Hakone and Baseball

Today is my travel day since the forecast for Friday is rain. Started by taking the "local" bullet train (Kodama shinkansen) one stop (20 minutes) and then a local line to meet up with a mountain train for the Hakone region. I miss going with Kiri on these train trips. Maybe Kit will become a tetsuko (tetsu girl = rail fan) like Kiri (A true tetsu otaku or "tet-chan" = rail fan)

The Hakone "Free Pass" ticket allows you two days of unlimited travel in this region by train, funicular, gondola lift, boat and bus. I plan to do two days worth of travel in one! This mountain train is a single track operation with two switch backs along the way.

Then up a funicular to the first gondola lift station.

At the summit you can see the volcanic activity.

The resorts below are harvesting the hot water for their mineral baths.

I took a hike up the volcano to get closer to the activity.

The second leg of the gondola lift is the second longest cable lift in the world.

The lake is lovely. A 30 minute boat ride with French, British and American ships is nice yet odd on a lake in Japan.

This is the site of an old check point along the Tokaido road from Tokyo to Kyoto.

At this point I turned around and retraced my path back.

Besides the boat, what else is missing in my photo compared to the brochure? Fuji-san, where are you today?

At Odawara, instead of taking the bullet train I took a semi-express train on the Tokaido line. Transfered at Yokohama and again at Higashi-Kanagawa before returning to the hotel.

I ran up to my room, dumped out my bag, grabbed my Yokohama Bay Stars baseball cap, dashed down to the subway line and got to the game 15 minutes before the start. Purchased some noodles and a beer then enjoyed 1.5 innings before a long rain delay. Play resumed for another 1.5 innings before the game was cancelled. It was lots of fun while it lasted. The Bay Stars were beating the division champion Tigers 6-3.

Of course there are cheerleaders at baseball games in Japan. Afterwards, I took the subway to Yokohama and toured the enormous and meandering underground mall before returning to the hotel.

I purchased a Japanese pop (J-pop) CD by Yuna Ito. Kind of fun listening to a mixed Japanese and Korean-American/Hawaiian singer while riding the trains.