikes and were even more surprised to discover that all of the tourist bikes were electric. They zoomed all over Tokyo with ease!! Jackson declared next time we were in Tokyo, we needed to hire bikes.
After a delicious soba noodle dinner in Gora, we all enjoyed our free ice blocks provided by our Japanese inn. Our choices were vanilla, apple, grape and orange. Dad enjoyed the onsite onsen too.
Kezza
2019-04-10
Is David being a good translator for you all =)?