Waking to a bright sunny day the forecast is good and we are heading up the mountain after a breakfast coffee stop.Visit to the supermarket ...(I do love a foreign supermarket ..full of unknown exotic stuffs).
The route starts outside our Hostel so off we trot. Quite a few others heading the same way...steps to begin with then occasional steps then just rough track as we ascend probably about an hour up to the top, much of the way lined by dense impenetrable bamboo (I can't imaging having to hack my way through it) fortunately someone else has done it for us.
We reach the summit and are fortunate to have a view of mount fuji very much in the distance ..unsure as we were to begin with, as this is the first year in 130 (since records began) that here has been no snow on Fuji at this time of year, so not the iconic view one might expect... we are in luck as often it is covered in cloud.
In Tokyo the signs of autumn were barely noticeable...here in Hakone a little more so ...with the foliage turning.(I particular like the Acers). I'm still in sandals here, which I would have forsaken a while ago back home.
We started heading down the way we had come expecting a turning according to google then we realised that we had to go back up and continue from there ...gritting teeth we reascended for 10 minutes and started down the other side mostly shaded by deciduous trees. About half way down the going got tougher 
but indefatigable as we are, we made it back to the tarmac ...found our second onsen
which we shared this time and after a good long soak and thorough pumicing we retired home for a nap and yes a bit of blog writing.
Out for supper .... no such luck , well not easily ...every restaurant we visited was either closed or choc full so after 45mins of traipsing, surprisingly not really tired, we went to a supermarket and bought pot noodle... no cooking facilities in the hostel save for a kettle ... I was pleasantly pleased with the noodles not having ever eaten them before! A couple of good beers washed them down.
Then laid out the futon….time for zzzzz’s
Night night.
This featured blog entry was written by xopher from the blog Six weeks in Japan.
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