DISTANCE: 90km (56 miles) southwest from Tokyo to Hakone; tour: 26km (16 miles)
TIME: 1 or 2 days
START/END: Hakone-Yumoto Station
POINTS TO NOTE: At a brisk clip, you can cover this itinerary in a day. Whether you do this or spend a couple of days here, save money with the three-day Hakone Pass (¥5,500) or the two-day Hakone Winter Weekday Pass (¥4700, available Dec–mid-Mar Mon–Thur), both of which cover a return trip on the Odakyu line from Shinjuku to Odawara, plus unlimited use of the Hakone Tozan Railway, Sounzan funicular, Hakone Ropeway, boats on Lake Ashino and most local buses. They also get you discounts at many of Hakone’s attractions. For ¥870 extra, ride the Odakyu line’s ‘Romance Car’, a direct express train from Shinjuku Station to Hakone-Yumoto. For more details, see www.odakyu.jp. If possible, visit Hakone on a weekday, when it is quieter.
Stressed out Tokyoites flock to Hakone to relax in the local onsen – hot-spring baths – and enjoy the scenic surroundings. Join the fun of touring the region on multiple forms of transport, including a cable car across a steaming volcanic field and a mock-17th-century galleon over a lovely lake with Mount Fuji in the background.
Hakone-Yumoto
The circular route begins at Hakone-Yumoto 1 [map], a tourist town jam-packed with souvenir shops and resort hotels. Its saving grace is its excellent onsen, the most convenient of which is the small Kappa Tengoku Notemburo (777 Yumoto; tel: 0460-856 121; daily 10am–10pm; charge), a short walk uphill from the train station, offering outdoor baths (called rotemburo).
A Hakone Tozan Railway train
JNTO
Hakone Tozan Railway
Connect to the Hakone Tozan Railway 2 [map] at Hakone-Yumoto Station. The line, which has the feeling of a delightfully slow trolley car, has several switchbacks to cope with the mountain slopes. As the train negotiates the inclines, the carriages virtually brush the camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas and other flowering shrubs and bushes that grow beside the track or on the borders of dense wooded areas along the way.
Fujiya Hotel
Alight at Miyanoshita Station. This village and hot-spring resort is located along a ravine; it is just a short walk from the station to the historic Fujiya Hotel 3 [map] (tel: 0460-822 211; www.fujiyahotel.co.jp), dating from 1878 when it was Japan’s first European-style hotel. With its 1930s wood-panelled dining room, a library full of old books, and waitresses in Agatha Christie-period uniforms, it remains a charming place. Whether or not you stay, it’s worth eating at the Orchid Lounge, see 1.
One of Hakone-Yumoto’s outdoor baths
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Hakone Open-Air Museum
Return to the Tozan line and continue for another two stops until you arrive at Chokoku-no-Mori, the station for the Hakone Open-Air Museum 4 [map] (tel: 0460-821 161; www.hakone-oam.or.jp; Mar–Nov 9am–5pm, Dec–Feb 9am–4pm; charge). It features modern sculptures by the likes of Calder, Brancusi, Rodin, Giacometti, Henry Moore and other Western masters, artfully placed in landscaped gardens that afford superb views of sea and mountains. The Picasso Pavilion contains sculptures, paintings, ceramics and tiles, as well as galleries devoted to Renoir, Chagall, Miró and Japanese artists, such as Hayashi Takeshi and Umehara Ryuzaburo. There are several places to eat at the museum, including the restaurant Bella Foresta, see 2.
Hakone Art Museum
The terminus of the Tozan line is only one stop away from the museum at Gora. Here, transfer to a funicular tram for the 10-minute journey to Sounzan, the starting point for the cable car that crosses Mount Soun.
Before that, though, get off at Koen-kami Station on the funicular to visit the Hakone Art Museum 5 [map] (Fri–Wed 9.30am–4.30pm; charge), which specialises in Japanese ceramics and tea-ceremony utensils. Some outstanding examples of Bizen pottery and ancient ceramics are on display, and outside there is a lovely mossy garden with a bamboo grove, maple trees and a teahouse.
Owakudani
Travel on to Sounzan, catching the cable car called the Hakone Ropeway for a giddy 30-minute journey over the mountains to Lake Ashino. If the weather is clear (it often isn’t, particularly during the summer months), you will be able to get a good view of Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) during the journey.
Be sure to get off at the first stop, Owakudani 6 [map] (‘great boiling hell’), a bleached terrain so barren-looking you could be forgiven for thinking you had been put down on a dead planet. Hakone has a history of volcanic eruptions, and the stench of sulphur and clouds of steam from the fumaroles at Owakudani are a constant reminder of how unstable the ground beneath you is. Locals boil eggs in the sulphur pits and then sell them to visitors with the unlikely assurance that by eating one your life will be extended by seven years.
In the tourist town of Hakone-Yumoto
JNTO
Around Lake Ashino
The cable car terminates at Togendai, at the northern end of Lake Ashino 7 [map] (Ashino-ko) where, for the next stage of your journey, you should board one of the colourful mock-galleons that ply between here and Hakone-Machi. The boats are outrageously kitsch, but the journey across this serene lake is magical.
Hakone Barrier
You will disembark from the boat at Hakone-machi, which is the site of the Hakone Barrier 8 [map] (Hakone Sekisho; daily 9am–4.30pm; charge), a replica of the original checkpoint that stood here during the Edo period. The barrier marks an important point on the Tokaido Road that ran between Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). An exhibition hall beside the barrier provides the historical background to the road. A 1km (0.6-mile) section of the original Tokaido makes for a pleasant walk from the barrier, under tall cryptomeria trees, to the lakeside village of Moto-Hakone.
A galleon on Lake Ashino and the Hakone Gongen’s red torii
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Hakone Gongen
As you approach Moto-Hakone, you will get a lovely view of a red torii gate, which stands in the water and is framed by forest as well as, if you are lucky, the glorious backdrop of Mount Fuji. The gate is part of the shrine known as Hakone Gongen 9 [map]. Hidden among trees close to the shore, the shrine was founded in 757 and was once a popular place for samurai to pray.
Hatajuku
Buses run from Moto-Hakone back to Hakone-Yumoto for the return journey to Tokyo. Alternatively, you can make the 11km (7-mile) hike through the forests, tracing the route of the Tokaido via the village of Hatajuku ) [map], which is famous for its woodwork craftsmen who specialise in marquetry.
Along the way you can pause, just as pilgrims of old did, at the still functioning Amazake-jaya Teahouse, where you can sample amazake, which is a sweet and mildly alcoholic milky rice drink.
Tenzan Notemburo
About 2km (1.25 miles) from Hakone-Yumoto, the Tokaido hiking path passes the luxurious onsen complex Tenzan Notemburo ! [map] (daily 9am–11pm; charge). The bathing here is segregated, with indoor and outdoor pools designed in attractive arrangements of wood and rock. Men also have access to a clay sauna hut. You can dine here as well, see 3, before walking or catching the complimentary shuttle bus back to Hakone-Yumoto Station.
Places to stay
Apart from the Fujiya Hotel, Hakone has many other excellent places to stay, including a few top-class ryokan. One of the most exclusive and expensive is Gora Kadan (www.gorakadan.com) in Gora, where you will also find the stylishly designed Hyatt Regency Hakone Resort & Spa (www.hakone.regency.hyatt.com). Budget travellers can bunk down at the Hakone Lake Villa Youth Hostel (www.jyh.or.jp) in Moto-Hakone overlooking Lake Ashino.
Tourist information
The Odakyu Sightseeing Service Centre (daily 8am–6pm) at the west exit of Shinjuku Station has English-speaking staff who can advise about visiting Hakone. In Hakone-Yumoto, across the road from the bus terminal and close to the train station is the helpful Hakone Tourist Information Office (www.hakone.or.jp daily; Apr–Nov 9.30am–6pm, Dec–Mar 9am–5.30pm).
Food and drink
1 Orchid Lounge
Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita; ¥¥
Afternoon tea at the Fujiya is a cherished ritual, but there’s nothing to stop you pausing for morning coffee either. At both times yummy baked goods from the hotel’s Picot Bakery are served.
2 Bella Foresta
Hakone Open-Air Museum, Ninotaira, Hakone-machi; ¥¥
The museum’s buffet restaurant offers a wide range of Japanese and Western dishes, but if none of them suit there’s the dim-sum restaurant Hakone Yamucharow, serving Hong Kong-style dumplings, and two cafés – one designed as a homage to Picasso, the other in the style of a British pub.
3 Tenzan Notemburo
208 Yumoto-Chaya, Hakone-Yumoto; ¥¥
The onsen complex is also an excellent place to eat after taking a bath. Its three restaurants serve shabu shabu (sautéed beef) and teppanyaki (grilled meat dishes), as well as humble bowls of noodles.