Hakone

This week I took yet another day trip. This time I went to Hakone, a popular hot springs area close to Mt Fuji and about 2 hours by local train from my apartment. After arriving in the town, I took another train even farther up the mountain and went to the Hakone Open Air Museum, which I think is possibly the best museum I've ever visited. If you ever make it to Hakone, you must go. Later, when I stopped at the Tourist Information office after leaving the museum to ask which bus to take to Lake Ashi, they told me that there would also be a fireworks display on the lake that same night. How lucky am I? Here are a few photos from my day:






Photos:

• 1st row, left: group of sculptures on the "Green Plaza" at the museum
  
• 1st row, right: inside the "Symphonic Sculpture" at the museum; all the walls are made of stained glass.
  
• 2nd row, left: close to the entrance to the museum, the "seats" are designed like eggs. They're even cushioned so you can take off your shoes and walk on them.
  
• 2nd row, right: another sculpture at the museum
  
• 3rd row, left: traditional Japanese drumming at the "Hanabi" (fireworks) festival at Ashinoko.
  
• 3rd row, right: my very first glimpse of Mt Fuji. It's beautiful, isn't it?
  
• 4th row, left: some lucky kids are getting new pet goldfish at one of the summer festival tents near the lake. It took a serious amount of will-power for me to NOT come home with a new fish myself...
  
• 4th row, right: fireworks over the lake. You can also see the hundreds of paper lanterns that they floated on the water, if you look across the bottom of the photo.