mountain – Roving Sun

April 15, 2024June 18, 2024

Owakudani and the Komagatake Ropeway at Hakone

After breakfast at the Indigo Hakone Gora, we headed up to Owakudani to check out the thermal area and to have some of area’s famous black eggs. We also enjoyed a beautiful, though hazy, view of Mount Fuji. After, we headed over to the Komagatake Ropeway for an alternate high elevation view of Mount Fuji and the surrounding area. Before returning to the Indigo in the afternoon, we visited a beautiful row of sakura at Miyagino, just across the river from the hotel.

April 14, 2024June 15, 2024

Hakone Golden Route

After waking up at the Conrad Tokyo and having breakfast, we checked out and took the Shinkansen to Odawara. From there, we took two local trains to Gora in the Hakone region. We checked into the Indigo and took a funicular along with two gondolas to reach Lake Ashi. We boarded a pirate ship to cruise the lake and landed at Hakonemachi. We walked through the Onshi-Hakone Park, with views of Mount Fuji, and ended up at Motohakone, still on the shores of Lake Ashi. From there, we took two busses to complete our loop, returning to Gora to enjoy our in room onsen!

March 9, 2024April 20, 2024

Zugspitze, the Highest Mountain in Germany

After breakfast at the Le Méridien, we took the train to the Eibsee, via Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where we ascended to Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany, by aerial tram. We enjoyed the magnificent view and walked across the shared summit to Austria where we had lunch. We then walked back to Germany and took a different aerial tram down a bit to the Zugspitzplatt, a mountain ski area on the German side of the border. After, we returned to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen where we had dinner nearby before returning to Munich.

December 27, 2023January 31, 2024

Tea and Temples at Maokong

The weather forecast looked good again today so we headed to Maokong, a mountainous area just at the edge of Taipei, after breakfast at the Grand Hyatt. We ended up checking out a few temples, enjoyed the scenery, and bought some local tea as Maokong is a historic tea producing area.

November 30, 2023December 20, 2023

Higashiyama High and Low

We started out the morning by heading up to Shogunzuka Seiryuden from the Hyatt Place Kyoto where we have been staying. After enjoying the view and garden, we headed back down to have lunch at Sanjo, north of Gion. After an excellent meal, we visited Shoren-in and Chion-in before ending at Yasaka-jinja. We had a nice matcha snack in Gion before heading to dinner near Kyoto Station.