Trains, Cable Cars, Gondolas, Ships, and Buses

Saturday we went up to Hokone, which is at the base of Mt. Fuji. It took us about two hours to get there and we rode 6 trains. I was so sick of trains by the time we got there it wasn't funny. We stopped in Odawara on the way there so that we could go check out a castle. It was not the type of castle I was expecting. They had monkeys there a long with an elephant. Vann was asleep for the entire adventure. Tony and I got to dress up while we were there. Tony dressed up like a Samurai and I dressed up in a kimono. There were a ton of people that took our picture while we were all dressed up. I felt kind of weird but whatever. After we finished we headed back down to the train so that we could ride for another hour. Once we got to the next destination we jumped off the main train and had to take a smaller train that was designed to do switch backs up the mountain. We rode that train as far as it would go then we got on to a cable car to get up the rest of the mountain. I was already exhausted and knew that we hadn't really reached our main destination. When we got to the top of the mountain, we still weren't done. We then took a huge gondola across the mountain so that we could get to the hot spring guicers. It was kind of weird riding the gondola because you first are surrounded by trees and forest and then you pop over the other side of the mountain and you feel like you are in the Grand Canyon. When we got off the gondola we were all starving so we had lunch as soon as we got there. The place that we were at was known for there black eggs. Yes eggs that you eat. The boil the eggs in the sulfur water which causes them to turn black. By eating a black egg it is said to add seven years to your life. Everyone ate there egg except me. It was a soft boiled egg, I tried to eat it but it was a little under cooked for my liking. Oh well I really don't need to live seven years longer. We got on another gondola when we finished at that stop and rode to the other side of the mountain. We we reached that destination we jumped on a pirate ship that was turned into a ferry. We rode across the lake and got on a bus to take us back to the train station. We ended up catching the wrong bus. We were suppose to get an express bus to the train station instead we got the bus that stopped at all of the stops along the way. The bus ride was not fun at all. It was a really windy rode and I was starting to get sick. We ended up getting off before we were going to and decided to jump on the train. We had to take another four trains before we made it back to our original station. I have never been so happy to be back in Yokosuka. In fact I am exhausted just writing about what we did. Vann was a trooper and loved everything.

Here is the castle that we saw. Definitely not what I was expecting.Here is Tony and I all dressed up.

Here is the Gondola, and us inside the gondola.Here is the hot spring guicers.

Here is the black egg!It was so windy I thought that we were going to blow away.

Here is the group of people that went with us.