Hakone

So last Sunday I was awoken by someone at the door. As I crawled my half dead but out of bed, down my ladder, threw on clothes and answered the door it turned out to be one of my student's father. I was very surprised, but he had come to invite me to ride on his bike with him to Hakone Mountain. I struggled to make up my mind because I was super tired from going to Tokyo the previous night. I had went cruising on the highways and stopped at a few car spots with friends so I didnt get to bed until about 3:30-4am.. Anyways I agreed to go as I had heard it was a nice place and if I didn't I just would have sat on the computer all day probably. So basically we road on his 650cc scooter through the city, by the beautiful beach, and up the mountain. It was pretty chilly once we were heading up but it was worth it. The view was great and we grabbed some coffee at the top. You could see Fuji crystal clear. I look at it with a different perspective now. I hated climbing it but I am so glad I did. Just looking at it imagining standing at the top which is now completely iced over makes me feel good. Anyways we headed down the mountain and as we passed loads of drifting marks on the pavement I grew more and more emo because of my lack of car. The turns were fun though on the bike though he wasn't hitting them hard. The scenery was beautiful, but he said in about 2 more weeks is when the leaves will really change, that's apparently the best time to go, but honestly I doubt I will. It's to frickin cold out now, it was much warmer that day than it is now and I was pretty cold. So we road through a small town where he knows a very old onsen, he knew the owner so it was all good that I got to go in with tattoos and stuff. This onsen even allows male/females to go in together, pretty sweet ;) .... though it was just me.. butt-ass frickin naked in a giant hot tub with 4 other Japanese men lol.. Oh geez what an experience lol. It was really relaxing though and the weather was great for it. I heard a great story from the old woman that ran the place. She must've been about 80-90 at least, it was crazy. There were a few persimmon trees around the onsen. The woman told us that not too long ago six monkeys came in and started eating the persimmons, then all the sudden they got pissed and started throwing them everywhere hahahaha. Apparently they taste really bad because of all the sulphur from the onsen; that was really interesting lol. Shortly after leaving the onsen I saw a dead monkey on the side of the road..yes.. a monkey lol.. I am really happy I got to go because I doubt I would be able to get into many of the onsens around my area. After the onsen we headed towards home and stopped at a soba restaurant. We both got hot soba and some appetizers. The view was great as the restaurant looked out over Enoshima/Kamakura beach. I tried to take pics and stuff but many didn't turn out well. I got a good amount of video but I don't think it's really worth posting, so maybe I will just show my family/friends when I get home this Christmas!! I can't wait!

Here are a few photos, yes my hair is hella janked.. pretend you don't notice lol..

Enoshima Beach