We rose at around 6:30am (local time) to take a look at the Jizo statues (Buddhist protectors of travellers and kiddies) that lined the banks of the Gamman-Ga-Fuchi Abyss - a mountain stream carving its way through an ancient lava flow.
With the benefit of sunlight, the stream took on the overly-bluish hue that you get from glacial-melt waters. Why the Jizo frequently wore red bibs and beanies is beyond me, I would have thought they'd be more concerned about their severe case of moss (so embarrassing). Like many other travellers, we left some coins in the laps of a few Jizo for good luck.
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| Way more Jizo than I could count without taking my shoes off. |
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| Morning sun peeking through the misty trees. Joshie undoubtedly racing towards a nearby puddle. |
After breakfast, the lady at the Turtle Inn booked us a taxi - and arranged for it to stop briefly to allow me to take a photo or two of Shin-kyo Bridge. Legend has it that Shodo Shonin (founder of the Nikko temple) strolled across a couple of serpents thrown at him by a giant at this location. A bridge certainly sounds much safer. While an attractive bridge and all, my breath was more taken by negotiating the enthusiastic drivers of Nikko (Frogger-style).
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| If this photo had sound - you may hear the last-minute swerving of Nikko-ites. |
We thanked our very-obliging taxi driver (who appeared not to want to upset some clearly crazy, car-dodging foreigners), and waited for the Nikko Line train. It is in effect similar to a Metro train, but with the added bonus of pink velour seats and a laid-back style.
We allowed ourselves a slightly larger buffer between trains, and made it to the Shinkansen platform at Tokyo Station prior to our departure time. Travelling on these things is reminiscent of sitting on a plane just seconds before it lifts off. My assumption is that if you slapped a couple of wings on them they would do just that.
We picked up our car (another blue Mazda 3 - to Joshie's delight) at Mishima, readjusted the child seat behind me a little (so my knees were no longer covering my ears) and plugged in the coordinates of Lalaca, Hakone into the GPS like seasoned professionals. Jenny felt it best that I didn't follow some faint grey lines (or as I termed them, 'short-cuts') so we wound our way through some fairly impressive hair-pins. My passengers informed me that they were able to catch glimpses of Mount Fuji - and that it looked lovely (and I was ever-so happy for them).
Our GPS Lady steered us on unfailingly, but we had our doubts on the final corner when she advised us to head down what appeared to be a goat-track. It turns out it was a fern-lined lane-way, and Lalaca Onsen appeared. Once inside, I wedged the front half of my foot into the house-slippers provided, and we settled into our room.
As we were prepping Joshie to say 'arigato' in thanks to the people in the restaurant - he one-upped us by responding with 'arigato go zai mas' (adding an honourific to the thanks). The kid's a sponge apparently.
Dinner consisted of sashimi starters, Japanese BBQ, Shabu Shabu, Tempura and finished with some grape mousse. The jelly-fish on the sashimi plate may have been a step too far outside our comfort zone, but the rest was really lovely (although I'm still wondering exactly what kind of meat I had that was not exactly ham or beef.... I'd better stop thinking about that now).
