Our next day started with uncertainty. We grabbed a breakfast of various baked goods from our local Family Mart (Strange name, feels like its a friendly front for something sinister). We didn’t know if the busses to Hakone Matsomoto, and therefore lake Ashi, would be running. We ventured to our local bus stop to see.
Doing the traditional British thing, we stood at a bus stop sign and waited. When we saw what looked to be a bus come out, we stuck our arms out in expectation that would stop by our feet. Instead it whooshed by at full pelt. Egg on our faces. Not sure what to do we headed to the main station to see if we could find a transport route up the mountain. We were relieved to find that an express service was running to the lake and we joined the queue.
At this point, it feels fair to say a big well done to Japan’s transport system. The railway and busses from this outlier station to major cities had a strong support staff who spoke various languages and were on hand to help direct customers. Information and efficiency are key it seems.
Anyway, we got the bus up the mountains and were treated to some great views along the way:
Katy the Pirate 
Pirate boat 
Pylon in the trees
We arrived in a strange setting. Half the town seem vacated, the jetties for boats were floating far too high and lakeside buildings were either damaged or turned upsides down in the lake. It was clear to see what damage had been caused to this small community from the typhoon.
We walked around the edge of the lake and came across what looked to be a lot of stairs. Natural conclusion; at the top of stairs there will be something interesting, so we shall climb stairs. At the top we saw a great shrine.
And at the bottom we saw an impressive gate onto the lake (which was apparent selfie town as everyone took one, and we have no shame in saying we took one too!)
Also, a cheeky little fly out video with the drone!
We continued around the lake to see a touristy spot with hotels and cable car. Given the low cloud, the cable car seemed like a poor idea so we wondered around a little. Martin flew his drone over the lake and took a nail-biting 360 photo. I say nail-biting because we both knew that if the drone ran out of battery or misbehaved in anyway, it would end up in the lake pronto!
(The image below is a 360 degree shot, click on the photo and drag it to move the perspective!)
After a nice lunch by the shore, we headed back along the lake to our bus, managing to catch one just before it left! Back down the mountain we ended our day back at our local Onsen (MORE NAKED BATHIN’) before heading to the hostel for dinner and drinks and games of “Don’t get bitten by Godzilla”
