Their forecast was precise for our third day of the trip- it poured. Not just rained… Like a monsoon all day long and the next day. We took three trains to Hakone, with a stop in Kanawara. Kanawara was also their capital at some point in history. so we left some things in a storage box and went into the rain…With umbrellas, but still. Tried to see something there, but only saw that it is a nice resort town for Tokyo people and that there are temples and nice shops and restaurants. But with sloshing boots we lost interest in the town and took two more trains toￂﾠ Hakone-ￂﾠ JR does not go there, you have to buy another ticket to another train on other tracks :-). Lots of walking in train stations…Hakone met us with rivers of water pouring down the hill we had to climb to reach the “K house”. So I entered it not with my best face, but then we were rewarded with a plunge to the hot spring- onsen- right in their own property. And they also had very good devices for drying out boots. They are prepared to lots of rain in their area. So Hakone is a hot spring town surrounded by mountains. You can climb them or you can take a bus , then elevator – and if the skies are clear – you can see Mt. Fuji – the most sacred of their volcanoes, the most beautiful and admired by their artists. But the skies were not clear for us and so we stayed almost all next day at home, just went to see the town a little:
Ikebana 
An automate that was makingￂﾠ cakes with fillings, turning them over and stamping with a picture.
The town is small, but lots of gourmet food souvenir stores. Seems Japanese like their intricate tastes. The fun part – there are plates with their foods to sample and taste. they do not waste plastic containers or spoons, you have to take a little on the spoon form the plate and put it on your hand and taste… There are different pastes with umami flavor, lots of fermented veggies and seaweed. 
I guess it is this time of year for Buddhas to be dressed like that…
The next morning was already sunny and we took one train, then a bullet train to Nagoya. And we were lucky – for several short moments we saw the top of Mt. Fuji sticking from the clouds!
This is how Shinkansen or a bullet train looks like: 