Japan - Day 2

This was our first day traveling with our new friend Troy.  He's Lisa's uncle but really is only a few years older than her and it was really fun to get to know him - he's just chill and easy to be around.  We woke up early and Michael drove us to Hakone which is about 2 hours outside of Tokyo on the coast.  It's known for hot springs and boat rides on Lake Ashi to see spectacular views of Mt. Fuji.  This was the 1st of 4 failed attempts to see Mt. Fuji on this trip. Wah-wah-wah. :(  She's so shy and I mean, I can understand - we are kind of a big deal.  But yeah, all we saw was a completely white sky.  It was weird to think there was an enormous mountain looming over us that we just couldn't see. 

Getting on our pirate ship... drunken pirates?  not sure. 

Joey, Mike, half of Michael's face, Lisa, Victoria and Troy

 

so apparently - this is what it looks like on a blue sky day ---

And this is what it looked like the day we went. :)

 Honestly I think it's kinda rare to actually get a good view of Mt. Fuji.  I got to see it a lot on my mission because I served in Kofu for 4 months and we could see Mt. Fuji on blue sky days as we rode our bikes through the grape fields and rice fields.  I was there from February to May of 2000- it was beautiful.  

We still had lots of fun on our mini cruise - it's such a pretty lake. 

And we especially loved the bakery there.  Michael says that the Japanese take something (like French bakery goods) and do it even better.  Their bakeries are amazing- we had crispy fresh wasabi bread, pan au chocolat, fried curry bread and cream cheese and fruit pastries and  it was all scrumptious.  It was funny because we kept taking turns running in and buying another round of deliciousness.  It ended up being our full-on meal.

And then unbeknownst to us - we look over and a guy had left his pet snowy owl on the chair next to us while he got his pastry.

The Hakone Open-Air Museum was the highlight of the day for me.  It wasn't necessarily "japanesey" but oh my - it was fun to walk around and take in all the cool art.

Natural hot spring foot soak 

come on you guys - get it together. :)    This place was fun - we sang some pretty songs in harmony in this echoey chamber. It was my favorite.

an impressive collection of picasso

this was joey's favorite.  he called it 'chia head'

Our lasts stop was The Great Buddha of Kamakura.  This is a 44 foot tall bronze statue of Buddha and was built in the 1200s.  It used to be housed in a temple but after rebuilding and rebuilding temples that were destroyed by storms and tsunamis (Kamakura is right on the coast) - they finally left out in the open and it has stood in open air since 1498.  I love how it's turned green and blue.  At one time it was gilded in gold but that has long worn off although you can still see some gold behind his ears.

 

We got to go inside - not much to see but still cool to be inside a buddha

We had a long drive home but had fun playing a mike malmborg music game. And then crossed the rainbow bridge with Tokyo tower lit up.  And of course it was beautiful but since I couldn't take a good picture out of a window in the night with a phone - I will settle for a cheesy internet photo to remember our views.  And the tower was even multicolored that night just like this one.  Such a nice Michael and Lisa to drive us all over and show us cool things.

and....that was day 2.