Day 73: A Hakone Birthday
It is November the twelfth, two thousand and nineteen. I am now 39 years old.
Today was a brilliant day, quite literally, as there was hardly a cloud to be seen for miles. It was also my birthday.
I stopped looking forward to my birthday a long time ago, as they became ever more depressing affairs. Not because of the fact that I was getting older, that doesn't bother me. But rather that a life spent moving from place to place in pursuit of a career leaves little in the way of friends nearby to celebrate with. It's extremely depressing when you have a small group of friends to begin with, then none of them show up to the party. It's a good reason to shy away from festivities.
This year however my birthday happened while on this adventure. Something that was most certainly not a coincidence. It is significantly harder to be disappointed in a birthday when you find yourself in a place and state like this.
...
I have dedicated a not insignificant amount of time on this journey to changing my mind; specifically on how I view things in my life. I am naturally stoic, it is who I am. But I feel that perhaps I have let it overly define me. Unbalance me, even if I agree with stoicism in principle.
To this end I have spent time trying instead to recondition myself to be more thankful for what I DO have, rather than focus on what is not, or what does not work. And hopefully let thank thankfulness work it's way out in how interact with the world and the people in my life.
I have a long way to go in this regard, but the seed it planted.
...
Normally I would have celebrated today, but I jumped the gun and did so a day early.
Yesterday was a bitterly cold and rainy day, not one I felt and desire to be out hiking in. So when a break in the rain came briefly around noon I seized the opportunity and hiked down to the convenience store.
I say hiked intentionally, as the best route down from my guest house to the convenience store looked like this:
While sitting in the Lawsons eating lunch and watching the rain resume, it dawned on me that I didn't have to go out and hike in this weather if I didn't want to. In fact, if I wanted to get a literal armful of junk food, camp out in my room and watch movies all day, no one could stop me!
So that's what I did.
Normally I might feel guilty about such a rich, indulgent collection of snacks, or spent time focusing on the fact I wasn't out walking and doing what I supposedly came here to do.
However I feel that I have literally earned this. Not so much for the figurehead of a calendar birthday, but for the work I've put in these past few months.
I haven't mentioned it here before, but I have lost a fair bit of weight on my walk across Japan. A fact that I found very surprising when I discovered it late last month, even though it is perhaps the least surprising thing to happen, rationally speaking.
All told I am currently down 14 kgs / 31 lbs.
This took me by surprise, as I do not feel or see the difference. I literally did not believe it, as I feel I have been eating a LOT over these past few months. I refused to accept this fact until two days later I was presented with a new scale, and it confirmed the results.
So I ate a whole lot of junk food and watched movies lazily all day with no remorse.
...
Today was excellent. The weather cleared and left me with one of the most picturesque locations in Japan to explore.
My original plan for hiking into Hakone, instead of around it, was to spend my birthday hiking one of the many trails on offer. But while the journey has has has many positive effects on me, it has also taken its toll on my body in negative ways as well.
The climb into the mountain valley injured my foot, reawakening a strain from weeks previous. It also has caused my lingering injured right knee to flare up as well, this time much stronger than ever before.
With this in mind I had to look away from the hiking I had planned and keep things pedestrian. Thankfully, Hakone was all to happy to oblige me on this front as well.
I was able to walk down to Lake Ashi this morning's and trace it's gorgeous shoreline to start the days exploration.
Along the way I would reach Hakone Shrine, nestled in the heavily wooded hillside next to the lake. A short climb up would allow me to explore the grounds of the shrine and receive another Goshuin for my collection.
Headed back down the stairs I continued to follow the path along the lake to the north, with no goal in mind other than to see where the road lead me.
I would eventually find myself face to face with my ultimate destination for the day, the Hakone Komagatake Ropeway - a cable car that would take me to 1.3km above sea level, and give me a whole lot to look at.
The ride up was quick, taking only 7 minutes to climb the better part of 1000 meters. But despite the short trip, it still tested my nerves. Much like Ferris wheels, cable cars are fun in principle, but more troubling in practice. And as long as I was occupying myself with the view, I wasn't thinking about the precarious nature of the contraption I was locked in and dangling from.
Once at the top, and happily with feet on solid ground, I was free to explore the summit. As it turns out, the Hakone shine I had visited down by the lake was originally located up at the top of this mountain, long before the cable car existed. With the view down I could see why they chose this spot... And why they also chose to move it down to the lake as well.
The summit offered a large walking perimeter, with views back down into the Fuji Hakone Izu national park, as well as sights well beyond.
Eventually I would make my way back to the cable car, and take the trip back down. Strangely, the trip downwards did not jangle and play with my nerves as the trip up did. I stared out the car towards Mount Fuji and just enjoyed the ride.
Once at the bottom I decided to retrace my steps and head back home for the evening. The sun sets early now, and the air is much colder here after dark than it was on the ocean.
Home for the night I am now packing to leave in the morning. My original route has me climbing up and out of the valley, then down to my next stop in Odawara, but I no longer believe that to be wise.
While my foot is slowly getting better again, my knee is telling me that it has had enough. It will take many months to heal my knee once I get home. Knees are very slow things to heal, something I have learned firsthand. I have no desire to add more months to that healing process needlessly.
So, tomorrow will be a scenic plan B. I will return to the lake front in the morning with my pack, take the sightseeing boat to the north end of the lake where it links up with a different and much longer ropeway, which in turn links to a train line down out of the valley. I am looking forward to such a scenic and relaxing departure.
Once I get to Odawara I will have to reconsider my method for reaching Tokyo.
But that's a story for another day.
Today was a brilliant day, quite literally, as there was hardly a cloud to be seen for miles. It was also my birthday.
I stopped looking forward to my birthday a long time ago, as they became ever more depressing affairs. Not because of the fact that I was getting older, that doesn't bother me. But rather that a life spent moving from place to place in pursuit of a career leaves little in the way of friends nearby to celebrate with. It's extremely depressing when you have a small group of friends to begin with, then none of them show up to the party. It's a good reason to shy away from festivities.
This year however my birthday happened while on this adventure. Something that was most certainly not a coincidence. It is significantly harder to be disappointed in a birthday when you find yourself in a place and state like this.
...
I have dedicated a not insignificant amount of time on this journey to changing my mind; specifically on how I view things in my life. I am naturally stoic, it is who I am. But I feel that perhaps I have let it overly define me. Unbalance me, even if I agree with stoicism in principle.
To this end I have spent time trying instead to recondition myself to be more thankful for what I DO have, rather than focus on what is not, or what does not work. And hopefully let thank thankfulness work it's way out in how interact with the world and the people in my life.
I have a long way to go in this regard, but the seed it planted.
...
Normally I would have celebrated today, but I jumped the gun and did so a day early.
Yesterday was a bitterly cold and rainy day, not one I felt and desire to be out hiking in. So when a break in the rain came briefly around noon I seized the opportunity and hiked down to the convenience store.
I say hiked intentionally, as the best route down from my guest house to the convenience store looked like this:
Hakone is a mountain town on a lake, and it has opportunities to hike everywhere - like it or not!
While sitting in the Lawsons eating lunch and watching the rain resume, it dawned on me that I didn't have to go out and hike in this weather if I didn't want to. In fact, if I wanted to get a literal armful of junk food, camp out in my room and watch movies all day, no one could stop me!
So that's what I did.
More calories then my body knew what to do with.
Normally I might feel guilty about such a rich, indulgent collection of snacks, or spent time focusing on the fact I wasn't out walking and doing what I supposedly came here to do.
However I feel that I have literally earned this. Not so much for the figurehead of a calendar birthday, but for the work I've put in these past few months.
I haven't mentioned it here before, but I have lost a fair bit of weight on my walk across Japan. A fact that I found very surprising when I discovered it late last month, even though it is perhaps the least surprising thing to happen, rationally speaking.
All told I am currently down 14 kgs / 31 lbs.
This took me by surprise, as I do not feel or see the difference. I literally did not believe it, as I feel I have been eating a LOT over these past few months. I refused to accept this fact until two days later I was presented with a new scale, and it confirmed the results.
So I ate a whole lot of junk food and watched movies lazily all day with no remorse.
...
Today was excellent. The weather cleared and left me with one of the most picturesque locations in Japan to explore.
My original plan for hiking into Hakone, instead of around it, was to spend my birthday hiking one of the many trails on offer. But while the journey has has has many positive effects on me, it has also taken its toll on my body in negative ways as well.
The climb into the mountain valley injured my foot, reawakening a strain from weeks previous. It also has caused my lingering injured right knee to flare up as well, this time much stronger than ever before.
With this in mind I had to look away from the hiking I had planned and keep things pedestrian. Thankfully, Hakone was all to happy to oblige me on this front as well.
I was able to walk down to Lake Ashi this morning's and trace it's gorgeous shoreline to start the days exploration.
Along the way I would reach Hakone Shrine, nestled in the heavily wooded hillside next to the lake. A short climb up would allow me to explore the grounds of the shrine and receive another Goshuin for my collection.
I would eventually find myself face to face with my ultimate destination for the day, the Hakone Komagatake Ropeway - a cable car that would take me to 1.3km above sea level, and give me a whole lot to look at.
The lower station...
... and the upper station.
The ride up was quick, taking only 7 minutes to climb the better part of 1000 meters. But despite the short trip, it still tested my nerves. Much like Ferris wheels, cable cars are fun in principle, but more troubling in practice. And as long as I was occupying myself with the view, I wasn't thinking about the precarious nature of the contraption I was locked in and dangling from.
This was the easiest altitude I've made since I got off the plane in Osaka!
Once at the top, and happily with feet on solid ground, I was free to explore the summit. As it turns out, the Hakone shine I had visited down by the lake was originally located up at the top of this mountain, long before the cable car existed. With the view down I could see why they chose this spot... And why they also chose to move it down to the lake as well.
The summit offered a large walking perimeter, with views back down into the Fuji Hakone Izu national park, as well as sights well beyond.
Nothing but blue sky.
Lake Ashi.
Eastwards to Odawara, and Tokyo beyond.
I will never have a better view of Mount Fuji than I had today.
Eventually I would make my way back to the cable car, and take the trip back down. Strangely, the trip downwards did not jangle and play with my nerves as the trip up did. I stared out the car towards Mount Fuji and just enjoyed the ride.
Once at the bottom I decided to retrace my steps and head back home for the evening. The sun sets early now, and the air is much colder here after dark than it was on the ocean.
Home for the night I am now packing to leave in the morning. My original route has me climbing up and out of the valley, then down to my next stop in Odawara, but I no longer believe that to be wise.
While my foot is slowly getting better again, my knee is telling me that it has had enough. It will take many months to heal my knee once I get home. Knees are very slow things to heal, something I have learned firsthand. I have no desire to add more months to that healing process needlessly.
So, tomorrow will be a scenic plan B. I will return to the lake front in the morning with my pack, take the sightseeing boat to the north end of the lake where it links up with a different and much longer ropeway, which in turn links to a train line down out of the valley. I am looking forward to such a scenic and relaxing departure.
Once I get to Odawara I will have to reconsider my method for reaching Tokyo.
But that's a story for another day.
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