Sonya, Clara & Lydia: Tokyo

Last year, we went to Cancun, Mexico for the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control where Justin presented his paper. This year, he had a new paper to present at the same conference but held in Shanghai and yes, we tagged along too. Since we need to transit somewhere to reach Shanghai, we thought we would stop by Tokyo for a short vacation and also to visit friends. The original plan was to work first then play but the air ticket and hotel prices in Tokyo were so much more expensive after the conference compared to before and so we had our stopover in Tokyo first before heading to Shanghai. A word of advice for you guys who are planning to get air tickets to multiple cities, make sure you compare the air tickets prices when booked manually as separate trips and when done as a whole package by travel websites. We slashed the costs by half by booking the trips separately. So instead of booking a multiple cities trip from Boston to Tokyo to Shanghai to Boston, we did Boston to Tokyo return trip and Tokyo to Shanghai return trip. Of course, we had to make sure that the transit times and everything else are correct before we booked. It was more work but we saved a lot of money!

On our flight from Boston to Newark on Continental Airline, we got a good bird's eye view of Cambridge. The photo above is too small but on the larger version, we could see the whole of MIT :)

In Tokyo, we stayed at the Sumisho Hotel and chose a Japanese style room. It was small but sufficient. The floor was tatami and we had two Japanese style bedding that could be folded up when not in use. This was great because Sonya and Clara got more space to play and to do their drawings. After a short rest at the hotel, we met up with Natalie, my friend from art school, and her boyfriend Chris for dinner at a Kaiseki restaurant where we had the most delicious beef in the world. It was a taste like no other and one that I will never forget. I wish I took photos but I was really too tired.

We woke up early the next morning, which was not that difficult since we were all running on Boston time, and took a cab to Tokyo Station where we could take the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Hakone to see Mt Fuji.

We got breakfast from the many food stores at the train station. The food was nice but expensive.

We found our train and since it was still early, we walked along the platform to take some photos of the trains. There are many different types of Shinkansen trains with different maximum traveling speeds (up to 300 km/h). The one we got (see photo below) is the slowest one along the Tokaido line, but still very fast compared to the regular trains.

The one below is Nozomi, the fastest along the Tokaido line.

Time to board the train...

It was not long before we got our first glimpse of Mt Fuji. It only takes about 40 minutes to reach Odawara Station where we will transfer to the Hakone-Tozan Line, a local train to reach Hakone Yumoto.

From Hakone Yumoto, it was another bus ride to Moto Hakone. Along the way (narrow winding road uphill), there were many accommodation places and many with onsen. We didn't stop for onsen since it was not quite possible with 2 kids.

At Moto Hakone, it was a short walk to the harbor to catch the "pirate ship" that took us across Lake Ashi to Togendai.

There were other attractions, like forest walk, at Moto Hakone but we just went for the boat ride.

As you can see from the photo above that I got a new child safety harness for Clara because I had been warned about how crowded it is in Shanghai. It is like a monkey backpack and Clara likes it much better than the one that goes on her wrist. As we soon found out, she and her monkey became big attractions everywhere we went in Tokyo and Shanghai. I bet many people think what a cruel mother I am to leash my daughter. But, to keep her safe in a crowded foreign land, it was the best option possible for her to still be able to run around without getting lost or getting running onto the road and getting run over by a car. The consolation was that some people do come up to me and agree that it was a good idea and one in Shanghai even asked where to get one.

Clara, the Pirate :)

At Togendai, we rode the Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani. The ropeway also stopped at Ubako along the way but there wasn't much to see there.

From the ropeway, we could already see the hot springs at Owakudani.

At the station, there was a little play area with kiddy rides and other stuff. Sonya and Clara were so excited to see the 小叮当 (Doraemon) and we let them had a ride in the spinning 小叮当.

And, of course, there was Hello Kitty. Clara had a "pretend ride" in the Hello Kitty.

It was close to lunchtime by then and we headed for the restaurant above the ropeway station for lunch.

Owakudani is famous for the "black egg" (黑玉子) which is basically regular chicken eggs cooked in the hot spring. The shell turns black in the hot spring due to a chemical reaction with the sulphurous water. Each egg costs 100 yen. It is said that eating an egg will add 7 years to your life. Justin ate 3 and I ate 2. He will be living for an additional 21 years and me 14 years :)

I had read on the internet that they were hard boiled eggs and so I let Clara try to crack the egg. Unfortunately, the hard-boiled ones are those that you get near the hot spring. The ones at the restaurant were soft boiled and as you can imagine, it became a mess on the table when it cracked.

Black egg Hello Kitty...

Clara has recently started to identify things that she wants to take a photo with. This huge ice-cream was one of them.

There was a little temple by the hillside and next to the idol was a place to cleanse the hands. Clara, of course, needed to get her hands washed. The water was actually warm!

Another Hello Kitty in traditional Japanese costume...

It was quite a climb up the slopes to reach hot spring where the black eggs are cooked.

This is the place where they cook the black eggs.

You can buy the black eggs directly from the little shop by the side and start eating right on the spot. We already had enough years added to our lives at the restaurant so we didn't get any here :) Well, if the legend is true, the people who lives at Hakone must be thousands of years old. One egg per day for a year would add 2555 years!

The eggs also had their own little ropeway (see photo below) to get them downhill to the shops and restaurants below :)

Enough of black eggs and it was time to continue on the ropeway to Sounzan.

Clara was too short to be seen despite the step stool behind. She got frustrated and came in front :)

Last glimpse of Mt Fuji...

At Sounzan, we transferred to the Sounzan Cablecar to take us to Gora. It was already late afternoon. Clara was getting sleepy and Sonya was tired as well. There were a few tourist attractions along the way. We thought we stopped by the garden there to take a look.

We got off the cable car and it was after it left that we realized that we should have gotten off the right side doors instead of the left side ones to get to the garden. We didn't see any way to cross the tracks and we were silly enough to think that the only way to get across was to wait for the cable car to come back and quick hop across to the other platform through it.

We waited and we waited. Clara fell asleep and still it had not come. When it was finally there, it was too crowded to even get in let alone get through. I decided to ask the driver if there was a way to get across. He said we should just go down the steps and then through the underpass. I felt very silly. We had waited for nothing :( You can start laughing now...

By then, we were really too tired for a walk in the garden and we had to pay entrance fees too. Instead, we walked through the streets to get to Gora. It was quite a nice walk downhill past little shops and restaurants.