Dipping one’s toes into Hakone －箱根につま先をひたす－

Last week I took a short trip to Hakone.  It is a couple of hours away from Tokyo, amongst mountains and volcanos.  It is a popular tourist destination in the summer, since its high elevation makes it cooler than the urban areas below.

I like the idea of volcanos.  I climbed one years ago in Indonesia, and ate blackened eggs cooked in boiling, sulphurous water.  You can do the same sort of things in Hakone.  There are active volcanos, the same blackened eggs, and plenty of hot springs, heated by the natural processes of the Earth.

The trouble is that the volcanos in Hakone are a little bit too active.  One erupted fairly recently and people had to be evacuated from their homes and tourists kept away.  No one really knows when a volcano which has been pleasantly warming your bath, cooking your eggs for you in an interesting if slightly smelly way, and bringing in a steady stream of visitors, is going to turn nasty.  It’s a little like being married.

Well, I don’t like hot springs anyway.  I’m a Scotsman with pale skin and a low tolerance for heat.  So my wife and I decided not to fully immerse ourselves in hot springs or hikes around volcanos.  We found a lovely cafe called Naraya.  It calls itself an “ashi-yu cafe”, or a cafe with a hot water foot bath.  We sat outside with our legs soaking up the hot water, while we ate sweets and drank coffee at the table above.

It was a modest trip, I admit.  We enjoyed the food in an Italian restaurant, strolled around the lakeside and up to Hakone Shrine.  We explored an outdoor museum and ran into a screaming child who was determined not to appear in a group photo.  We searched in vain for the yodelling channel on the cable tv in our hotel room, and settled for the Okinawan folk music channel instead.  I’m not sure we found the real Hakone but sometimes it’s best just to dip your toes in the water.

 

Vocabulary:

elevation – height above sea-level

sulphurous – containing sulphur, the smelly element often found around volcanos

to erupt – of a volcano, to violently explode or release material from within the Earth

to immerse oneself in something – to become completely engaged or involved in something

to do something in vain – to unsuccessfully attempt to do something, or to do something for no reward

to dip one’s toes in the water – of an action, to do something just a little, without fully engaging or committing oneself