On the third day of our vacation we planned to spend a day and night in Hakone. It was one of the highlights of the whole trip so I'll write a whole blogpost for it! Hakone is a town in the Kanagawa prefecture and is a famous travel destination, because of the onsen (hot springs) amongst some nice scenery.
Nick had planned this trip out for us and I had promised to not look stuff up beforehand to be surprised. When we were at Shinjuku station we went in a special limited express 'romance-car' of the Odakyu railway. Which means you have a nice way (I think bigger windows?) to see the panoramas along the way. Unfortunately our reserved seats were at the very very front of the car, meaning we actually had only a small window, sigh. I think other passengers liked it though, there were some older pairs of Japanese people that were quite enjoying the trip (you know, when Japanese people start talking a lot in the train, it is probably because they are going on a trip or holiday or something because they usually don't do so).
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| Famous bridge on the Tozan railway. Photo from here. |
The train brought us to Odawara where we changed to another, much smaller train, to Hakone itself. I think it was called the Hakone Tozan Railway. We couldn't sit because of how crowded it was, so we kept standing. This train was a very interesting experience, as it goes up the mountain by stopping at certain points and switching direction (like if you have a hairpin turn, but then the car would go backwards at the turn ;) ). We also had a stop (or a slow pace) around a high bridge with a very nice view. To be honest, the train was a bit old-looking and it felt a bit wobbly along the way at certain points but it was quite the adventure. We got off at Gora, which is a pretty town on a hillside. Visited a nice souvenir-shop and bakery near the station there and walked up to see Gora park which had some nice flowers and scenery. We then took a cable car to Sounzan. The cable car was on a slope, so it had something like a 20-30 degree angle, it was pretty cool!
From Sounzan on you could go take the Hakone ropeway to Togendai, which was even more awesome. You can sit in a gondola with about 8 people or so if I remember correctly. It is pretty high in the air and goes actually over a big sulfur field/hill called Owakudani (translates to "the great boiling"). Hakone is a volcanic zone (erupted 3000 years ago), hence the hot springs and rivers a well. Owakudani is also known for the black eggs which are cooked in this naturally heated water and sold here to eat. No, we did not buy them. You know the smell of sulfur compounds? Yep, rotten eggs. I don't really feel like eating that :P even when it is a famous black egg and traditions says eating one adds seven years to your life. Still a nope. But what a sight the sulfur fumes made, so cool!
The last part of the ropeway brings you to lake Ashinoko, where from a dramatic ship departs to Hakone-machi. The ship is pretty cool and is made in European style (I'm not sure why?). They call it 'pirate style', I guess because Japanese kids know the kind from Pirate-like movies and such and they decorated the ship alike. It was fun and the sight of the hills from the water is pretty too. I've read that on good days you can see Mt. Fuji from here too.
From Hakone-machi on we walked through a cedar-tree lane to the next station, where we took a bus that had to go around the mountains again to our stay at Hakone. We stayed at a ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel/inn) called Fukuzumiro and had a very luxurious place (it was like a studio) for ourselves at the edge of the building, looking out over the Haya river. It all looked very tradionally Japanese, like from a movie, it was amazing, absolutely beautiful!
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| The river next to Fukuzumiro |
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| The view from our windows |
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| Our 'studio' |
The studio consisted actually of several rooms you could close with sliding doors if you wanted, one of them was next to the river with two relaxing chairs. You get assigned one chambermaid that explains things, helps you and serves you the food and so on. They are very polite in Japan, but luckily it was quite relaxed talking with her, and perfectly English too. First we ate delicious mochi we got for free as a welcome gift. We slipped into yukatas (which are usually worn around ryokans) and then planned to go for a bath!
Of course, the ryokans around Hakone are famous for their onsen (hot spring baths) and what was special about this one was that it had a private bath. Whereas usually there are two public baths for women and men in a ryokan, a private bath means you have it to yourself and can go into one with your husband or family if you like. It was an absolute delight, the water was very warm and relaxing. The room was decorated with some natural stones with a small high outlook on the trees next to the river as well. Only thinking about how relaxing the bath was makes me want to go back.
Fukuzumiro also had a nice Japanese garden which you could walk into. Although it already got a bit dark and the doors were closed, we asked if we could see the garden and so we did!
Then it was time for dinner, which is served in your room of course. When she started to serve some plates we thought she was done but then said it was only the first course of in total five (!) haha. Of course we never could finish that much food so we tried a bit of everything. With the emphasis on tried because you might know I am not so much a fan of all the Japanese fish, but all the seasonal specialties were very interesting and all also very pretty to see because the way it is served is almost as important in Japan.
We slept on a futon (japanese-style bedding), which was nice but I remember that the sound from the river was quite loud and because of the many windows we were up quite early and took the chance to go in the bath again. The water was way too hot for me now though, I guess it cools down a bit later in the day. Nick tried it very shortly at least. Then we had breakfast and although I really wanted to ask for a western breakfast I thought this would be the only chance for a real full traditional one, so let's just try it. But then you get served a fresh grilled fish yeah,... so eh I guess we were happy we just could buy some bread the day after that.
We only went there for one night (mostly because of the costs, but that was very much worth it for the special experience). The next day we took the bus back to the station where we could take the train to Tokyo again.
Anyway, Hakone is a really nice place to visit when you are in Tokyo and want to see something different and very Japan-like, I can of course also recommend to spend at least one night at a ryokan with onsen there, I would not want to have missed it!
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