What can you in do on a day of rain and occasional strong gusts of wind from the typhoon? – Well, walking amongst plants can be a very satisfying pursuit particularly if you take care of your umbrella.
Our first stop is Gora Park -just wonderful! – A nicely manicured garden with greenhouses and parterre landscaping on the terraces. There is a Japanese garden with tea ceremony house which we missed (but after finding out it took 2 hours we were not so sad.)
Japan’s first French style garden, opened in 1914 in Gora, which is the end of the Hakone Tozan railway line.
Although formal gardens are usually on an expansive plot of level ground, with ponds and other features in symmetrical geometric shapes, Gora Park is instead built on a slope in tiers with ponds and all the traditional elements of the French garden design.
Surrounded by mountains and open skies, the park is famous for its colourful display of flowers and beautiful roses, the tropical plant pavilion or green houses with intriguing fruits, and a rather grand tea room where we seek refuge from the rain and indulge in an English style tea ceremony with cake and a custom timer for the ultimate tea pot brewing experience.
The park also incorporates the Hakone Crafthouse – workshop studios with working practitioners that allow visitors to come and engage in a craft learning experience such as pottery, hot bead making, glass etching and glass blowing as well as a shop. For me this was an interesting observation to see so many children engaged in hands-on learning, whereas in my home town the worry would be on health and safety issues and this would probably not happen. (sadly)
Anyway on with the day a walk down so called Restaurant Street – ‘Turn right at the red vending machine’ the sign says.
A very steep street indeed, I would hate to be pulling my suitcases up this hill!!! – Seriously nothing not much to see here. In fact in the middle of the lunchtime rush there are about 2 establishments open and a coffee shop. After strolling down the hill and deciding that the collective of shops on Gora “High Street” has nothing to offer we board the train to Hakone-Yumoto with high expectations and tummy rumblings! Well……… There were a few places to eat but one of the great mysteries to me is why there is such limited availability of food to cook.
Where do all the families and people get there food from? The 7-11 convenience store has very limited supplies the type of shop you might see at a camping resort but as far as vegetables – a bag of lettuce and mixed coleslaw is it – a few tomatoes and a couple of carrots and the fruit is not much better and very expensive. One large apple = 300 yen so around $4.
We are guessing that all the accommodation around here (and there is a lot) offers full board. As to the families in housing – there must be local vendors who are selling their wares, as there are not butchers or fruit and vegetable shops and although we did spot one fish shop in Hakone-Yumoto but it was mostly frozen, fermented or pickled.
Hakone -Yumoto is quite small but has a varitey of restaurants and sweet shops all with interesting and beautifully wrapped delights. We think they are made of rice, been paste and soya but there is also chocolates and boiled sweets or lollies depending on what you call them. Fortunately there are also many gift and craft shops to entertain us for the rest of the afternoon and I make the most of the opportunity.
Dinner ended up being the best remnants from the local convenience store that we could find plus a bag of salad and tomatoes. We are blessed to have a microwave!
