Stinkin' Hell

Last Saturday I went to hell, which is about 1.5 hrs drive from Tokyo (although it took us 3 because it seemed like everyone was going there last weekend).

Hiroshi, Hezza, Jeimusu and I made a day-road-trip from Tokyo to Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture to see the glorious colours of autumn leaves (check), Ashinoko Lake (check), a glimpse of Fuji-san (check), and the highlight, "The Big Hell", or "Great Boiling Valley", a volcanic valley with hot springs and active sulphur vents (check).



Hakone was PACKED that day. Lots of cars, and lots of people walking around. It was a wonderful day weather-wise, though; and not far from Tokyo, and just the right time for looking at the beautiful autumn leaves. So chances are the entire Tokyo population probably did decend upon it at that same weekend. Despite the traffic, driving through the town and the Hakone area was very nice with different coloured leaves along the roadside.


After having tempura soba for lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake, we took the cable car (or ropeway as they call it here) up the hill to hell, anticipation rising with altitude, and seeing smoke and steam spouting from the slopes added to the excitement. But anticipation didn't foresee the big shock that came crashing down as we stepped off the cable car - THE STINK. It can only be described as 'rotten eggs and vomit'. Awful. But awesome.


No photo can rightly capture the awesomeness of The Big Hell, no matter how good or big your camera (and mine wasn't small). It was a combination of all the factors - the smell, the dead trees, the black rocks, the yellow rocks, the steam, the patches of red sand, the streams of warm milky spring water, the faint view of the top of of Fuji looking like its floating in mid-air, and later on the sun at dusk. It may be called Hell, but it was no less than an amazingly awesome experience.





As you can see from the photos, there wasn't much vegetation on the hill, due to a big volcanic eruption N years ago that wiped off most of the life on that hill (N being an increasing number that I couldn't be bothered to research). It was only afterwards (like now - during the course of writing this post) that it dawned on me that I was standing on a VERY active volcanic site. WHAT IF IT HAD ERUPTED AGAIN?! Count yourself lucky, my dear readers, 'cause if it had, you wouldn't have been able to read this very informative post.





Oh and the eggs - they sold these black eggs that were boiled in the spring water. The shell was all black, but the inside was the same, tasted the same, and were sold for 100 yen each.

In conclusion - HELL WAS AWESOME.


(Click: google images of Big Hell)