Departing from Kusatsu, we headed towards Ikaho Onsen to meet our friends for lunch. Coincidentally they were on their way to Kusatsu on the same day we depart!
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| Lake Haruna |
To reach Ikaho Onsen, we had to pass through Mt Haruna, also known as Mount Akina in Initial D!
Firstly there was Lake Haruna, where we took a little stroll and tried to take a few steps on the frozen waters~ Except for the occasional cars which passed by, there was hardly anyone in the area.
After Lake Haruna came the main event, the drive from Lake Haruna to Ikaho Onsen is supposed to be the actual route that Initial D creators based their Mt Akina route on. Some kind person has marked the map here.
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| Parked at the top of Mount Haruna before we start the drive down towards Ikaho Onsen |
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| The view of Ikaho Onsen before we started our drive down~ |
^ That's not us driving! ^
After having lunch with our friends, we continued on our way towards Tokyo while they took the reverse route to Kusatsu. Along the way we stopped at several drive-thru for replenishment and just stopped whenever we wanted to take in the beautiful scenery. I guess that's the reason why we enjoy self-driving travels. We stop at attractions, make detours, eat and drink at our own pace. Some of the highway service stations are like tourist attractions on their own with local specialty dishes and gorgeous scenery~
Sometimes its not easy when taking public transports due to the timing of trains and buses. And its definitely a hassle having to pull our luggage along with us as we rush for trains. But bear in mind that driving can be very expensive, specially when you are not returning the car to the same shop as there is a fee for returning the car to the original car rental shop!
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| Drive-thru McDonalds |
Once we reached Tokyo, we returned the car, checked-in and quickly made our way to Roppongi for some pancakes!
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| In Tokyo, we take the train... driving is confusing and parking is expensive! |
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| Hello Roppongi! |
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| And Hello pancakes! |
After that we made our way to Shinjuku for some shopping~ Some toys, electronic goods, medicine and its time to go for dinner!
On this night we had yakiniku at Black Hole Yakiniku. It's located right in the middle of Kabukicho and the food was fantastic albeit a bit pricey!
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| Highball! |
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| Premium Harami |
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| Tongue~ |
After dinner we took the JR Yamanote line back to our hotel at Shinagawa. The reason why I like Shinagawa is because it is close to Haneda airport, it had a Hertz car rental underneath the Keikyu Ex Hotel.
And at Shinagawa station there were some shops selling cakes and desserts, perfect for us to wash the down the grease from the yakiniku! (^ ^)v
The following morning we took the train to Haneda station to take our flight back to Singapore~ the clear skies meant that we could catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji just prior to our flight!
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| It looked much closer from Lake Kawaguchi! ( ^ ^ ;) |
And after the end of every successful trip is the time to enjoy the loot (and cry for the damage to my wallet)!
This trip brought us 1 big round from Tokyo to Hakone to Lake Kawaguchi to Matsumoto to Kusatsu and then back to Tokyo via Ikaho Onsen. We had fabulous food, rejuvenating onsen as well as lovely scenery along the way~
The timing of the trip was perfect as we got a snow-capped Mt Fuji, perfect weather and clear skies for the outdoor onsen, and I'm a believer that seafood taste better during winter months!
The drive was easy enough with very little snow on the roads except for a very small section in Kusatsu. Best hotel/ryokan of the trip had to be 湯宿 季の庭（ときのにわ Tokinoniwa [Official Website] in Kusatsu, followed by Fuji Ginkei at Lake Kawaguchi!
I would probably never do this route again as I've been to Kusatsu more than once, but I might do a Tokyo > Hakone > Lake Kawaguchi > Gero-onsen/Takayama > Kyoto > Osaka with friends who have 2 weeks and have never been to Japan!
See the rest of the trip below:
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