Happy Birthday Wom!

We have just returned from a fantastic weekend in Hakone.   We stayed at the Ichinoyu Honkan overnight which was fantastic.  Mind you I did not sleep a wink on those hard tatami floors and skinny futons.  Too thin for a tubby gaijin!

Dinner was great too - shabu shabu and we all dressed up in yakata and happi-coats.    Brekky was less tantalising - just can't get used to grilled fish with rice and miso for brekky.

Most of today was spent doing the tourist loop around Hakone.   This includes the ' toy' train or zig zag train up the mountain from Hakone Yumoto to Gora.  Then the ropeway (furnicular) up the mountain further to Souzan.  Then the cable car across the top and down to Lake Ashinoko.   The views of Mt Fuji were superb!   We took millions of (identical) photos.   On the pirate ship across the Lake we rang Wom for her birthday and then again from the Shinkansen as we left Odawara.    We will update the blog further tomorrow and finally get up some new photos.   Off to Alan's and Mari's for dinner.................Hope you had a lovely day today Wom - much love Nick & Linda & the ratbags