After missing the Golden Week crush, we made a short trip to Hakone admist the rain and the foothills of Fuji-san. The Golden Week break, one of the biggest breaks – which also means one of the most crowded breaks, where you can experience 40+km traffic jams getting out of Tokyo – the “Official National break” was full of sunshine and warm weather. We chose to go away the week after this period, to rain and cloudy weather. Though the crowds were none existant. Well except for the occasional school trip crowd.
We went to Hakone. Just a few short hours drive from Tokyo, or a few short hours train ride. In the foothills of Mt Fuji and surrounding Lake Ashino. It was good to get away. A short visit to the Hakone Open Air museum was also unexpetently timed with a visit of the Emperors brother, and the head honcho of Fuji TV. Along with visits to the Little Prince museum, where Rina was fascinated by the bubble machine that they had out the front of the place producing an endless flow of bubbles into the air.
We also managed to see the Hakone Aquarium where they had an interesting collection of aquatic life, huge “live” Hokkaido crabs, sting rays, fish from the Amazon, penguins and seals, along with the occasional bird and other mammal.
It was good to get away from Tokyo for a few short days, now only if there was more of it.