Up to our room Sunday evening. The hotel is more of a lodge or as one review of the hotel called it online...a french chateau. This was a really nice place to stay. There are 4 floors and we were given the fourth floor (the top floor). The view of all the trees and foliage from our room windows were really amazing. This pic of Noah on the bed is half of our room. The half with the western 2 beds.
This was the other half. Another room for lounging and kicking back and watching TV. And at night they made up 2 futons. So double the extra sleeping space.
A very large bathroom. With Shiseido products (hand soap shampoo etc)
A fridge where we kept all our drinks we just bought at the Daily Yamazaki.
And after opening another double set of doors we found we had a second sink. This was helpful the next day when I was putting my make up on.
They were expecting us....2 kids sized set of slippers. And many adult slippers. As soon as we got into our room, Branden and I switched into the yukata provided by the hotel. Noah was too small for the hotel size small yukata for kids and after calling the front desk they didn't have any other size for kids, aw well. : ). It fit Branden perfectly, let's put it that way )so way too big for Noah). No matter.... when we went downstairs to onsen at our hotel, he went down in his comfy clothes and then left in his pj's. It was inside our hotel, so many kids were doing that.
This is the pic, of when we returned from the hotel onsen just downstairs. The lady already laid our futons down for us while we were off soaking. But what I wanted to say is. As soon as we got to our hotel room. We looked around. Branden and I changed into yukata. We checked the TV schedule. Saw there was some really good house/home reform show coming on around 7:54pm, so we wanted to come back for that. And at 9pm Terminator 3 was coming on. It was 5:45pm-ish. And so we decided to go to the natural hot springs in our hotel (only guests of our hotel could go there so it was quieter and more private, which was nice). And so we took the elevator to the first floor. Many people (about 98% of all people were all wearing the yukata the hotel provided. I saw some little kid similar to Noah's age, but a girl. And she obviously was also too small for the hotel yukata. Noboru and Branden went to the guys side. And Noah and I went into the girls side. There were 2 extra little boys in the ladies side. 2 of them about 2 years older then Noah. And then the little girl Noah's age. Noboru and I, had talked about...what time we'd meet up, so we knew we'd stay and soak for about an hour. We went into the changing room, got undressed and put all of our stuff in the basket. A few ladies were putting on the disposable shower caps provided. I wanted to wash my hair again. Then we entered the shower area. About 5 ladies in there. 3 mom's and 2 little boys and 1 little girl and 2 older granny types. And Noah and myself. The ladies didn't seem to know each other. Some showered only and left. Some soaked and left. I meanwhile, enjoyed all the free Shiseido shampoos and body washes and face washes. They had 6 different facial washes to try plus 3 face soaps. They were at every shower for everyone to use. I tried 3 of the 6 face washes. The other ones said the words peel. That sorta freaked me out. One said a hot facial soap, I pumped a few pumps into my hand and washed. Holy smokes it was hot, but nice! Then I tried a charcoal face soap, man that stunk but my skin felt better after that. And I finally washed with a normal green cleanser and it smelled nice. Big huge bottles of shampoo and conditioner and body wash. Super Mild. Noah was washing his hair and looking at and making crazy hair dos, he was making in the mirror. He washed his body. And when we rinsed we went and soaked in the rotenburo, the outside onsen. It was freaking cold outside by now. You'd definitely need a winter coat at this point. We went right into the hot spring and it was so super hot. Nobody was in the girls side anymore. And I realized I could hear Noboru and Branden through the divider. So, I said...hey. And they said, are you having fun? We both said yeah. Anyway we chatted with them, they said they were the only ones there on the guys side too. After a nice long hour of showering and soaking. We said, going to get dressed now...they said us too. And so Noah and I went and dried off. I put on his Gap pj's. And I put on a fresh set of undies and the yukata back on. We went out of the girls section and met up with them and rode the elevator back to our room. All of our bodies were so hot, we opened our hotel room windows. Until our bodies cooled off some. And that's when I took this picture. Of Branden and the yukata. A very freshly clean boy. : )
The kids had shared this cider. And I had a jasmine tea. Noboru had 2 beers. Our bodies all felt really relaxed, our muscles all relaxed. We watched a football game.
The kids started laying this way but switched to the other way.
The boys relaxing. They watched TV until 10pm. I usually don't let them stay up so late, but with being here, we sorta didn't mind.
Remember this Terminator? lol.
I was tired. It was a long full fun day. I slept on the bed on the right if you are looking directly at this pic. Noboru on the bed on the left.
The onsen at our hotel opens at 5am, and stays open until 2am. We woke up at 6am this past Monday morning. Woke the kids. I put my yukata back on. Branden did too. Noah went down in his pj's. And we went and had a morning soak in the hot springs. This time I put a shower cap on. Noah and I washed our bodies all over again. And then we went and soaked outside. It was bitterly cold at 6am in the morning outside on a mountain top. The hot spring was steaming. It felt so great. All the foliage. And turning leaves. We left the onsen around 7am. Went back upstairs, got dressed for the day. I put on my makeup. Our breakfast reservation was for 8:30am. We wanted 8am but that was full. And we didn't want to feel rushed so we didn't choose 7:30am. So with about an hour or more to spare. We decided to go for a morning walk.
Both Branden and Noah walking under a beautiful Fall colored/turning tree.
So many trees turned red, orange, yellow and some nearly gold. We walked along many streets with crunchy fallen leaves Monday morning, it was awesome!
Hidden Mickey! ; )
And so after our walk, we had just made it. 8:30am on the nose. We told the waiter we wanted a table near the window, so we had a few minute wait. We waited in the lobby, but wow, look at that view.
You can see 2 mikan juice bottles. They told us it was mikan juice. But you know, I felt it was like a mikan mixed with kiwi perhaps? It didn't taste like straight mikan. But whatever it was... it was absolutely delicious. And honestly the best tasting juice I've ever had. Every table got a salad. See the sweet purple onions on top of the salad. Since I am the only onion eater in my family, I had to eat the salad. Though I could not eat it all of course, too much food there. But I did try to eat enough. It was like an Italian vinaigrette type salad, very delicious. They missed out on a great salad. ; ) Hot coffee was endless, they had a place to get refills, so that was great. Milk for the kids.
The kids all get a french toast set if they're guests here. This was Branden's, it had french toast, baked fries, a sausage, vegetable soup and a fruit cup. It was very filling. And came with the night of staying there. It was complimentary.
Noah had the same. And look at that view.
Us adults, could choose the night before from 3 different things. A bread platter which is what I chose. Or a ham sandwich toasted with cheese which is what Noboru chose. And the other thing, I forget what it was. This was a very western hotel. A lot of Japanese hotels at onsen you get lots of seafood everything. But that's why we picked this hotel in particular, it's more of a western type menu. So, I had no trouble at all. And I like this place and the food so much I'll come back for sures. I had the 3 different breads with butter. I didn't have the sausage. But I asked the waiter what the thing underneath the sausage was, and he told me it was a potato pancake. So, I tried it, sure enough, a potato cake it was, so good. Plus the salad and juice and coffee.
Plus we also got fruit, see on the right corner? I had pineapple, kiwi, mikan, it was very fresh and good.
Noboru loved his cheesey grilled ham sandwich. It was not a grilled ham and cheese though, because the cheese was facing on the outside. But he enjoyed it a lot. We were so stuffed from that filling breakfast.
Checked out of the hotel. And went further up the mountain. To get the famous black eggs for my favorite neighbor and laundry partner granny next door.
Talk about a steaming hot mountain. See the steam?
What we could see from here.
Noah and Branden with Mt. Fuji in the background.
Sorry about the toilet sign. What I wanted to show you was the building behind it. That was where they sold the egg ice cream.
Egg soft cream.
Black eggs. You could buy them at this store or you could make the walk up the mountain like a billy goat and get them yourself. Noboru wanted to walk the mountain and get some super fresh ones. So giddy up we did. : )
Welcome to Hakone!
Baked sweet potato sign in so many different languages.
I was lucky to catch the guy as he was taking the eggs out of the boiling hot natural hot spring.
Noboru buying our eggs.
Yay! : )
1 bag for the neighbor and Noboru wanted us to eat a fresh hot bag here and take a bag home with us. Also, they say, if you eat 1 black egg you will increase your life 7 years for each black egg you eat. I ate 2 total. : )
There was a cat on the mountain where the black eggs are. I was surprised to see a cat on tippy top of a mountain. A volcanic mountain nonetheless. But he was there.
They were so freaking hot to the touch.
Branden adores his dad, so much.
The eggs were delicious.
The smell. I think it only fair to tell you about the smell. I know the smell of sulpher. And that smell doesn't bother me a dot. Maybe because my state (Colorado) also has hot springs and I grew up going to the Glenwood Springs 2-3 times a year and that onsen smelled of sulpher too. So, sulpher smell doesn't bother me in the slightest. But and I do say but. The smell at the top of this famous black egg place was horrendous. So many people gasped or pulled faces as we got right to the main egg place and said....it stinks up here. And they were right it stunk to high heck up there. What it smelled like if I am really honest with you. It smelled like urine, high concentrations of urine. Like a strong stench of urine. Perhaps when you are THAT close to strong sulpher it gives off that odor. I don't know. I also wondered if there were many cats and maybe it was them? But I don't think so. Imagine a sewer and there you go. It smelled gawd awful up there. In the future when I go back...I will now have the knowledge of being there once before and I'll perhaps bring some Vicks vapor rub and wear a face mask. That way I can't smell anything in the future. Noah especially poor guy, it made him so terribly ill, the smell. He didn't even want to eat an egg, poor thing. He had lost all appetite being in that stench. And I can't say I blame him. It freaking stunk up there. And the Glenwood Springs never bothered Noah, nor did the onsen at the hotel. And people all around us also mentioned the smell. It really was incredible how disgusting it smelled up there. Women were covering their faces with scarfs because of the smell. Anyway...delicious eggs though. Long story short, next time I'll bring some vapor rub... dab it in my and Noah's nose and possibly Branden if he wants and DH too...and face mask for us 4. Loved the eggs too. And granny next door is a big onsen lover and got so excited to get the eggs. She went directly to boy next doors house (her daughters house across our street) and gave them 3 eggs and her and the grandpa each had one. She said...thank you we love these eggs. That made me happy she liked them. : )
We were so high up. We watched people riding way up high.
That house up there with the steam is where we walked to get the eggs.
And safely back into the car. Noah watching Toy Story 3 on the dvd player for the 2nd time during this trip.
To get to Hakone the day before, we just took the highway all the way there. But to get back, we had planned to take a ferry back to Chiba. So a much more scenic but funner way for the boys. Noboru was right, both Branden and Noah were looking forward to the ferry. Noboru meanwhile wanted to drive though this area. He said the Southern All-Stars write a lot of their songs about this area. So he was pretty happy to be driving through this area, since he likes the Southern All-Stars.
We saw this...Hotel Pacific. They probably named this hotel after the fact and because of the Southern All Stars song. : ) But it still got a smile from us anyway.
So beachy.
So many surf shops
Guy on bike with surf board. We saw this view tons when living in Honolulu but it was nice to see that here.
And now getting closer to the ferry place.
This made Noboru, LOL!
About to get our ticket for our MPV to ride the ferry.
The ferry arrived and we drove right in.
We parked our car right in here.
Bye car...be good. We're going upstairs, we'll see you soon.
On the top part of the ferry now. It was a warm day.
Pulling away from the port.
Japanese flag.
Two happy boys.
There were seagulls and they followed our ferrry. They sold ebi snacks in the ferry to feed the seagulls. The boys would hold up their hands and the seagulls would come right up and eat one right out of their hands. It was the most amazing thing. Good thing I captured it on video.
And then we arrived.
They had seating inside and stuff but we stood outside the whole time. We only came in to wash the boys hands after they fed the seagulls.Video of Branden and Noah feeding the seagulls. This was so cool. It's hard to hear with the wind. But we were on a ferry so that's somewhat expected. : ) I asked Noah....are you happy? Yes and he shakes his head. : ) Anway, we had a really great family trip.
PS....the first half of the onsen trip. The first day...I have yet to get up. Hopefully tomorrow. : ) Good night.
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