Checking out from the hotel in Kinshicho was easy enough, and finding the Shinkansen to Odawara station (where we had to transfer to a private line to Hakone) wasn't much of a problem either. But when we arrived at Odawara station (which was a LOT quicker than expected), and we were getting ready to transfer to the local train line, Ted realized he had lost his rail pass. DOH! He checked several times, but couldn't find it. We determined that it probably fell out of his pocket on the Shinkansen.
Well, nevertheless, we headed off to Houeisou, (pronounced Ho-ay-so), the ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) we were staying at. Since we got to the ryokan a couple of hours before check in, we took a walk just to see what we could see.
Ted also decided to stop at one of the public phones to call the JR Office to see if they had found his rail pass yet. Unfortunately, no luck.
So, we continued exploring and found a neat little shrine tucked back in the hills. That is certainly one of the neat things about Japan. Out of nowhere, you'll come across these small little shrines. The entrance to it was just off the road.
As you walked up the stairs, you came to a small building.
The lion and dragon sculptures under the eaves of the building were very detailed. (And very cool looking.)
At first we thought that this building was all that was here, but as we looked deeper into the woods, we saw another small building. Curious, we went farther up and came across another small shrine.
On the way back down, I snapped a couple other random pics as well.
The next thing we ran across was a small graveyard. I'd seen photos of Japanese graveyards (and had seem them in different anime and doramas I've seen), but I'd never seen one in person. So we took a closer look. Some of the gravestones were VERY detailed.
Wandering a bit farther, we found a walking path back thru the woods and decided to follow it.
But, since it was getting close to check in time, we headed back to the ryokan.
It was a very nice little ryokan with a pretty garden in the back. The owner and other staff were very helpful to us. They treated us great!
Here are some pics of the garden from our room,
As well as some pics from within the garden itself.
Once in our room, we changed into our yukata and decided to check out the rotenburo (outdoor hot springs). That was sooooooo relaxing. After all that walking we did in Tokyo, the hot springs was JUST what the doctor ordered. In case you are wondering, when you go to a ryokan, you generally wear your yukata (the white and black robe I'm wearing in the picture above) throughout your stay there. Its a symbol of relaxation and is pretty comfortable.
We spent quite a while just relaxing there before heading back to our room for dinner. Dinner was, uh, interesting to say the least. 1/2 the stuff that I ate I'm not really sure I want to know what it was. Don't get me wrong, some of it was very good, but some of it, I just don't think I have the palette for. I'll say one thing, regular sushi is no problem now. ^_^
We also got our picture with the woman who was helping us. She brought us dinner and breakfast, cleared the dishes afterwards, etc. (I don't think she was too comfortable getting her picture taken. ^_^)
Finally after dinner, we decided just to relax in the room and hit the sheets. Originally our plan was to do all of our Hakone sightseeing today and leave early for Kyoto tomorrow. But, instead, we're going to spend tomorrow checking out Hakone.
