Still, there was plenty to ponder.
Passing through another urban area I was surprised to see a building that looked awfully like a Christian cathedral towering above the surrounding buildings. I think that might have been in Shizuoka, though it’s impossible to tell for sure. There are very few stations on this section of the shinkansen line and, even if there were, from a train travelling at express speed you’d be flat out reading the signs as you whiz past.
The other standout, apart from the odd cathedral-like structure, was the increasing number of tunnels as we headed towards Atami, a coastal hot spring resort that’s been attracting travellers since the 8th century.
We’d just alighted from the train in Odawara and were looking for the most appropriate exit when a southbound shinkansen rocketed through the station, showing how fast 200 kilometres per hour is when you’re standing nearby. It was literally a case of now you see it, now you don’t.
‘Er Indoors lead us off the platform about thirty seconds later, single-mindedly heading off in search of the window where she could pick up a pair of two-day Hakone passes and leaving Yours Truly struggling down a flight of stairs juggling the suitcase. About half way down I felt a twinge in my right leg, which didn’t help the mobility on a day when we’d planned on doing plenty of walking.
Once we’d bought the passes, it was onto a local train, which carried us to Hakone-Yumoto, and then catching a bus to the night’s accommodation the Quatre Saisons Hotel at Tonosawa.
The bus dropped us off in a car park about a hundred metres down the road from the hotel, leaving us with a rather scary walk along the side of a very narrow winding road with plenty of traffic passing in both directions. It was about eleven when we dropped the luggage off and walked back to the bus stop in the rain as cars rolled past in alarming proximity.
I don’t mind sharing the road with the odd car while I’m walking, but I’d prefer to have the cars passing by somewhere beyond an arm’s reach.
Back in Hakone-Yumoto we caught the train to Gora, an amazing zigzag ride with switch-backs galore as we headed through the mist and rain up into the mountains. The views on a fine, sunny day would probably have been quite spectacular but the journey through the mist created a mood of primeval mystery.
From Gora we took the Hakone Tozan cable car up the hill to Sounzan, missing the chance to investigate what appeared to be a Swiss restaurant just down the road from the station.
The next stage of the journey, the main aim of which was to get a view of Mount Fuji, involved taking the Hakone rope-way which would eventually deposit us on the shores of Lake Ashi. We decided to stop for lunch at one of the intermediate stations on the rope-way, Owakudani (allegedly one of the top spots for visiting Mount Fuji, but a glance at the accompanying photo shows that we had about as much chance of viewing the mystic mountain as a wheelchair-bound double amputee has of taking out the triple jump gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.