Hakone 2 the mischievous toilet

 Today did not go to plan…. After waking up at 4:30, I managed to find the train station and purchase all of the tickets needed to board the Romance train to Hakone, and a free pass. This area is known for their hot springs, so I booked a private onsen (bath) for later in the day, I had a laundry list of activities planned  

The Japanese have interesting solutions for everything. 

These raised bars in the train stations are for the blind, so they can follow a path to the platforms. It’s braille for feet. The little nubs mean stay behind this line. 

Arriving at Hakone breakfast becomes important because I skipped dinner the night before. 

The only restaurant open this early was this place. 

This was an interesting time. I sat, the waitress was very cheerful. More people entered. The waitress and I made eye contact, I thought we understood each other. More people begin to show up. Their orders are being taken, I am being ignored. I finally admit defeat, start packing up what I came with when she hurriedly comes to take my order. I didn’t say anything or make a fuss but I needed food. She finally took my order and followed up with nothing I understood because I only know a few words of Japanese. 

The food came. Lovely. It’s a mango milk (I think it was mango and milk), and an egg, tomato and lettuce sandwich. 

Doesn't that look delicious?

Here's a look at the menu.

Later the waitress came around with a little cup of green tea that was complimentary. We part friends. I think she was sorry but she was so cheerful and I didn’t understand a word she said so I guess we’ll never know, but I like to think so. 

I see a bathroom, and you never turn down a bathroom. Now… this is the embarrassing part. It was an electronic  Toto toilet, I had one in my last house but this one had a delayed response after the button was pushed. I may have pushed the button a few times thinking it was broken  So, I finish, I get up, pull my pants up and what do you know before I have time to put the lid down, the spraying arm has activated again and I get sprayed from my eye to the top of my head. I repeatedly push the stop button that doesn’t seem to be working and the bathroom is pretty small so can’t escape it. So I slam the lid down and mercifully everything stops. I stay in the bathroom because to get out, you have to walk back into the restaurant. When researching for this trip they suggested bringing a hand towel because public toilets rarely have paper towels, so at least I had that. The water pressure in Hakone is very good in case you were wondering. 

This is the 🤬 toilet. 

More on this later..

Along my travels, I find another toilet with clear instructions. I hope this will be useful to you one day. 

I don’t want to bad mouth the toilets because they have heated seats which I am enjoying. 

This is the view from the back of the restaurant. 

Onto our next stop, the Hakone Open Air Museum.