Monday, January 21, 2013

Day 15- Hakone

*Sorry, pictures will be posted asap!

It is our last full day in Japan and we are sad to see our trip come to a close. We want to thank everybody who has been keeping up with our posts and would like to thank the comments and emails of support! We hope to take more trips like these- we learned a lot, ate a lot, and had a lot of fun.

Last night, we spent a lot of time in the busy street of Tokyo, enjoying the shopping and activity of the town. We thought for today, we would end our trip on a relaxing note and head to Hakone for the day to catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji! (Thank you Jen Jen for the suggestion)

We woke up this morning to head to the Ebisu train station to get to the Romance car train that takes us to Hakone. There are a few modes of transportation you can take to get to this small town- we heard that the bullet train was pretty cool, but after our extravagant meals we were thinking of going the cheaper route (which isn't really cheap to begin with- thanks, Tokyo).

After an hour and a half of train ride, we finally arrived to the chilly, small town of Hakone. We were looking to go to Mt. Fuji, but unfortunately, we were told that it was too foggy and it wasn't visible today! Boo!

We decided to head to our Hot Springs Bath house- Tenzen Tohji-kyo, one of the best bath houses (recommended by our hotel). We took a public bus and within 15 minutes, we were at our relaxing spa getaway for the day!

Tenzen is beautiful. Quiet, serene, isolated, Tenzen is a very traditional bath house that has multiple open air hot springs! Before we spent our day at the spring, Eric and I decided to get a traditional Japanese lunch. With small, refreshing bites of tempura, soba noodles, miso soup and rice balls, we were quite full and ready for a day of relaxation. It was amazing. We first got a couples massage and then headed for the bathhouses...

Be warned.. in these traditional bathhouses, you are not able to wear any clothing- yes, everybody is fully nude! The men and women are always separated and they have their own spring baths. If you are able to get over the nudity, you will have one of the most relaxing times of your life!

Eric and I separated and set up a time to meet back in the same lobby. After 4 hours of relaxation, we headed back to the city of Tokyo to get our last amazing dinner! Eric stated that it was the most relaxing day he's ever had!

We were very excited for our dinner. It was our last night in Japan, and of course, Eric wanted to end it big. We made reservations at a small, traditional sushi house where everything was a chef's omakase. We REALLY wanted to go to Jiro, but unfortunately we weren't able to get reservations, so we asked the hotel to make us reservations as someplace similar! It was delicious!

We had out own sushi chef, named Kenji who catered our meal to our likes and dislikes. He watched us as we ate each bite of sushi and gauged our reaction to what he would prepare next for us. It wasn't necessarily the meal that was amazing, but the experience itself. How many people can say that they have had this catered experience in Tokyo!

After this great meal, we were absolutely stuffed. We decided to walk it off and head to a Belgium bar (guess who's idea that was). After observing a drunk Japanese couple have a lovely nap at the bar, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and get ready for our trip back home.

We can't believe that our trip is already over- it has flew by! Thank you all for reading, and we hope to have more trips like this to continue the adventure!

Back to the USA!



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