5Y7M 3Y9M 箱根 Went to Hakone

3泊で箱根。那須、軽井沢、四万温泉と、旅行先に迷ったが、子供が一番楽しめそうな箱根にした。

箱根に行くという事は、ロマンスカーに登山鉄道、ケーブルカーにロープーウェイに海賊船。男の子にはそれだけで楽しい。ついでに芦ノ湖では白鳥の足こぎボートに乗って、帰りは小田原までバスで一直線、新幹線で帰ってきた。

アラタカラは新幹線には大興奮で、東京駅でも大宮駅でも停車している新幹線を見て回った。大宮では、E5系はやぶさが試運転中に停車していた。（写真）

箱根はというと、とにかく暑かった。定番の芦ノ湖はよかったが、ユネッサンスは料金の割に設備がいまいちでがっかり。その上、この暑さで屋外の温泉プールに入る気もしなかった。

宿泊先の日本旅館、早雲閣はよかった。リニューアルしたてで綺麗。隣の旅館花扇にもらい湯も行けて温泉三昧。なんと言っても料理が上等で、飛騨牛や松茸の握りも出てくるフルコースでみんな大満足。

We went to Hakone for a short holiday. I couldn't quite decide where to go: Hakone, Karuizawa, Nasu or Shima Onsen. In the end we chose Hakone because we knew there were lots of attractions for kids.

Going to Hakone already means riding on Odakyu Romance Car train, Mountain train, Cable Car, Rope way and Pirate ship. It's quite fun for boys. (We even hired a small boat on Lake Ashi to puddle for half an hour.) On our way back home, we decided to take a direct bus to Odawara then took Shinkansen.

Of course, Aratakara loved watching Shinkansen. We spent hours at Tokyo and Omiya stations to watch Shinkansen coming in and out. At Omiya station, we happened to see the new Shinkansen, E5 type Hayabusa. (The last photo.)

About Hakone. It was just too hot. Lake Ashi was a good half day trip but Yunessun, a theme park with lots of small hot springs, was not as good as I expected and it wasn't cheap. In any case, I didn't feel like dipping in hot springs outside on such a hot day!

The hotel, Japanese Ryokan, Souunkaku was really good. They have recently renovated and it was very clean. Guests are allowed to make use of the hot spring at the next door Ryokan, Hanaougi, as well, so we really enjoyed hot springs every day. But the best part of our stay was the food at Souunkaku. It was unbelievably gorgeous with more than 10 courses of Japanese dishes including Hida beef and Matsutake sushi. We were all happy!