The clothes dried. Checked out of Hotel Edoya and walked to Akihabara with our luggage to buy USBs which we never used. Had a coffee and quick breakkie at Excelsior Cafe. It was so windy today that Derrian's hat and glasses blew away and Cat had to go running for it. Caught train from Akihabara to Tokyo and asked this girl at information who spoke perfect english on how to reserve seats for the Shinkansen. We lined up at the Ticket counter and got our tickets. Its by car number and seat number. Just like a plane. Each platform had the car number sign so it lets people know where to stand waiting. Inside the Shinkansen - very spacious. Seats were 2 seats-aisle-3seats. I sat next to this young guy who didn't speak english. He offered to swap with Cat so we ended up sitting next to each other. How nice of him! The bullet train is fast and smooth riding. I think its also sound proof. You can't really tell its going really fast but if you look at the buildings outside, it brushes by so quickly. Got a window seat to Odawara station. From there, we purchased a Hakone Free Pass for 3600yen which covered our train trip from Odawara to Hakone-Yumoto on a separate line.

Hakone is famous for its hot springs onsens and views of Mt Fuji. We didn't try the onsens though, couldnt be bothered getting wet. We then took a bus to Daigatake for our hotel - Hatago Ichinoyu. But i forgot to download a map and directions to it so we walked into the first hotel we saw and the receptionist walked out of his hotel to point in the direction we should be going. It turned out to be down the road. But the hotel had no english name sign. Luckily the guy from the previous hotel gave me a japanese translation of the word "Ichinoyu" so when i spotted those letters we walked in to ask. Turns out to be the right hotel yay!!! Boy with funny teeth was at reception and we checked-in. Gave our keys to our room which wasn't a number but a word - Fujieda. It was prolly the best Japanese style Ryokan we stayed at during our trip. The bathroom was like a plane. But we had to set out our futon bed this time. There's a table in the middle of the room, with a hole below. You put ur feet under and cover up with some quilt thats attached to the table. There was a heater underneath that hole.... so it was very very warm when we sat around having tea and chat at night.

We dropped off our bags and took a bus to Togendai for our sightseeing cruise. It was like a big pirate ship and it was a 30min ride along Lake Ashi. Its spring water so it doesn't freeze. Got off at Hakone-Machi which was on the other side of the lake. That ride was really good - picturesque view. Looked at a souvenier shop in the area then caught a bus back to Hakone-Yumoto where we bought lots of souveniers and ate dinner there. So hard not having an english menu. We went to some random ramen place. No customers at all. The boss/worker/waitress/chef was just one lady with white hair. When we walked in she was playing cards by herself hahahah.... She didn't speak one bit of english. Me and Mimi ate tempura prawns soba; Cat and Derrian went for the tofu soba. Weird dinner. Shops were closed so we had to bus it back to our hotel.

Had a shower that night. I was the first person to shower coz i didn't have a proper one the previous night - i used wipes hahaha. Mimi used it next and she quickly came out and said there was no hot water.. ooops.. it was like this til next morning as well.. no hot water. I mustve used the whole tank. Sorry guys =/ There was an outdoor bath. It was boiling hot. I went to have a look at it but we never used it thinking its dirty coz you leave the same water in there after one person uses it. There were yutakas in the closet so we took it out and posed in photos wearing them.