We left Takayama after a quick revist in the morning market and stroll in the old part of the town. It
really is very quaint. I was surprised to see so many people there after the festival. I was convinced the place would be dead. However, it actually looked busier than the days before. the streets were packed with strolling groups and even a Japanese scavenger hunt.
We left Takayama on the train to Nagoya. As we got to the train station, they wouldnt let us onto the platform. The ticket guy asked us to wait another twenty minutes before entering. Odd, but ok. Theres no point in arguing or asking here, you just do. When we were finally let in, I noticed photographers everywhere. I mentioned it to Ori, but didnt think too much about it. Probably making a train movie or a JR commercial, I thought. But then as the train left the station, we saw hundreds of others with their cameras. And Japanese people dont have regular cameras, they have the ultimate cameras and tripods with zoom lenses and all kinds of crazy photography paraphernalia. In short, easy to spot them, especially when in hords. At every stop there were more people taking pictures of the train. I could even spot some photographers on the road taking photos. We had no idea what was going on. I felt like we had unknowingly borded the train meant for participants of the next hunger games and that everyone was cheering us on our way. Finally, a ticket checker came by and explained that we were on the very train celebrating 80 years. Thats right, that same route at that same time has been running for eighty years and we were on it. Woohoo, lets take some photos and delay the trains arrival in Nagoya by 20 minutes and almost make Ori and Sivan late for their next train. Thankfully, it was only almost missed - by 3 minutes. 
We made it to the Shinkansen to Odawara, then another train to Gora (what a train! I think it was a few hundred years old). On this train, we met a very interesting character. Meet Mr. Toot (strawberry), or how Ori likes to call him Tooti man. Of course we dont know his real name, so we made one up after we saw strawberries on his money belt, and of course his eye glasses are the shape of strawberries as well.
He was quite a character. His entire outfit is yellow and red. Even his shoes were interesting. They are Japanese flip flops with a wooden sole. The top part was originally white but he painted half of one red and half of the other yellow. He talked to himself in what we think is Japanese the whole time.
Suddenly, he starts humming to himself, totally off key. And guess what? Ori turns to me and says -Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Crazy that he recognized it from the odd way he was humming it. The whole ride, about an hour, he talked to himself. I think that was the time I wanted to be able to understand Japanese the most out of this trip. I think it would have been totally cool to know what he said. I think he was actually laughing at us. My theory is that he's this big time tycoon that is bored on the weekends and does crazy stuff to stimulate his creative side and have fun. And that all his self talk was about how hes probably driving us Westerners crazy. Thats my theory. Ori thinks Im too imaginative and that hes just one loon away from the loony bin.
So there we are on this train that is creaking and stopping every few minutes. The conductor leaves the train at every stop. I think hes actually changing the track direction by hand each time. It feels like its going to break down any second and were sitting there listening to Tooti man.
We finally get to Hakone and its too dark to see anything. Thankfully the directions to the guest house at which were reserved, the Hakone Tent, were very clear and within four minutes we arriived. The interior design was as cool as their photos. Wooden walls and carvings It was kinda like a nice hostel but with private rooms and an onsen. That's right, this guest house had one of the nicest onsens I'd seen so far. The room was small but it was decorated in rough stones and felt like you were in some cave carved out of a mountain or some hidden water hole. It was great. All the other ones were more modern and large. This was fun, felt much more authentic.
Ori had his turn at the men's onsen and we met at the bar and chatted with a few other people. I had my first brown cow in years. It was a nice calm evening.
Not a busy day, but interesting nonetheless. Looking forward to going to the next hotel in Hakone tomorrow. We need to take a fenicular and a cable car to get to the lake (yup, going up in order to get to the lake). We only hope that we can do it considering the predicted weather forecast.
Fingers crossed
Night night
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