We both were a bit stiff this morning from sleeping on the futon (it is only about 2 inches thick). After dressing, we went for a walk. Our street is quite short with one end being a dead end and the other ending at the cable car tracks, so we had a choice of up or down intersecting roads. We chose up! We walked along the side of a lovely park and garden that is directly across the street from the hotel. There were several condominium buildings and some lovely single homes. The landscaping here is beautiful – every tree is finely pruned to accent its beauty. The best part of the walk is that eventually we got to come down the hill! Breakfast was basically English style: eggs, bacon, fried potatoes and salad, but there was also fresh fruit, soft rolls and oatmeal with raisins. If they keep feeding us like this, we will have to pay an overage fee to get on the plane! After breakfast we took a bus ride down the hill to another town and visited the workshop where they make the beautiful Hakone woodcraft. This same family has been making these items for over 200 years. One of the men explained and demonstrated how he puts the wood together to make the intricate designs (see photo). He gave everyone a sample of the veneer to take home. We did a bit of damage in the shop and would have bought more except that it was quite pricey and also we have to be able to pack everything in our suitcases to get it home. We then drove down to the lake (Lake Ashi) and took a half hour boat ride on a catamaran. Unfortunately, it was still cloudy today, but the good news is it didn’t rain. After the boat ride, we went to lunch at a fancy hotel. The lunch was a buffet, which was wonderful because it meant that I could just eat a tiny bit. One of the desert choices was a raspberry framboise – delicious! John gave me a taste of his green tea ice cream – quite different and a very unusual green color – a cross between lime and pistachio hues. I had left my camera on the bus, as I didn’t want it to be in the way at the table – never again! The clouds lifted for a short time and we could see the top of Mount Fuji. Also, there was a Japanese wedding taking place outside on the lawn. Kelly said she would send me copies of her pictures, but I will take it with me at all times now. Our next stop was to the top of a mountain where there were steam vents and sulpher springs. One of the traditions is to cook eggs in the hot springs (about 190 degrees) until they become hard-boiled and because of the sulpher, the shells turn black. The saying goes, if you eat one egg, you will live for seven more years, if you eat two eggs, you will live for twenty more years, and if you eat three eggs, you will live until you die! We didn’t eat any eggs (see big breakfast and buffet lunch), but I did get a photo of some young ladies eating theirs (see photo). I mimicked taking a picture and they giggled and nodded yes. After we got down from that area, we walked over to the gondola building where we took a gondola ride down to Gora. The Japanese called the gondola a ropeway. The bus driver took some of the group back to the hotel while eight of us opted to continue on to the Hakone Open Air Sculpture Museum. The sculptures were wonderful – some classical and some quite modern (see photo). There was also a small Picasso museum, which was quite lovely. We spent about and hour and a half at the museum before being picked up by the hotel van. At six o’clock Junko held an origami session in the lobby for those who were interested. She taught us how to make Samurai helmets and cranes. Even though some of the cranes looked like ducks or pterodactyls, a good time was had by all. Dinner was again quite a feast for both the eyes and the stomach, some of the different items were sushi rice cooked with vegetables served in a turban shell, a boiled egg stewed in thin soy soup and wrapped in a white cloth paper decorated with a tiny Japanese maple leaf (this was interesting as the soy turned the white of the egg light brown and the yolk was red-orange), smoked duck and sardine, corn soup served in a small teapot, grilled sautéed pork with fruit and potato salad, vegetable rice pilaf, egg soup, fondue of thin beef and vegetables which we cooked ourselves at the table, and flan with a piece of pineapple for dessert. Now keep in mind that this is just a list of the new items at the table - fortunately, the portions are very small! We were tired after dinner so decided to skip the communal bath and came up to the room to read for a while before sleeping. We also decided to cheat a bit on the futon. We noticed that there were several futons in the cupboard where they are put away during the day (probably to accommodate families who come to stay here), so we put an extra two under ours that had been made up while we were at dinner. Hopefully, that will help to soften the floor.