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| Lake Ashi |
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This time I will tell my trip to Hakone. I went to a festival whose name Toriiyaki Matsuri. It hold in 5th August every year. The first thing you should do to make a trip to Hakone is to buy a free pass ticket at Odawara station. Hakone free pass is a good vale ticket for tourists. With just 3900 yen you can ride all public transportation in Hakone, from trains to the cable car. The free pass ticket can be used for 2 days. If you not buy a free pass ticket, for example to take the bus from Hakone Yumoto to the Lake Ashi, the bus fee is about 1000 yen one way. If you want to ride the train or the other transportations, it will cost you more than the free pass price.
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| Hakone Lake Ashi Sightseeing Cruise |
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In this festival, they have a Torii (shrine gate in Japanese) burning ceremony in the middle of the lake. Torii usually found at the front of Shinto Shrine which usually serves as a symbol of that Shrine. Out of curiosity, I interviewed a festival organizer about it. Before that I tried a snack in that festival, the name is Jaga Bataa (potato with butter). The common of jaga bataa is boiled potato, but in that festival the potato is deep fried potato. And it was very delicious.
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| Foods at the festival |
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| Deep Fried Jaga batā (Potato with butter) |
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Three Gods of Hakone
Ninigi no Mikoto Konohanasakuya-hime no Mikoto Hikohohodemi no Mikoto source: http://hakonejinja.or.jp/ |
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| Hakone people pray to Gods source: http://hakonejinja.or.jp/ |
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According to him, at the ancient time there are a lot of demons at Hakone. They roamed at the village and disturb the villagers. Because of that the villagers made a wish to the Gods so Gods can repel the demons from Hakone. 瓊瓊杵尊（Ninigi no Mikoto）, 木花咲耶姫命（Konohanasakuya-hime no Mikoto）, 彦火火出見尊（Hikohohodemi no Mikoto）granted their wish and repelled the demons from Hakone. This ceremony continues until now. Further, 1252 years ago discovered a Jinja (Shinto Temple) located at the edge of Lake Ashi. And the people who discovered this temple believed that this temple is the continuation of the villagers ceremony as a tribute to the 3 Gods who helped them. Now, this festival also commemorate the Hakone Temple which located beside the Lake Ashi, the place where this festival being held. Furthermore, fireworks have been added to attract tourists.
Fireworks at Festival
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| The Height of the burning gate are 6 Meters |
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From what I saw and felt, this festival is very different from other festivals. They mix traditional Japanese style ceremony with modern style fireworks. And they do it in the middle of a lake that in fact has a fairly high level of difficulty. At first I didn’t think that this festival is one of major festivals in Japan. Not only the domestic tourists, tourists from abroad also really enjoyed this festival. And if you have a wish you can write them in lanterns which will be swept away along with the ceremonial burning of the gate.
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| Wishes lanterns at Gate Burning Ceremony |
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| Hakone Tozan Train |
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| Hakone Tozan Bus |
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I started my journey from where I stayed at Hakone Yumoto. From there you can ride the train to the Gora Station. The train which being used was quite unique, with classic impression showed from its shape. You can enjoy an amazing experience, when the usual train circling the mountain to reach the top, this train doing it with the system switches back to the top. I went to a little shrine beside Tonozawa Station. That Shrine was small but full of natural scenery. When you have free time, you can go to several museums and Hot springs in Hakone. They have a famous spot in there like The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone Gora Park, Hakone Sekisho Exhibition Hall and Himeshara hot spring. And if you have enough time to spare, you can go to Gotemba Premium outlets. This is the largest factory outlet I've ever attended. And there is a lot of famous brands, ranging from Lacoste to Gucci. To go there, from Gora Station you can take a bus at Gotemba for 1 hour. On the way you will be satisfied by the view of the beautiful scenery around the mountains at Hakone.
Little Shrine Beside Tonozawa Station
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| The Hakone Open-Air Museum |
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Hakone Sekisho Exhibition Hall
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| Gotemba Premium Outlet |
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After you return from Gotemba to Gora Station, you can take a cable train and ropeway to reach the Ashi Lake. When the riding the ropeway, there are lots of scenery that only being seen from above, for example sulfur valley and city views from the top of Hakone. With this ropeway up the mountain we reached a height of more than 1400 meters from the sea. After arriving at the lake Ashi, you can climb aboard Hakone Sighting Cruise. After the ship docked and the clock has also indicated 5 in the afternoon, I decided to go back to Kawasaki.
Hakone Tozan Cablecar Hakone Ropeway
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| Sulfur Valley |
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| Hakone Sightseeing Cruise |
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| Famous Hakone Shrine Gate at Lake Ashi |
Accommodation
If you go from Tokyo station, you can take Tokaido Line to Odawara Station (1 hour 26 minutes, 1450 yen) and then change onto Hakone Touzan line to Hakone Yumoto Station (15 minutes, 300 yen).
More information you can check Hakone City Tourist Association:
256 Yumoto, Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture 250-0398, JAPAN
TEL 0460-85-7410 / FAX 0460-85-6815
For Hakone Shrine Tourist Association:
Kanagawa-ken Ashigarashimo-gun Hakone-Machi Motohakone 80 – 1, JAPAN
TEL 0460 - 83 - 7123 FAX 0460 - 83 - 6669
