Thursday April 4th -;Not quite the day we expected!

 As is often the case on the longer Great Rail tours we have been on, we are just getting to know a hotel and it's time to move on. Such is the case today as we are journeying by train and coach to the Hakone National Park and potential first views of Mount Fuji.

Walking through the busyTokyo streets to the station, we are impressed by the cleanliness and orderliness. We had driven through the incredibly busy and famous Shibuya crossing last night in Tokyo, where around 3,000 people waited patiently for the lights to change before swarming across in all directions - we were there at rush hour too!

At the train station we are all amused to see Japanese engineering in action when between the train emptying and us boarding, a switch is flicked and all the carriage seats turn round through 180 degrees so they are facing forward when we move off!

The journey through the suburbs is flat and uneventful, with everyone looking to the skies in the hope that the heavy cloud will start to left as we get nearer to Hakone. Unfortunately,  as we continue our journey by coach up the winding roads through the foothills, the clouds become even lower and there is little to see.

We are headed for the Hakone Ropeway, a 25 minute cable car ride over the Owakudani Valley with views of the active  sulphuric hot spring sources, as well as distant views of Mount Fuji and Lake Ashi.             At least, that's what the guidebook says and this is what we should have seen -

   

                                                                 

Unfortunately the dense fog at the top of the cable car ride meant that this is what what we actually saw -

The only actual experience of this particular tourist 'attraction we could experience was the unpleasant stench of the sulphuric fumes!

So, inavine sitting on a cable car for 25 minutes with nothing to see except fog all around, knowing that the next mode of transport to your new hotel on the side of Lake Ashi will be by pirate ship, and you might get an idea of how surreal it all felt at this point,

Here is what we should have seen on our scenic lake cruise 

and this is what we actually saw

These are not greyed out windows on the boat, the fog was really that dense!

It  was grey, cold and wet when we docked at the pier for our lakeside hotel and we were all pleased that it was only a short walk until we could relax in its warm environment.