Continued from Hakone Day 1 Part 1.

Definitely one of the most remote train stops I’ve ever gotten off at.

OK, there’s some other buildings here.

Station dropped us off up high, so it’s just all down hill to the main road and to our ryokan.

Abandoned vending machine.

More abandoned house.

I feel like at one point, there used to be much more bustling. Japan may be overrun with tourists, but this exact spot in Hakone definitely isn’t…yet.

There’s our Ryokan.

Lots of stairs are difficult while carrying heavy packs.

We had to come down halfway down from the mountain.

Entrance to our Ryokan, Fukuzumiro.

This is super old school Ryokan, over 100 years old. There are other more modern ones, but I thought it would be fun to stay at a really old classic one.

None of the staff here speak good English, so they all use Google Translate to speak what they are saying in Japanese. We are getting a quick tour of the facilities here.

It’s such a beautiful old building. It has that really old wooden building smell.

A big reason why people come to Hakone, for the onsens. The steps down from the main hall to the Onsens in the lower level are all really steep and tall. Really odd considering that Japanese aren’t exactly tall people, and this is a really old building, so why are the steps so extremely tall?

One of the public baths, switches gender depending on time of day.

One of the reservable private baths.

I’m telling you, these steps are like 50% higher than your average steps and kinda shallow.

The various baths available for use to us in this ryokan.

Our room.

Nice, super traditional. Glad we get to give the kids this authentic experience. The room could use some updating/deep cleaning though, the property is definitely a little bit tired.

This is what $850 per day gets you for a large room with attached private hot springs bath in Hakone. It’s actually a great deal because kaiseki dinner and breakfast are included in that price.

But look, our little private garden for our room that backs out to the Haya River. The sound of the splashing river is constant, so peaceful. And the water looks turquoise blue.

Alright, long travel day, let’s sit down and start chilling out.

Rice cake made here in Hakone as welcome snacks.

PL thought these were the greatest things in the world. RL wants to buy from the place that makes them here in Hakone before we leave the area.

How cool is this. Speaking of cool, the general area of the ryokan isn’t air conditioned, which usually isn’t a problem. But with this heat wave happening here in Japan, what’s supposed to be temperatures in the 70s is now temperature in the 80s. But!!! We’ve got an AC unit in the room and some fans, so we’ll be just fine. Would SUCK to sleep in the heat if we didn’t have AC.

This sitting area reminds me of our hotel in Shanghai.

We needed to know how tall we are to measure for yukata. Well…RL’s been carrying this deadweight measuring tape in her purse this entire trip…at least it comes in handy once.

We got some sake from the ryokan and just started chilling. After a very busy two weeks or so, we are hoping to slow down just a tiny little bit here in Hakone…just a little bit.

There you go kids, go on your ipads so that your parents can have a chill time. Put on your headphones too so it’ll be nice and quiet. Ahhh, this is the life.

I think he’s getting hungry.

Oh yeah, a big part of the reason why I booked this room at this Ryokan is that this is the only room in the place with its own private onsen attached to the room!!! Fuck yeah!!!

The bathroom area is dark and low, and also semi open to the outdoors due to the onsen portion being partially open to outdoors. The doorways are also really low here, and I keep on hitting my head and shoulder on things. But you know what, I’m happy to have my private toilet since lots of traditional ryokans here in Japan still mostly share public toilets. Screw that.

Setting up for dinner service.

Look at my big girls!

We enjoyed this sake.

So serene and peaceful.

The menu…it’s all in Japanese. This is the Japan that I remember.

This is how I read the menu…but what’s the point, I still don’t know what it means. Excited for the dining adventure though.

Yummmm, looks so good and I”m so excited to try it all. So beautiful and colorful.

Fish hotpot.

The lady setting up our table offered the kids to light their own hot pots. Imagine the liability of this in America.

LIttle KL’s hands are just a little bit too small and needed some assistance.

She also offered to take a photo for us, nice.

Couldn’t decide which photo I liked better so I kept them both.

Let’s eat!!!! I’m so excited to try everything. I found out post this Japan trip from RL that apparently she’s not the biggest fan of kaiseki meals….I’m shocked. It’s so fun to try all these little things.

Kids have their own modified smaller kaiseki meals.

Stop being crazy!! Sit down and eat!!! We are all tired and wired.

Second half of my meal. Yummmm.

Then it’s onsen time in our private onsen. There’s a tap to run cold water into the well to decrease the temperature. The hot water constantly welling up from the bottom of the tub is very hot. It doesn’t really have a smell though.

After dinner we call the reception for them to come and clean up everything and set the room up with futons for night time.

Room dividers go back in. Good to have some separation between us and the crazy kids.

STOP!!! Just stand still and watch.

While they were making up the room, I took a quick stroll to another part of the ryokan. They’ve got this giant tatami room. I bet back in the heydays, this was quite the community room for all the guests here.

Alright crazies, please go to sleep.

Alright, we promised yall a little bit more ipad before sleepy time. Of course, it wasn’t easy putting them to bed since they are so excited to be in a traditional ryokan.

To be continued at Hakone Day 2 Part 1.