Checked the hostel at Hakone yesterday night and it was all full because of the weekend. The minimal charge for a night in an onsen hostel is at least 10000 yen, so I decided to aim for the stopover at Hakone and stay at Kamakura hostel tomorrow

It was a good sleep yesterday. The lightings are motion sensitive and they will be off automatically if I don’t move around. The probability of anybody visits this toilet is even less than a visit of tsunami.

The stopover with a backdrop of Mt. Fuji. I woke up at 5 and go through the standard procedure: brushing my teeth, eat my breakfast, charge my GPS and left at 6.

Morning traffic and the weather is good too.

It is a 50km ride to Hakone, but I have to climb over 800m height. It is better to take my time.

Rode to a park at 9 and refilled some water. It seems that it had been selected as one of Japan’s best 100 water sources.

I rested for an hour there and discovered the second “attraction you will never go to” in my trip. Kibune is a famous shrine in Kyoto, with something does with water and fire safety. I happened to be there last autumn and it is quite a nice place.

It is a branch of that famous shrine. Is it like a big company sent you to the middle of nowhere for market development, or it is the little startup gets bought by Microsoft? But with the big name, It is just a normal shrine likes every other in Japan.

Continue to ride alone the national route 1. It suddenly turned into a section of highway. There is no bike forbidden sign but I didn’t take the chance and searched for an alternative route.

And I found Mishima Taisha.

It is a pretty large place with beautiful wooden architecture. It is definitely a place worth to visit.

Thanks to the distance covered yesterday, I can ride slowly and look for place of attraction. Bike touring is basically an A to B business and you don’t often have the chance to stop and visit. With a day like today, I really got the feeling of travel back.

Refill and recharge before the big climb.

This is not as difficult as the highest climb in Hong Kong.

Scenery along the road.

To avoid hitting a group of hikers, I lost my balance and fell on ground. My palm was badly hit. As a matter of riding, I was feeling the pain all the time

Arrived at Mishima Kankou by 1pm. There is a kind of satisfaction when I rode to the place I had once driven by.

And this time I can finally visit it.

There is a meaning of castle ruin in the Japanese name “Mishima Kankou”. The castle was destroyed a long time ago, but the history loving Japanese have kept the foundation and select it as one of the Japan’s 100 best castle. They really love to count to a hundred.

It was foggy near the top.

Reached the stop at 3:30 and had an early dinner before the restaurant was closed.

Hakone was famous for its place as the third Tokyo city in the Japanese anime Evangelion, so you can find lot of character goods around.

I was sleeping in the toilet again. At a height over 800m with a pouring rain outside, you really can’t ask for more.