The trend of waking up earlier each day continued … 5:30 today! I successfully rolled over for another hour plus and got up at almost 7:00.

I did a full set of stretches and put on my yukata to go down to the shared onsen space. The layout was similar to last night’s private onsen. First is the changing room, this one shared with other guests, which leads to a large room with a shower area, indoor hot pool for soaking, and a sauna. From there, a door leads out to the large open-air hot bath. It was overcast and slightly chilly, which was not an issue once I got in the outdoor pool. I soaked there for a bit, sat for not even 5 minutes in the sauna because goddamn, and then took a soak in the indoor pool until it was time for breakfast at 8:00.

On my way from the spa to the dining room, I passed by the family of three talking with someone in the lobby and overheard the father say they’re from New York. Ah! Of course they are. (Sorry, Francesca!) I’d gotten a whiff of the entitlement that comes with money, and being New Yorkers also made sense. I didn’t hold the delay in my hot stone appointment last night against them and let them know this by way of saying, “Good morning,” which the father returned. I did hope the mother was surprised by that.

Unlike the nine-course dinner last night, all of breakfast was served at once and was waiting for me when I arrived at my table, the same one from last night. While just one course, it was still a whole lot of food. There was a filet of salmon, small quiche, soft tofu heated in a bunsen burner type contraption, firm tofu, rice, pickled vegetables, fresh vegetables, and yogurt with fresh mango.

As I ate, I used my phone to make a plan for the day, checking both the weather and the train schedules. I thought I was going to have a leisurely morning, check out at 11:00, and see the sights on the remaining legs of the Hakone transportation circuit, but here I had a bit of an “oh, shit” moment.

Thing I did not anticipate #1: The shinkansen from Odawara to Osaka only runs every two hours. There was already no way I was going to catch the 12:08, so I worked backward from the 14:08 and realized I would need to get a move on, as well as likely skip some of the sights I’d planned to see. It was 2.5 hours on the shinkansen to the main station of Osaka, and I would need to transfer from there to the subway and then walk to my Airbnb. I wanted to arrive before dinner as the day was already going to be pretty long.

I got back up to my room at 9:00 and began getting ready to go. Except.. what’s this.. oh dear.. yep, that meal is going right through me again. I remain in the dark as to whether this was a healthy or unhealthy response by my body to what I ate. What I know is that it gave me a legit opportunity to take advantage of the Japanese toilet’s rear spray for bum cleaning! 💩

I also showered. I packed everything up and went down to the podium to check out, returning the iPhone charger. I paid the ¥35,790 I owed with a credit card. At the exchange rate on that day, this was $328.50. Expensive for one night, yes, but worth it to me for the whole experience.

I left the ryokan a bit after 10:00 and walked to Gora Station. The next cable car (or funicular to me, since I learned what that is in Barcelona last year and this was one of those) would depart at 10:21 and they run every 15 minutes. I had wanted to see Gora Park a few blocks away (it has a fountain!), and I started to walk up the hill toward it. I didn’t get far before I thought better of this idea and headed back to the station to be on that 10:21. I had a feeling my connections today were going to be pretty tight.

The funicular ends in Sounzan after about 10 minutes, during which time I chatted with my seatmates, a friendly older couple from outside London. There are no sights in Sounzan that I know of; I believe the vast majority of visitors connect directly to what Hakone calls a ropeway and what I think of as a tram. Each tram car seats 18 passengers, and the cars turn right around when they arrive, like ski lifts, so no problem with that connection.

It’s an 8-minute ride to the first stop, Owakudani, and just before arriving there, the tram goes over a sloped mountain face with sulfurous (read: stinky) steam rising from it. This is the source of the hot springs in which I soaked last night and this morning.

I had planned to hike the Owakudani Nature Trail and buy the town’s infamous black eggs along the way. The eggs are boiled in the volcanic waters and are said to extend one’s life by seven years. I don’t know about that, but I like eggs. Unfortunately, the trail was closed for a month beginning today due to volcanic activity, and really I would not have had the time in any case.

It was not only the trail, but the rest of the tram journey to Ubako and Togendai was closed as well. The first of four Mt. Fuji viewing points along the Hakone circuit is on the tram between Owakudani and Ubako; even if the tram were open, it was starting to rain and the gray skies were not going to allow a view of Fuji, rather a bummer after yesterday’s perfect blue skies.

I was happy to find that I could still buy black eggs in the Owakudani gift shop. They were super cool-looking! The black on the surface comes from the sulfur and iron in the volcanic waters, but it doesn’t dye the egg uniformly. They looked dip-dyed, and the effect made little galaxies on the shells.

I made my way to the substitute shuttle bus from Owakudani to Togendai. As I was getting off the bus, I thought I kinda wanted to use the loo but also thought it was better to keep moving and making my connections, and I didn’t have to go that bad. And then I stopped in the loo anyway.

Thing I did not anticipate #2: The boat across Lake Ashi only runs every 40 minutes. I approached the ticket and boarding area at 11:20, and the ship was leaving at 11:20. If I hadn’t stopped to use the bathroom, would I have caught it? I don’t know, but I had worked out when calculating backward that I needed to get off the boat at Moto Hakone and catch the bus to Hakone-Yumoto Station at 12:33, and the next boat was at 12:00 and would arrive at port at 12:40, too late to catch the bus I needed.

So I had nothing to do for 40 minutes but stress about my connections for the rest of the afternoon. I really did not want to have to kill two hours at Odawara Station waiting for the 16:08 shinkansen. That would suck, and I wouldn’t get to my listing in Osaka until about 19:30. I waited at the front of the line for the next boat until it was time to board.

The boat was a replica of an English man-of-war and looks like a pirate ship, which was very charming. Despite trying to switch gears and enjoy the ride across the lake, however, between the drizzly weather and the transportation stress, I was unsuccessful.

The first stop across the lake was Hakone-machi. My original plan was to disembark here and see the Hakone Checkpoint, built in the 17th century as a guardhouse and lookout tower along the old Tokaido Highway during the feudal Edo period, while walking to the other port, Moto Hakone. Instead, I stayed on the boat to get to Moto Hakone faster.

Things looked up when the next available bus turned out to be an express to Hakone-Yumoto Station, but we still arrived just in time to miss a train to Odawara. The next train would get me to Odawara with a 15-minute window to exit the train area on the second floor, take the escalators to pay for and retrieve my luggage from the lockers on the ground floor, and get back up to the shinkansen platforms on the second floor with all my stuff.

I bought a bento box with shrimp onigiri at Hakone-Yumoto since I would not have time to grab food at Odawara before boarding the bullet train. I rode the train to Odawara anxiously, and as we approached the stop, I stood in front of the doors with my backpack on, ready to sprint.

The doors opened, and I popped out like a track runner that just heard the pistol. I huffed and puffed through the terminal and down both a set of stairs and an escalator to the lockers (2 minutes). I had memorized the PIN to open my locker and used the touchscreen to enter it, but it didn’t work. I pulled the receipt from my wallet and checked to make sure I had it right and tried again. Same error: There is no locker matching this PIN. I looked over at the locker with my stuff in it — wrong number. I was in the wrong bank of lockers! I moved down one and used that touchscreen, which accepted my PIN and requested the additional ¥500, which I had ready. I pulled all my stuff out, with no time to sort it and re-organize it into the backpack and carry-on. I stuffed everything not in the carry-on into the backpack (4 minutes).

I ran back to the escalators with 9 minutes left. I had to decide whether to try a non-reserved car on the shinkansen or risk the amount of time it would take in the ticket office to reserve a seat. There was only a very short line, so I tried the ticket office, keeping my eye on the time and ready to bolt if getting a seat wasn’t going to happen. At 14:04, my turn was up and I showed my prepared request in the Google Translate to the agent. He was on my side and kind of chuckled as he rushed to book my seat and print the ticket. Thank you, sir!

I sprinted out of the office and up one more escalator, arriving at the platform with 2 minutes to spare. The bullet trains run exactly on time, and they do not wait at the station very long (as each stop is announced, passengers are reminded to gather their belongings in advance of the stop and be ready to exit). The train pulled up, I got on, and we were off at 14:08. I had skipped Gora Park, the Owakudani trail, and the Hakone Checkpoint and still barely made it, but at least Operation GTFO of Hakone was a success!

From Odawara to Osaka would be 5.5 hours by car and is 2 hours and 20 minutes on the shinkansen. I thought this would be a good chunk of laptop time, but I spent the first hour eating my onigiri, browsing on my phone, and generally calming down. I did pull out my laptop and realized I couldn’t save anything I was writing with no Internet (I was surprised to find that wifi on the shinkansen is either non-existent or paid). I tethered my laptop to my phone, and that worked surprisingly well.

We arrived at Shin-Osaka Station just before 16:30 as scheduled, and I made my way through the station to transfer to the subway. While I was able to make my way around Tokyo on the JR Pass and without buying a Suica card for the local metro, I for sure needed to buy a Kansai transportation pass; that’s the region of Japan where Osaka and Kyoto are located, and the ICOCA pass is good for all modes of transportation in both cities.

Using a ticket terminal, I didn’t see an option for ICOCA, so I bought what was called a multi-use pass for ¥3,000 ($27.25 USD), thinking that must be the same thing. It was a 22-minute ride south to Namba Station, and along the way I suspected I had purchased the wrong pass. I had a feeling it was good in Osaka only, in which case I wasn’t nearly going to get my money’s worth and would need to buy another pass in Kyoto.

At Namba, I approached a station agent. Through a bit of back-and-forth using Google Translate, he told me, to my surprise, that I could get back on the subway to Shin-Osaka and approach the agent booth there to get a refund, even though I’d already used the ticket to leave Shin-Osaka.

I was so tired that I thought maybe I’ll try that tomorrow. I approached the gates to exit, and he shouted at me, not in a stern way but in a protective way, like he wanted me to be able to get my money back and get the right pass. I don’t know what other people would do in this situation. Though not a lot of money, I really didn’t want to eat $27, or whatever portion of the funds I wouldn’t be able to use. I wanted the right pass. I thanked him and headed back to the trains.

I got on the next train going toward Shin-Osaka and browsed on my phone to pass the time that I was not spending walking to my Airbnb listing, where I could get settled and get some food. So I did not notice when the entire train emptied one stop before Shin-Osaka. A stranger angel poked her head back in the car, got my attention, and gestured for me to get off the train. I looked around in shock that I was alone on the car!

I stepped off and waited with her on the platform for the next train, using Google Translate to thank her for “saving” me, at which she smiled. I noticed pink signs behind us on the wall and at our feet designating this section of the platform as Women Only. I pointed to the sign and gave her the thumbs up. I was feeling some solidarity with this young woman. When we boarded the car, I realized the Women Only platform was to board the Women Only train car. Fuck yeah, Osaka!

True to the Namba agent’s word, a Shin-Osaka agent gave me a full refund for my multi-pass without any hesitation. That was nice. I still didn’t know where to buy the ICOCA pass, though. When I asked, I was led out of the agent booth past the first set of ticket terminals I’d used and around a sneaky corner to another set of terminals that offered the ICOCA pass along with the other types. I bought the correct pass for ¥2,000, ¥500 of which is a deposit. Much better.

It was a little after 17:30. I’d lost about an hour. I waited a bit for the next train toward Namba, rode to Namba, and exited the station into the busy, busy corridors of my listing’s vibrant neighborhood. At this point, my back was aching from my bags and I was very tired from the long day. Thankfully, it was only a 7-minute walk and I found my listing fairly easily. The host had forwarded the self-check-in instructions in advance, and I retrieved the key from the mailbox and took the elevator up to the second floor of the large apartment building.

I walked in at 18:30 after 8.5 hours of travel by funicular, tram, bus, boat, bus, shinkansen, and subway. Whew!

The studio apartment was pretty spacious by Japanese standards. I unpacked and looked up where to get some dinner. One of Osaka’s signature dishes is takoyaki, dough balls cooked with bits of octopus, tempura, pickled ginger, green onion, and your choice of sauce. I found a review praising a place within a 10-minute walk for its cheap, plentiful, and tasty takoyaki.

I ordered 12 takoyaki balls for ¥450 and chose Osaka sauce, a lemon-mustard blend. I had planned to sit down, but I was thrilled when my order came in a takeaway box. I ate back at the listing and found the dish too heavy for me, plus I was sad for the octopus, though I was glad I tried it.

I showered and washed my hair and caught up on some blogging, writing and publishing a post about flying from Bali and arriving in Japan 5 days ago (sigh).

At 23:30, I slept.