Our second full day in Hakone gave us chance to do the sightseeing cruise over Lake Ashi. We got the bus down once again to Togendai station from our hotel at Sengoku-kogen. The cruise stopped at two different areas around the lake which included Hakonemachi-ko and Motohakone-ko. The boat trip was about thirty minutes long and we upgraded our tickets to first class. The first class cabins on the boat was really nice both ways. We for the most part had the cabin to ourselves as there was only a few other tourists there so it was lovely and quiet and we had a range of spots to sit at and view the lake and surrounding mountains. We transferred from the first boat to a second one which took us to Motohakone-ko which is where Hakone shrine is located.
After reaching our destination I began to realise how cold it was there and regretted wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I’ll learn my lesson one day but not this day. In light of my fashion fail we decided to get a hot drink and visited a bakery called ‘Bakery and Table’ and had some goodies from there and ate them in the cafe which was above the bakery. I had a chocolate and chestnut danish and a pain au chocolat which were both delicious. I also had this hot chocolate themed drink which looked incredible but wasn’t that great as it had a weird bitter aftertaste.
After finishing up at the bakery we headed over towards Hakone shrine which was a short walk away from the station. I was determined to visit this shrine as I wanted my signatures for my shrine signature book. I also really wanted to get some photos of both the shrine and the floating tori gate in the lake.
After finishing up at the shrine and the tori gate we just wandered around somewhat aimlessly to see what else there was to do in the area. We looked around some of the shops and many of them were filled with lots of traditional crafts from the area. Hakone seems to do a lot of crafts centred around wood which I believe we called ‘yosegi’. The wooden crafts ranged from small trinkets to full on draw sets and they were beautiful to look at and added to the areas charm. I will say that although this area is pleasant there isn’t a great deal to do there and the main part of the experience is the cruise which I can’t recommend enough. When we headed back I ended up falling asleep because I was so tired but also very relaxed. Travelling over water seems to be a relaxing experience for me and I’m not complaining.
Unfortunately when we got back to the hotel I had to pack up all my things for moving on again the next morning. I was so sad to know I would be moving from such a beautiful place as I adored Hakone. It’s one of my favourite places. I spent the rest of the night soaking up the place before I had to say goodbye.
Until next time thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day!
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All images are taken by myself
A Nerdy Perspective 
I absolutely like the looks of the ships. However, I guess they are not powered only by wind and sails, right? This would just be a little too good to be true…
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Yeah the ships were beautiful. I don’t know for sure but I assume they are powered by something else as well as the wind and sails. But it would have been so cool if that were the case!
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I heard of temple stamp books for the first time last week, and just now reading your entry I spent waaay to much time reading about them online. 🙂 I presume you got your stamp?
And those pastries make me hungry!
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What a coincidence! It’s funny how things like that happen sometimes haha! I’m hoping to do a post about my book at some point and share some of the stamps I collected. And I did 😀
Haha yes whenever I look back at the photos it makes me hungry too!
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