Tokyo & Hakone | The Perfect End To A Year In Asia

Ever since my first trip to Asia back in the 90’s, I’d held one wishful experience at the very top of my bucket list – seeing Mt Fuji from a bullet train. Gotta say, it was a pretty awesome feeling to finally check that one off! Our shinkansen from Kyoto towards the Tokyo region was blessed with perfectly sunny skies (not the norm for this part of Japan), providing us with striking views of Fuji’s iconic snowy slopes.

We’d booked a few days in the Hakone region near Mt Fuji as a backup in case our train ride was clouded over, which meant we could now really explore what the area had to offer rather than chase the Fuji view. Most tourists pass through Hakone to do “the loop” – which involves a circuitous route of funiculars, trains, gondolas, and yes, a pirate ship! No idea what pirates have to do with Japan or Mt Fuji, but it sure was a hit for our 5-year-old. Cruising across Lake Ashi yielded some pretty epic views of Mt Fuji as well, arriving at a dock full of nature trails and a great bakery – where we could put our feet in a naturally-heated foot bath while enjoying beers and a view.

But our favorite part of the loop was riding the gondola over an active volcano with even more incredible views over to Mt Fuji. The gondola allows for a stopover halfway to sample the region’s famous “black eggs” that are cooked in the volcano’s sulfur steam vents. Shockingly, Andy loved em’ and insisted that we go back the next day for more – so I obliged, and also treated him to “black ice cream” made from volcanically-roasted vanilla. It was actually really good, and the locals were cracking up at him getting the vanilla ash all over his face.

And then there’s Yunessun – a geothermal water park seemingly built just for our love of all things kitsch! They had a red pool designed to look like you’re swimming in a glass of merlot as well as a brown pool with coffee grounds added (supposedly therapeutic). There was a lazy river and some waterslides over a complex of cave pools (some with walls containing lion fish tanks). And to top it all off, a terrace of onsen outside with incredible views of the surrounding misty valley. What made this part so special was the sub-40 degree rainy weather outside – soaking in those hot spring-fed pools allowed us to really enjoy being outside in such weather!

Back near our Airbnb in Hakone, we found a surreal art installation called the Hakone Open Air Museum. Even without the low hanging clouds swirling through the sculptures, a visit here should be on anyone’s radar. They had a beehive-shaped structure with an aerial kids climbing net inside, as well as a spiral staircase tower covered in stained glass. Just walking over the numerous art-adorned creek bridges nearby was worth the price of entry. Hakone also had some pretty good chow, including a brewpub serving up tasty IPAs and a wagyu beef pizza that tasted like a delicious bowl of ramen.

Heading out from Hakone to Tokyo on the Romance Car (a fancy name for a train with bigger windows) was full of reflection for all of us – knowing that this would be the last stop on our year-long tour of Asia. What an incredible adventure we’ve been so fortunate to have had together, mostly sans issues through some major stroke of luck. It seemed fitting that we chose the biggest city on earth to wrap up what might very well be the biggest trip of our lives. Tokyo’s immense scale was acutely on display the moment we stepped off of the train in Shinjuku, with towering buildings and endless masses of people pulsing through the area. As night falls, central Tokyo lights up like nowhere else with the exception of perhaps Times Square in NYC. And seeing a giant Godzilla statue poking out from one of Shinjuku’s skyscrapers reminded us that yes, indeed, we are very much in the heart of Japan!

Tara’s main goals here were to hit up an old-school neighborhood and belt out some karaoke classics in a small pub, so setting off the the Golden Gai was the obvious choice for our first night. When we got there, it was a bit drizzly and appeared as if everything was closed – probably being too early in the day (a common theme when traveling with young children). Just as we were about to give up, Andy popped his head into a random open door and shouted “are y’all open”? Shockingly, we heard a muddled “yes” and proceeded to follow him inside. As it turns out, this was exactly the hole-in-the-wall kind of karaoke joint we were looking for! With seating for no more than 6 patrons inside, we quickly ordered some sake and put in some musical requests (including Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” – Andy’s favorite song). Baby’s first karaoke bar – check!

For me, the focus for our time in Tokyo was on its futuristic art installations that have become all the rage these days. A digital art collective known as Teamlab had 2 such offerings while we were there, including the “Borderless” exhibit that had just sprung up in February that we luckily were able to score tickets to. Throughout the experience, one just wanders aimlessly through dozens of uniquely designed rooms and hallways – many of them hard to peel your gaze away from. One particularly striking room had hundreds of synchronized LED spotlights moving to create a holographic vortex among fog swirls, and another allowed us to draw fish on papers that got uploaded into the LED wall fish tank! Pictures can hardly do these masterpieces any justice, but Tara’s handiwork from inside is pretty stunning nonetheless. The more established “Planets” installation was even more of a sensorial treat, including cascading waterfalls and digital coi ponds that you have to walk through barefoot – as well as live flowers being used in a moving hall of mirrors. Andy was so pumped that we walked through the whole experience twice.

With any famous tourist destination there’s bound to be a few overrated ones. And there are two worth mentioning. One was the Unicorn Gundam Statue – a giant transformer several stories tall that “transforms” every few hours for eager onlookers. We hyped up the experience to Andy so he’d handle the significant urban transit necessary to get there, and the statue barely moved at all! Womp womp – had to get him some ice cream to make up for that one. The other one is the Harajuku area, which is known for having loads of locals dressed up in anime cosplay (Akihabara is much better for that). To be be fair, we got there when it was lightly raining. But most of our memories from this area were from trying desperately to move through (and ultimately leave) the intense crowds here – while seeing little to no cosplay. I think I got poked in the eye at least 3 times by an umbrella here too, being at the unfortunate height of a typical Caucasian male in Asia during umbrella season. I’d always found Bill Murray’s character in Lost In Translation relatable when traveling in the region, never more so than that day though. Andy got a comically large cotton candy out of us, however, so he probably would rate Harajuku pretty high.

Food-wise, however, Tokyo was nothing less than phenomenal – to no surprise. Kura sushi’s flagship location was not only delicious, but gave our pre-schooler the added thrill of grabbing things from the conveyor belts and sliding empty plates into the RFID equipped disposal chute. Pretty wild that we were able to eat our hearts out on delicious fresh fish for under $40 – a similar experience in the USA would shockingly have been at least 3x that. Our impossibly adventurous child also surprised us at a Tokyo stalwart ramen jointed called Nagi, proclaiming his noodles to be the “best ever” as he rubbed shoulders with Japanese hipsters in a barstool. One day I went off solo aimlessly in search of noodles, but wound up stopping for more Kobe beef skewers before settling on some killer tantan at Yousyu Syonin. Even the pork katsu curry at the airport was a hit.

We also had the fortunate timing of being in Tokyo at the start of its well-renowned sakura (cherry blossom) season, with a good chunk of the blooms popping out just as we were packing up for the airport. Funny how this sort of brought our trip full circle, in that we saw a movie being filmed in Korea at the very beginning of our year abroad with tons of cherry blossoms on set (although we hilariously found out later that they were fake after taking lots of pictures). Further still, as fate would have it, one of the last things we saw in Asia was a replica of the Statute of Liberty on Tokyo Bay – really bringing the year full circle. The site of an iconic American image filled us all with mixed emotions about the drastically different lives that soon awaited us upon returning to the USA. While we will obviously miss traveling full-time as a family, there were plenty of things that we were looking forward to as well back in the States – especially our lifelong friends and family. Interestingly though, many of the things that we’d found frustrating while living in Bali didn’t seem to be an issue in Japan. In fact, after a month of being here, we all seemed to think living here could be pretty fun! But alas, our time away from reality (and cashflow!) has come to a close. It was time to head back to Texas and get back to planning for round 2! Till next time…