Friday night in Hakone
We came to Hakone yesterday by train. I guess Tokyo wasn't cold enough for us. Yoshiko tried to get reservations at a ryokan for tonight (an attempt made at least three weeks ago) but everything was fully booked. The staff at our preferred ryokan recommended another ryokan, which is over 100 years old. How appropriate for an old geezer like me. It is attached to a larger and more modern building but Yamagaso has only five rooms.
At the Hakone-Yumoto station I noticed a lot of different nationalities but the staff at the Yamagaso told us the Asian tourists prefer hotels. Sadly the area is losing many ryokan as new hotels are being built. The main building here has several large rotenburo and onsen but the ryokan side has a private onsen only for its guests... which we enjoyed several times. I could have done room service in there if it were an option!
A little old, a little cold and quite slow... but okay for me at this stage in my life. I spent the time with my wife and that is all that matters to me at this time.
