First I walk along the shore of Lake Ashi from Hakone-Machi to Moto-Hakone. The route takes you along a path lined with ancient cedars that used to delineate the Old Tokaido roadway. A few more spectacular views of Mt. Fuji are available when you reach Moto Hakone.
From Moto Hakone I pick up a K Bus which will take the local road (instead of the faster but virtually parallel toll road) back to Hakone Yumoto. I'm doing this because I want to make two more stops.
The first is Amazake Chaya, a centuries old tea house on the old Highway. This was a rest stop for pilgrims between Edo and Kyoto. The house specialty is a fermented rice beverage called Amazake. You can order it with some mochi (rice ball snacks). It's really good. The rice beverage tastes like a sweet porridge (slightly thinner texture than a congee) and is just right for what is turning into a pretty cold day. The mochi are covered with a sugary powder and are very filling. This is perfect since I skipped lunch when I was at the box maker's.
I have exactly 30 minutes to eat and run before the next bus shows up. My second stop is another well known outdoor Onsen, Tenzan. This one is highly recommended by all the guides and I will admit that it has a very atmospheric location and luxurious atmosphere. It's more like a full spa.
Three other people get of the bus with me. Two sisters and a brother from France who are all currently living in different places in the world. When I first heard the brother speaking English in the bus I was sure that he was German but it turns out that this is because he had been living in Suttgart for 5 years.
Tenzan was really nice but unfortunately it's also full of European and North American tourists, So it doesn't feel as authentically Japanese as the Onsen I visited on the previous night.
It's also dark out now and the outdoor baths are somewhat difficult to navigate.
The variety of temperatures is more impressive here though. There is one pool that is just too hot to immerse one's self into. Even some of the Japanese bathers were wincing in pain at the extreme heat. Fortunately there was a luke warm (in comparison) pool where I was able to camp out for a little while.
I stayed only about 1 hr because I knew I needed to catch the 657 bus back to Hakone Yumoto where I caught a local train back to Odawara and then an Express train back to Shinjuku arriving back jn Tokyo at around 915.
I still hadn't had much to eat so I found a Tempura restaurant, Tsunebachi, in the Lonely Planet and, using their map, I headed over to where I thought it might be.
When I reached the corner indicated on the map I looked around hoping to find something that would indicate where I should be looking. As I spotted a familiar looking storefront I had the strangest feeling that I'd done all this before. I can't be 100% certain but I'm pretty sure my brother and I came to this restaurant 8 years ago. We tended to rely on the Lonely Planet back then as well. Maybe he can confirm it for me.
The best part of eating at an actual Tempura restaurant is that the Chef makes each piece of tempura one (or maybe two) at a time. This means that the tempura never has time to get cold and soggy which is usually the case back home.
The Tempura Shrimps are the tenderest I can recall having. I had ordered the middle sized set and it came with a number of other seafood pieces including squid, clam and a piece of fish as well as some perfectly cooked vegetables. You would dip the tempura into the standard tempura sauce and then use some additional salt to add to the taste. There were three kinds of salt. Sea salt, wasabi salt and seaweed salt. All were really good but I was thirsty all night as a result.
I finally made it back to Sakura Hotel just shy of 11 PM. Some of our group were gong to head out for drinks but all we ended up doing was wandering around the sleazier section of Ikebukuro before heading back for a beer at the hotel cafe.
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