Tokyo Day 7

We felt that the Japanese style breakfast at our hotel doubled the value of the rooms we rented. We each had eight little tasting plates of all kinds of Japanese cuisine that none of us had ever seen before. It was disconcerting not knowing whether to expect sweet, pickled, spicy, tepid, or warm. But every time I tried something, it was delicious, fresh and so well executed (except for the one packaged item). There was grated cooked calimari on top of pulverized cabbage that was served cold. Another cold dish was a simple omelette with only green onions that had been rolled and then sliced, perfection. There were kimchi like pickled vegetables, there was a ball of caviar paste, and one of my favorite things was some julienned seaweed that tasted like it had been pickled in basalmic vinegar--very sweet and tangy. There was a small mound that looked like fried rice, but was actually a sweet almond-tasting concoction with pieces of sweet vegetables. I am noticing that Japanese really like things sweet.

The main dish was Hakone Flat Fish, a small fish that tasted like trout, that had been butterflied and flattened and pan cooked. It was delicious, and every boy ate it all and loved it. It actually fulfilled a wish that Jack had expressed the day before, that someday he would like to eat a fish that looks like a fish with the head and eyes and scales and everything! Not something that I was wishing for when I was 10 years old. :) The meal was a proud parent moment for Clint and I, as the boys sat politely in front of all these crazy dishes and acted like it was an honor, and even raved about it.

We checked out of our hotel and took the fernicular down to Gora. Can you see how the entire car is a parallelogram to accommodate the steep angle of the mountain? 

At the fernicular station: Coles dream come true-- a vending machine on every corner. Sugared beverages forever!

Then we caught a bus to the Kowakien Yunessun Hot Springs Resort. 

We wanted the boys to be able to experience one of the greatest Japanese pass times, which is sitting in hot springs (called onsen) without having to get naked in front of strangers.

This resort had a naked bathing area called "The Forest" and a family oriented swimsuit area with 25 different hot spring baths including some really crazy ones: a red wine bath, green tea baths, sake baths, black coffee baths, and even a bath where tiny "Dr. Fish" that eat the dead skin off of the bottom of your feet. Outside, there were also a number of waterslides. Being spring in Japan, it was chilly out there, but there were hot pots you could sit in while you waited in line for the water slides, which were pretty tame :-). 

Considering that half of the resort was entirely nude, I thought it was surprising how well covered the women were. It is the first time that I have seen swimsuit tights that go all the way down to your ankles. And many women were wearing rash guard shirts to their wrists. Even the young women that were in bikinis had skirts over their bottoms and blouses things over their tops--you don't display cleavage in Japan. Lisa said that it is very common for Asians to be very conservative in coed situations. After two hours we felt that we had exhausted the fun.

We took a short bus ride to the Hakone Tosan Mountain Train which took us on a 40-minute switchback journey down to the Hakone-Yumato train station where we took another train to Odawara. 

There, we ate at a food court and were all pleased with our selections. Clint got freshly made udon noodles, Cole, Trace and I got tempura shrimp and onanigiri (rice triangles wrapped in seaweed with fillings). Talmage and Jack ate sushi from the combini.

A 10-minute walk took us to the Odawara Castle where we met Mike and Willa. 

The main keep was closed for renovation but we walked around the gates and looked at a farmers market and a museum above one of the gates.

Those are fish on the corners of the roof. Can you see how gorgeous castles like this influenced the American Arts and Crafts movement?

Trace's yen was burning a hole in his pocket and he had to buy this inflatable hammer. It made him very happy.

Oh yeah, there were tiny red bum monkeys. Willa says everything is small in Japan.

Something else about Japan, everything is beautiful. It's like the Paris of Asia. Here are some sidewalk tiles and a manhole covers in Odawara.

Next, we went on a long car ride to Kamakura to see the big Buddha. Sadly we missed it by five minutes. But Clint got some pretty incredible pictures by holding my phone above his head on the top of the gate.

The boys spent some more of their yen at the souvenir shop there. And then we took another long ride to the Kawasaki district of Tokyo to eat at a kaiten sushi (conveyor-belt sushi) called Genki Sushi.

The gimmick was that every seat had its own tablet on which you ordered your sushi and then it came down the conveyor belt and parked right in front of you. I timed one order and it took 32 seconds! The boys were ecstatic.

To the left of Cole is his cousin Willa Hale.

Jack is so brave!

Did I mention at this point the jet lag was killing us? Especially Clint, myself and Jack! Mike drove us home and Clint and Trace crashed, but the other boys got a second wind and went running around the Embassy Housing Compound with Willa, catching frogs and plotting how to defend themselves from the terrorist koi fish. I brought them in about 10:30 and told him to put themselves to bed. I crashed and actually slept for seven hours straight!