Rain's Not a Problem, but a Monsoon? Day 13 in Japan

It was our last full day in Japan and the plans were to do something fun and see some new things. Yuko had a trip planned to the Hakone region. It's about one-half hour from Mishima (at least the start of the area) and has museums, a lake, hot springs, boat rides, and other things to see and do. It was cloudy when we left the apartment but as we climbed the road into the mountains it got foggier and foggier, making it hard to see the road. And then it started to rain. By the time we got to our first stop, Hakone Sekisho, the Hakone checkpoint, it was pouring and the wind was blowing. It wasn't really a monsoon, but it sure felt like one.

The Hakone Sekisho was built by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1619 as one of 53 checkpoints throughout Japan. This was during the Edo Period (Edo was the original name of Tokyo). The Hakone checkpoint was considered to be the biggest and most important one. The primary purpose of the checkpoints were to control arms entering Edo and women attempting to leave Edo. This checkpoint, known for its strictness, was primarily responsible for keeping women from escaping from Edo. My photos include restored areas of the checkpoint (complete with rain and mist) and at least one misty photo of the lake. Our next stop was for lunch at a very nice restaurant, La Terrazza (Life Art Museum, Italian Restaurant, Select Shop, Book Store). Here the pizza was much more authentic, although some of the toppings and some of the descriptions were a little odd (see the photos). And the order of fried zucchini had no resemblance to what we're used to -- it was done tempura style and included two small fish (again, see the photo). The pizzas were good (and I even got to have anchovies!)

We headed back to Mishima, as the wind was blowing even harder and the rain was pouring down -- not a day to explore gardens or lookout points. The roads were still very foggy, until we got through the mountains. Once we were back on the outskirts of Mishima, the rain stopped, except for a drizzle, the fog was gone, and the weather was nice.

Kate and I walked to the train station and made our reservations for tomorrow (Monday) for the Shinkansen from Mishima to Shinagawa and then the Narita Express back to the airport. It was, as usual, amusing as the two clerks helping us professed little knowledge of English (although they do take it throughout high school). The male clerk carefully went over our tickets with us, in Japanese, including the times (the tickets do have English letters and Roman numerals, so we knew they were correct). This caused even the female clerk to look amused as she knew we didn't understand him.

Back at the house, I read Hewitt two Little Bear stories and we read a Frog and Toad story together,alternating pages (these were the two books we have Hewitt for his birthday). I also got to read Hewitt and Jonah one Little Bear and two Frog and Toad stories for bedtime. Jeff made us another delicious dinner and we had birthday cake for dessert. We've started packing and are looking forward to our last morning in Japan.

Here are the day 13 photos.