We went to Hakone today, a large hot-spring based resort town filled with spas and hotels. Located only about an hour out of tokyo, perhaps two from downtown, it is apparently a rare treat for tokyoites to visit. Ms. Moriguchi very kindly bought andrew, akiko, her sister, and myself all packages that included transit via subway, a day in the spa, and a deluxe lunch at a fairly swanky hotel.

Before indulging ourselves in the spa, we took a rickety little train up the mountain behind hakone to a small town above. If you travel the whole route past hakone, you will come to a ropeway (i presume a gondola type contraption) that leads you to the source of the hot springs, several kilometers above and behind the resort town. While we did not take the ropeway, beautiful though i'm told, we did take the first train; this train is unique in japan as it switches back on itself due to the slope of the mountain. At each of the three switchbacks the driver and announcer (riding in the back) traded positions and the train reversed its direction, switching to the upward track. Pretty neat. If we had gone a bit further, we would have ridden the steepest grade that a train navigates in japan... perhaps next time (it was 3000yen).

When back in hakone we took a bus to the hotel and spa taht we had bought tickets to. I gather that every hotel in town has their own 'hot springs' spa, presumably piped from the source. the hotel we chose was deluxe and the nudey gender separated bathhouses were very upper class. If familiar with nakusp or ainsworth hot springs back in BC, picture perhaps 8 smaller pools with different features, like jets, bubbles, waterfalls, etc.

I stayed away from the cold pool, though i'm sure it was refreshing. Recall that this was a nude bathhouse........