Hakone sightseeing....

I say sightseeing rather tongue in cheek since this was the view from the cable car....

So, yes, the Saturday was absolutely awful weather. We had bought the Hakone Free Pass which means you can use several types of transport for free and get into many of the museums at a discount. Ebi-kun really wanted to ride on the pirate ship on lake Ashi, so we braved the weather and first stopped off at Owakundani so we could sample the onsen eggs. The eggs are cooked in the hot springs which turns the shells black but your life is supposed to be extended 7 years for each egg you eat! The area used to be mined for it's sulphur and so it doesn't exactly smell good, it was raining so hard that just the quick dash from the cable car to the shop meant that we were soaked. I thought we could just buy single eggs but we had to buy a pack of 5 so we decided to keep them for later.

Then it was back on the cable car, they were warning us that if the weather gets too bad they stop running the pirate ships, luckily we managed to catch one, the rain was really heavy so we decided to just hop off and jump on the the one that was returning to the same spot. 

We couldn't really see much from the ship but Ebi-kun thought it was exciting, he was sure he spotted a sea serpent or two.

Next we took a bus to the Venetian Glass museum, on recommendation by a friend. Even in the rain the gardens looked spectacular but trying to juggle the umbrella and camera and keep myself sort of try was really tricky!

There were quite a few crystal trees in the gardens which glimmered in the rain.

We had a look around inside, Ebi-kun wasn't that interested, partly because the works are set at adult height so he couldn't see many of them properly and partly because we were all dripping wet. They had some beautiful pieces but I don't think it is really a place for kids. The queue for the restaurant extended out into the gardens so we kept wandering until it had shortened somewhat.

Walking around the shop was scarier than any theme park ride I have been on, some of the pieces were so expensive, I was scared of knocking something over, never mind ebi-kun! We looked at doing the glass fusing but the queue was long and it was done in a tent outside so we gave up.

Eventually we managed to get something to eat and by that time we had all had enough so we took a bus back to Gora.

We picked up some cup ramen for dinner and a few beers and then headed back to the hotel, despite wearing coats, rain coats and using brollies we were all soaked to the skin, so as soon as we got in we stripped off and went  for a nice hot onsen. Then we had  a fancy dinner of cup ramen and black eggs! Ebi-kun was impressed because it is the first time he has had cup ramen, the eggs were quite tasty, I had expected them to taste of sulphur, washed down with beer, they were perfectly edible.