A rainy outing in Hakone

15 Mar

So since my big announcement on getting engaged, the kangaroo and I have been doing research on places in Japan to tie the knot. On the shortlist is Hakone, a hot springs town just an hour away from Tokyo, where it’s also a popular wedding destination.

The heavy rain (which became snow later) didn’t deter us at all as we were excited about location hunting. Not only that, we had a few firsts on this little day trip.

#1 We rented our first car in Japan.

The kangaroo got his international driving license a year or two ago but we never really had an opportunity to rent a car on our own. And, we did it all in Japanese!

That’s the kangaroo and the car rental dude who was very helpful in directing us to Hakone from Odawara station where the shop was located.

#2 We finally made it to what must be THE onsen destination for Tokyoites.

Here’s a photo of Lake Ashi, that is the central feature of Hakone where hotels, cruise docks, onsens are flanked on its banks. Unfortunately, due to the miserable weather, we couldn’t see Mount Fuji which is supposed to be in the background of this lake.

I’m not putting up photos of the hotels we saw because it may ruin the surprise, if we so choose a Hakone hotel for our wedding. But we did wander around a camping ground by the lake…

“We can have a barbecue party right here!” the kangaroo said excitedly. I had to laugh because that’s so Aussie. The general plan is to have a bunch of family and friends over for a few days for not just the ceremony and dinner, but also for hanging out and doing touristy things together — plus a good ol’ Aussie bbq dinner in Japan!