After finishing and hopefully passing all exams at university my roommate and I left for Hakone which is about half an hour from where we live. I don’t have all the results yet but I’d like to thank everybody for their wishes and support! I passed the normal Japanese course with an A, Japanese high-level grammar with 88% and reading comprehension with 92%! Three results are missing but I’m pretty sure I passed at least (:
About 3 weeks ago I made a reservation at Hakone Suimeisou which is a ryoukan (Japanese-style hotel? Can you explain it like that?). They have their own onsen (= natural hot spring) and to enter these was the purpose of our travel! We just noticed it may be too warm when I return from Germany and winter’s maybe the best season to go enter a hot spring in the mountains. :3 ♥ Additonally, we wanted to celebrate that we survived the exam period XD (no, we’re not dramatic a t a l l.) What else should I say: It was one of the most best and relaxing experience I made since I came to Japan and we definitely plan to go again in the future! The hotel seemed to be very traditional and the whole atmosphere gave us a chill. We stayed overnight and had traditional Japanese breakfast which, unfortunately….. was too traditional for my taste. xD See the pictures for proof :3
We arrived in Hakone-Yumoto at 2 o’clock. The hotel is the white building on the right side; not too fancy from the outside :3
Our room which we loved!! So love traditional-style Japanese rooms.
Before entering Onsen. The hotel provided Yukata which we, of course, had to try on ourselves!
Open-air hot spring. Luckily nobody was there so the chance of doing something ridiculous awkward shrink to zero! 😀
I was like “Yooo Pachi…. let’s do a Tenno-inspired traditional picture!” XD”
Look at her…. you can tell by her expression just how many pictures I took before already XD
Private open-air onsen we booked because we didn’t know that I’d be so empty in the hotel :3
After the hotel staff made up our futon. The cushions were HARD AS STONES, I’m not exaggerating.
Pachi insisted on that cushion-comparison picture. I simply couldn’t lay my head on that stoney-like thing which pretended to be a cushion!! So I wrapped another blanket and used it to sleep on.
Traditional breakfast! I ate about half of it because I didn’t like the other half of food. Breakfast consisted of white rice, grilled fish (delicious!), raw fish and natto, an onsen-egg, tsukemono, nori, something we couldn’t identify, miso-soup and lots of tofu and other seafruit I didn’t like. The things I liked were really good (:
The pots on the left side were “set on fire” and some things boiled inside and got ready when beginning the breakfast; that was really cool 😀
Delicious grilled fish.
So we simply spent the time bathing inside the onsen, laying deadly relaxed in our room and that in an eternal loop until night. We watched some random Japanese TV-shows and drank beer and some plum-whine before going to bed. The trip really was worth it!! We were a bit sad when we returned to the plain dorm we’re living in, missing the soft Yukata and hot springs. Today we simply did nothing (and I mean NOTHING despite eating breakfast at 3 PM…) and I think we’ll continue ’til Saturday evening.
Saturday evening we’re taking the last train and going to Shinjuku where we plan to occupy some karaoke until morning. My flight goes on 12:00 (noon) from Narita airport and I don’t wanna take the first train at 5 AM from where I live because it’s like 3 to 4 hours from my place to the airport. And you never know what’ll happen to the trains ’cause I had to change at least 3 times and I feel more secure waiting at Shinjuku and then directly heading for the airport from there. I plan to leave rather quite early and waiting a long time at the airport than missing my flight. Last time my train got stuck for 2 hours at Chiba prefecture in the middle of nowhere and although we left early it was a bit tight for check-in at the end. This is the fuckin’ first time I take an airplane all alone and I’m scared like hell XD @___@” I mean if it’d be Spain or something, kay….. but Japan – Germany is quite a distance. It’ll take me 14-16 hours flying (I change at Finland, Helsinki) but with all the travel and Karaoke before I’ll be travelling for more than 30 hours. I hope my boyfriend’ll understand my condition when arriving in Berlin xD” This will be, indeed, a thrilling experience I’ll get. Maybe I’ll be a grown-up after that. Hm, nya, maybe not. :3 Hope my dear roommatie’ll be okay spending the two weeks all alone but I’m pretty sure she’ll be alright.
Oh and Pachi and I just decided to go to a concert from メリー (also known as M.E.R.R.Y. I guess..) ! In April the final concert of their actual tour is held in Tokyo and we SO plan to go there! We are craving for concerts, haven’t visiting any for AGES it seems. I was so a freakin’ concert-addict back in Berlin. If you know any good Japanese bands, please share with me! <3 If you never heard of the band, here’s a little teaser for you, I usually sing this song everytime I’m going to karaoke 😀
Now I’m off continuing my uncreative nothing-doing existance, everything good for you all! :3
Hi there! I’m Sam, solo traveler based in Berlin who lives part-time in Japan. I love to explore off the beaten path and immerse myself in the local culture as much as possible. Here you can find my favorite places around the globes, guides and itineraries!
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