Hangover in Hakone (Fart City)

After we made it off the train in Odawara and boarded the bus to Hakone, we sat on the bus for quite a long time. We got off the bus and our noses were immediately assaulted by the fart air of Hakone (caused by the natural hot springs in the area). I was still very hungover, my stomach was furious with me, and I needed to go to the bathroom, so I assumed the worst from the smell. We were both still tired from not getting much sleep the night before and nauseous from the rocky bus ride up the hill, so we were grumpy and ready to get to our hostel, Hakone Tent.

Unfortunately, I picked the route on Google Maps that required about 15 minutes of walking. But what Google Maps failed to mention was that the 15 minutes of walking was up a narrow steep mountainside path with hundreds of feet of stairs. Carolanne and I started making our way up because we had no other way up. We had no choice. We bitched and moaned the whole way -and I considered diving into the bushes.

At some point along the mountain, we stopped to catch our breath. We were sweating profusely and panting loudly, so we decided to hitchhike. We joked that we should hitchhike and I hesitantly put my thumb up. A guy stopped almost immediately and offered to help. He was Chinese, but spoke English and Japanese as well. He called our hostel, got directions, and drove us to the door. We thanked him and went inside to check in. The hostel was cute and beautifully done with tatami mats -and cheap as well! The room was a traditional style room with futons and tatami mats. It was so charming. We were supposed to share the room with one other person, but luckily no one checked in so we got it all to ourselves.

You could say it was pretty close quarters.

Once we dropped off our stuff and settled in, then went downstairs to the onsen (the hot spring that was really hot and smelled like farts, but was great). We hopped into the tub and enjoyed the basic (2.2) water. At one point, one of us said, "Ohhh that was a sick burn! You should soak that in the onsen." and that became a reoccurring joke throughout our trip. After about 15 minutes, we got out because it was too hot and we were starting to get dizzy. Our skin felt great after, but we smelled like farts the rest of the day.

Soon after, we tried to find a few restaurants that the receptionist suggested. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any of the places and got increasingly hangry as we searched the entire town for any place that was open. Eventually, we found an Okonomiyaki place and bought two pork pancakes and an order of sausage. We returned to the hostel much happier and a lot less likely to kill each other. When we got back, I rented a few yukatas (summer traditional garb) for us to wear for the night.

Crafts inside the Hakone Crafthouse!

We woke up early the next morning, took another dip in the onsen, the walked around the town. We were in much better spirits after a day of rest. We visited a cute place called the Hakone Crafthouse. Carolanne bought a set of adorable cups that didn't seem to be for sale, but they let her buy them. The Crafthouse had some gardens attached so we got a few more videos for the music vid and met a lemur.

"I want to Break Free" always plays in my head when I see this photo.

We wandered around the city a little longer buying souvenirs -I was able to buy some nice looking clip-on earrings (my right ear was still recovering from plastic surgery and was unpierced). When we were satisfied, we went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and hopped on the train to Tokyo.

Train views!