Day 4 - Train Bento and 370-Year-Old Ryokan

Day Four (Wed):	Shinjuku - Hakone Yumoto - Owakudani - Togendai - Hakone Checkpoint - Cedar Avenue - Ichinoyu Honkan
Breakfast:	Japanese pastries Unknown bread shop, Shinjuku
Lunch:	Deluxe Ekiben lunchboxes on the train Gagaku Bento by Ginza Daimasu Daimyo Bento by Wako Sangyo Odakyu Romance Car
Dinner:	Dinner course at a 370-year-old Ryokan...unbelievable tofu and fish Ichinoyu Honkan, Tonosawa, Hakone

The Brand New Odakyu Romance Car

We took a wonderful side trip to Hakone.

Some may say that it's a tourist trap. Yes it is very commercialized, and certainly not the gateway to Mother Nature it's often advertised to be. But still it's a wonderful Japanese hotspring resort area with very rich history. And certainly no more commercialized than Whistler or many areas around Lake Tahoe.



We bought Hakone Weekday Passes, then added the extra 870 yen to take the new (put into service just 6 months ago) Romance Car VSE 50000 and reserved for the rear Temboseki (scenic seat, with 270-degree panoramic windows) many days in advance. We also reserved two special (and a little expensive) Ekiben.

Gourmet Spot #7: Deluxe Ekiben - Odakyu Romance Car, Shinjuku to Hakone Yumoto

Usually Ekiben are like cheap train Bento boxes that you eat on the train or at the station. Not cheap like Ramen, but 1000 yen would buy a reasonably good meal. I looked at the pretty pictures on the Romance Car menu at the Odakyu site and decided on trying the extravagant stuff.



The most expensive Bento on the menu this was! At "only" 2500 yen (which is very expensive for a bento. A lunch set at the excellent Sushi Dai yesterday started at 2000 yen.)



And this is the "cheaper" one, at 1300 yen. That's right. We spent almost 4000 yen just on lunch boxes.



Matsutake mushrooms! No wonder it was expensive. Matsutake and chestnuts...gotta be autumn. The huge portions included that big shrimp in the background and various items I had never tried before and may never again. A deluxe Shokado Bento on a train. This Bento was produced by Ginza Daimasu, the 90-year-old restaurant located on the expensive Ginza Dori.



Even the 1300 yen one contained fishroe-coated shrimp, autumn chestnuts, barbecued fish and of course lots of delicious goodies we've never tried before. This Bento was produced by Wakou Sangyou, an Ekiben supplier to Odakyu.

Bill for two persons:
Ginza Daimasu Gagaku Bento	2500 yen
Daimyo Bento	1300 yen
(no tax)
Total	3800 yen

Hakone


We stayed at the 370-year-old Ryokan "Ichinoyu Honkan", located at Tonosawa. I can't say enough good things about this Ryokan. Everything from the traditional character of our 8-tatami room, ease of access, and most importantly the food, was excellent. The hotspring setup wasn't as nice as the more expensive Ryokans, but nevertheless a steal at 8000 yen a night including two meals.



There it was! We saw Fujisan! It was a perfect, sunny day with no fog whatsoever, and it happened just when we came over the ridge riding the Hakone Ropeway near Owakudani. We have friends who have been to Hakone many times and still have never seen Mount Fuji due to the unpredictable weather. We felt so blessed.



What's on the skewer? Huge Sazae snails from the local bay waters...more like a conch than a snail at this size. A cheap 250 yen for the skewer. There was also Yaki Ika for 400 yen at another stall, but we were too full after finishing off the remainder of this morning's Ekiben.

We also did the typical tourist spots like the ridiculous pirate ship, the Hakone Checkpoint, and the Cedar Avenue.


Gourmet Spot #8: Traditional Ryokan dinner - Ichinoyu Honkan, Tonosawa, Hakone

Dinner was served at 7:00PM at the dining hall located at the top floor of the Ryokan. It was a spacious hall with a sparkling wood floor and an extravagant western-influenced ceiling from the Taisho era. As in most small-town Ryokans, dinner was a multi course set meal using the best seasonal ingredients, mostly from the local area.



The first dish (middle) was actually a Yofu (western-influenced) salad, with smoked salmon, vegetables with a mustard dressing, and some Japanese favorites such as Satoimo.

The second dish (white bowl in the foreground) was an understated and often overlooked dish, but it was definitely the star of the meal -- Tofu. It was the best Tofu I've ever had. Definitely the best vegetarian item (if we don't count the shrimp) I've ever had. I never dreamed that Tofu could take on such a texture of softness but slightly resistant to the tongue, and incredibly smooth. The closest analogy to a western ingredient I can think of is...now don't be surprised...cream cheese. Only even softer and even smoother, and with a very rich taste of soya bean, and bathed in a wonderful Dashi broth.

The third dish (metal pots on the left) was a Tounyuu Nabe. Seafood, pork, various vegetables, Shiitake and enoki mushrooms were placed in a hotpot of soy milk and cooked. Delicate flavors in a pot to warm up the Autumn night.

The fourth dish, not photographed, was an Ika Yakisoba. We were quite full by now and I didn't focus on really finishing it, because...



Bam! Right when we started to wonder whether to finish that Yakisoba, the server brought us this two-pound monster of a braised fish.

I don't think I've ever had a one-pound fish to myself. And this was at the end of a meal. But this fish looked and smelled so good that my wife and I started to work on it immediately. It was a Kinmedai from the local Sagami Bay waters (I asked the server lady at the end of the meal), a local favorite at this time of year. I had seen sectioned Kinmedai served in claypots of rice, but had never seen an entire fish of this size served to two people. The sauce for this Kinmedai Nitsuke was of a sweet shoyu base, perfect for the soft, oily meat of the fish.

At this point, we wondered how they could afford to charge only 8000 yen per person.

Bill for two persons:
Room + Dinner + Breakfast	7800 yen per person
(Hotspring tax 150 yen per person)
Total	15900 yen

Evening was hotspring time. Each room had 30 minutes of reserved time at the private Onsen. The two public Onsen (one for each sex; every night at 12AM they switched the male and female Onsens) were also free. It was so soothing for my weary feet that I just didn't want to get up. After trying all three of the Ryokan's hotspring baths in the span of about 10 hours, I could have sworn all my travel aches were gone.