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October 9

We packed our bags and left Tokyo today. Each of our small groups left for a ten-day visit to a more remote city in a different prefecture. Odawara-shi lay ahead of my group, and we boarded a bullet train that took us there within a one hour time frame.

Once at Odawara-shi, we got on a tour bus and our very able bus driver took us through narrow, winding, Pacific Ocean-hugging roads to our hotel, the Spausa Odawara. I found myself loving the vision of Odawara-shi for many reasons. It was very different from Tokyo - no towering buildings here! This was a small resort town, situated high in the hills that overlook the Pacific Ocean. The city also reminded me of Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad, where I grew up. The similarities were overwhelming.

We were forewarned that once outside of Tokyo, we should not expect the level of luxury that had befallen us within Tokyo. We soon found out that this statement did not apply to the Spausa Odawara, for the accommodations that were now available to us rivaled that of our base camp at the Century Hyatt. It was beautiful!

Most of my group opted to visit Mount Hakone today, where we had a 33% chance of seeing Mount Fuji. Apparently the famous mountain is only visible one third of the year, and today was a rainy and gray day. But, we decided to take our chances! And by the time we got to Mount Hakone, there was Mount Fuji, in all her resplendent glory!

We ate the black eggs which were cooked in the sulfur pits at Hakone, and laid our belief in the ancient Japanese legend that eating one of these eggs will add 3 years to your life.
(Eating 2 adds 6 years to your life, and eating 9 means you will live until you die...)
What a day this was!

The view from Spausa

Sunrise over Odawara

The grounds at Spausa