What seemed to have become a traditional deluge to signal our arrival or departure from the various cities we visited in Japan again greeted us as we opened the curtains on our last morning in Hakone although it eased enough to allow a brief walk through the beautiful gardens that adorned the back of the Hotel (the picture below was taken of a poster in the garden showing it in its full splendour rather than rainy conditions).
Rather than the Shinkansen we decided to take the wonderfully named “Romancecar” back to Tokyo - a regular train with an observation carriage at the back with a see-through roof (see photo below) - apparently the name derives from the absence of armrests between the seats so allowing closer contact between passengers!
The Hakone-Yumato station was located among mist shrouded mountains, tumbling water-falls and fast running rivers (showing to great effect as a result of the downpour accompanying our journey). Fortunately the attentive hotel staff had braved the downpour to load our bags so we had avoided getting too wet - but the weather conditions certainly illustrated why the train to Tokyo had an observation car.
We arrived back in Tokyo in time for a visit to a Yakitori restaurant - basically a grilled meat restaurant favoured by salary men and women where one can eat your own body-weight in grilled chicken or beef on a skewer with a reasonably priced beer. Once again a delicious example of Japanese cuisine.
As our time in Japan was drawing to a close our thoughts turned to souvenirs which led me to Kappabachi Street where various kitchen implements may be purchased including super sharp knives which E. had expressed an interest in so invested in a couple of knives and also some paint brushes for V at a specialist paint shop by Tokyo Bay.
This also allowed me to explore urban Tokyo on my walk back to the Hotel which included canals, parks, cycle paths, rail lines and rather surprisingly a tugboat mounted on a pedestal next to the road under a rail line (my picture below shows tugboat/approaching train, over head plane heading to nearby Haneda airport and walker - so all major forms of transportation in one photo which was also very much the story of residential Tokyo.
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