One day before Christmas Eve, I drove with colleagues on a day trip to Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture.
First, we looked at Japan’s longest suspension bridge, where you also have a beautiful view of Mount Fuji, which is a World Heritage Site as I not mentioned it before. This bridge is 400 meters long and has a maximum distance of 70.6 meters to the ground.
Also something to eat again;) These are Dango’s, also based on rice. They were dipped in a hot syrup consisting of sugar, soy sauce and mirin.
And again sake. This is Amasake, a low-alcohol or alcohol free and sweet sake variant. This one was “totemo oishii desu”! Very tasty and there were still many rice grains included.
We also visited the Ashi Lake, which is a crater lake and therefore surrounded by mountains. Unfortunately, from our spot we did not have a view of the Tori of the Hakone shrine, which stood directly on the water. There is also a tourist ferry, in the style of a pirate ship.
Next was Ōwakudani’s turn, the “great boiling valley”. This is a valley with many boiling springs at Kamiyama, which itself is part of the volcano Hakone. The area is volcanically active and had increased activity in 2015 as well. The area is now partially open for public again. Because of the gases in the air, the smell of sulfur is easily noticed. Because of this, the floor at the volcano openings is already quite yellow. It is also known because of the Kuro-tamago, the black eggs. The eggs are cooked in the hot onsen and the shell is colored black by sulfates and iron oxides. I have not bought or eaten and I have learned only afterwards that an egg is said to have a life-prolonging effect of 7 years.
On our way back we stopped in Numazu, again in Shizuoka prefecture. There we then looked at the deep-sea aquarium, which is the only one (self-proclaimed) that has specialized so much on deep-sea organisms. One reason is that Suruga Bay is right on the doorstep. This is also in front of the city of Shizuoka and the reason why swimming is prohibited there. It’s too fast too deep down. The lowest point is at 2500 m and includes a large selection of marine life. The other reason is that it is not easy to keep the creatures of the deep sea. For example, a squid that also serves as a mascot here is very sensitive and photos are forbidden (but I photographed the board). In the beginning they could only hold him for 3 days, after that he died. Here they have managed to extend the lifetime to 52 days, with the right feeding and other measures. No here are only uncommented a selection of pictures.
At the end we went to eat in a local assosiated (fish) burger restaurant. I chose a teriyaki burger (chicken). The right-hand burger is a deep-sea shark burger that I did not want to eat because I did not know what a shark died because of it.
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