I must count us as very lucky to have had Mt Fuji in view yesterday, given it’s notorious elusiveness. Today was cloudy most all day, so not even a quick glimpse of the sacred mountain was seen. A potent symbol of Japan, and all things Japanese, it is the highest summit in the country at 12,388ft, and has been revered for at least 12 centuries. As close to perfection in shape as it is possible to get, its snowcapped peak has been captured in millions of images across the world. In addition to the few photos that I captured on my camera too!
So we took the pirate-themed sightseeing boat across Lake Ashi to get to the northern end of the lake and to whatever there was to see and do there. One section of the cable car was undergoing maintenance, and the other would take you partway up but it was only 50 degrees at the top and promised no views of Mt Fuji at all so we hopped a bus and headed for an area with a few museums. Strangely, there are three museums quite near each other that seem to have little connection with Mt Fuji, the Kanagawa prefecture or Japan — one devoted to the works of Rene Lalique, one to Venetian glass and a third to The Little Prince and Antoine St-Expury.
We started with the Lalique Museum. It was a beautiful building, and the museum has a collection of 1,500 of his pieces, from room decor to perfume bottles to jewelry and vases. There was a suggestion that his work reflected Japonisme; his work assimilated the essence of Japanese art in the composition of motifs. It doesn’t appear that he ever came here, or that he ever saw Mt Fuji, but the museum was quite impressive.
We skipped the Venetian Glass and The Little Prince Museums as they didn’t seem connected to the place we are visiting. (Turns out the The Little Prince Museum is the world’s only museum devoted to The Little Prince. It was created as part of the worldwide celebration of the birth centennial of author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The museum, which explores Saint-Exupéry’s life, also features a French townscape and European garden, set within the lush natural beauty of Hakone). Oh well.
We caught the bus heading for the Hakone Open-Air Museum, and this was a time where my Japanese bus-stop-reading skills weren’t at their peak. Finally, when I thought that we may have missed the spot I asked my seatmate to help. She kindly rushed up to the driver who said we should get off there and transfer to another bus. Flummoxed, but determined, we got off, crossed the road, read a map and gamely tried to make our way to this Museum which was essentially a place of sculptures set in nature. The road was narrow and curvy and not really safe to walk on, so we gave it up, and got on a bus back to the hotel. Hoping all the while that the clouds might lift for a mountain-top view.
We passed through the Hakone Checkpoint on our walk back, which is a reconstruction of one of the checkpoints put in place by the Tokugawa shoguns to function during the Edo period. This checkpoint was the first of 53 control points on the Takaido road (linking Edo to Kyoto) where the men who passed through had to have their credentials and weapons checked, but these spots were also used to prevent women from leaving Edo, so the shogun could exert pressure on the daimyo, who had to leave their families behind in their residences near the capital. The Old Takaido road ran parallel to the road we walked along, where an avenue of cedars trees provided some shelter from the elements during these long treks to and from the capital.
This area is also known for its hot springs and onsen baths, so it is a prime weekend destination for people coming from Tokyo. This hotel offers two onsens, so it will be my after dinner bath tonight.
And that was the last day in Japan. Not the most interesting or the longest walk or the most inspiring, but a beautiful part of the country, and the lush green mountains and deep mountain alpine lake and the promise of a magical mountain in the clouds is enough to put a cap on an extraordinary adventure in the land of the rising sun.
