Hakone Trip ③ - Activities

My wife's dad has a vacation 'style'. Do as much as you can. Our trip to Hakone was a similar style.

First we went to the Suzuhiro Kamaboko Museum. It is a small museum but, there are many exhibits showing the different aspects of kamaboko. Through glass windows we could see workers making kamaboko by hand. My daughters ran around excitedly touching everything. Their favorite exhibit was the working old fashion water pumps. They pumped water, laughed, and ran around.

After we killed some time at the museum, we had lunch at the Kamaboko based buffet, 'Elenna Gosso' （えれんなごっそ). I think it is how to say ‘色々なごちそう’ in the local dialect but, I could be wrong. I don't really like kamaboko. I don't dislike it either. For me it is... just OK. Luckily, the food at the buffet was surprisingly delicious. I not sure if it was delicious because of the kamaboko, or in spite of it.

Even though the food was good, my wife and I had a hard time. We were tired and our kids were in a bad mood. Aside from desert, which they are always excited about, they didn’t want to try any of the food. Instead they wanted to run around the restaurant laughing loudly disturbing everyone. Luckily, unlike the stuffy serious nature of Tokyo, people were much more friendly to kids and forgiving here.

Finally we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. It was really fun and interesting but, it wasn't the best situation to really appreciate art. First of all, kids don't appreciate art. And, it was getting late. The park was only open a couple more hours. Also it was a wintry day and we were cold and tired. Mostly, after traveling and a tiring lunch, my wife and I didn't have much energy left.

My daughters loved playing on the art piece called 'Forest of Nets'. It is an art piece designed for kids to climb on and in. It is a giant net suspended in the air. It has holes and tunnels to climb through. It looked really fun. I wanted to go climb it! Unfortunately adults are not allowed. My older daughter climbed around laugh and having a lot of fun. As always, she immediately took off her socks, shoes, and her jacket. The cold didn't seem to bother her even though she wore only a short sleeve shirt and shorts! On the other hand, I had to hold my younger daughter the whole time as she was cold and spent the whole time whining.

We finished up the busy day at the souvenir shop where my older daughter convinced us that she needed a new stuffed animal. She promised to get rid of a current stuffed animal at home to make space for the new one. But, that is another story.

Next we went to the ryokan for the evening:

Hakone Trip ④ - Ryokan