Hakone and Yokohama

Today I woke up at around six, then procrastinated a bit before leaving Rachel's at 0750 to go to Hakone. It took about 2 hours to go from Hiyoshi to Hakone (train to Hakone-yumoto then a bus to Hakone-machi).

My only objective was to take photos of Mount Fuji with Ashinoko（芦ノ湖）in the foreground, and the torii of Hakone Shrine in the water (just like Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima - though not as impressive). The photos didn't come out as good as I hoped though, mostly because it was cloudy (on Mount Fuji's side) and because it snowed very recently, most of Mount Fuji was still covered in snow, making it difficult to differentiate itself from the clouds.



But physically being there and seeing Mount Fuji from the distance was really satisfying. I remember seeing the peak of Fuji-san from the peak of one of the mountains (at around 2,700m) in Gunma prefecture, when I went hiking with my family in August '04. Seeing it across the lake was another experience. I wanted to go hiking on Fuji-san, but that probably won't happen this year (for three reasons: expenses, time, and my health). I'll have to wait for another opportunity to return to Japan in the future.

In the evening I went back to Yokohama and met up with Rachel in Chinatown. The Yokohama Chinatown is the biggest in Japan (there are only three: Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki), it's even bigger than Gerrard Street in London. But for me, it didn't feel as Chinese as Kobe's Chinatown. Anyway it was pretty interesting, though a little bit less lively as I had expected.



As I was searching for a cheap restaurant to dine, I walked past one in an alley where there were several celebrities' autographs on display. I was quite in awe - Wentz Eiji （ウェンツ瑛士）and Koike Teppei（小池徹平） (the members of the pop duo WaT) AND Utada Hikaru（宇多田ヒカル）. Unfortunately that restaurant was too expensive so we didn't have dinner there.

After dinner we took a stroll around Minato-mirai, an area of reclaimed land made into a business complex, with a giant ferris wheel - reminded me a little bit of Canary Wharf (with the London Eye?). Apparently it's a popular dating spot, as we didn't see any other people except for a few couples. (FYI I wasn't on a date with Rachel.)



Now that I'm approaching the last day of this 10-day trip, I've spent almost all of my Japanese savings and have to be very very strict on expenditure until I get the next scholarship payment on Wednesday...have to hold tight onto my wallet!