Eat, stay, and play in Hakone! Part II

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🤗 Transportation in Hakone

Getting to Hakone from Tokyo, as well as getting around inside Hakone, is so much fun for transportation fans that it's like a transportation ride line in itself. From Tokyo Shinjuku station, you can take the Odakyu line, or the Romance, to Hakone-Yumoto. Accommodation in Hakone is very decentralized, for example, this time I stayed in Joro, just in Hakone Yumoto and then change to the mountaineering railroad car Joro, a lot of hotels are clustered in the Joro station, Joro station is halfway up the mountain. And then from Johoro station, to go to Lake Ashi you have to continue to take the mountaineering car, change the cable car, cable car up to the top of the mountain, and then down to Lake Ashi.

Japan's transportation system is really well-designed, and you don't feel tired even if you are carrying a big suitcase all the way around, because all the transfers are within the station. In Hakone, you can also use pasmo or suica cards on buses and mountain trams. If you like transportation very much, you can also buy a Hakone freepass from Tokyo Shinjuku Station Odakyu Station, you can take unlimited rides on all means of transportation in Hakone, including mountaineering trams, mountaineering buses, cable cars, and Lake Ashi sightseeing pirate ship, of which the cable car and the pirate ship can look out over Mt. Fuji, the angle is super positive.

If you're on the Romance and still want to do the front overlook seat to look outside the train, you'll have to go to this website to reserve a spot, but it's hard to book: https://www.web-odakyu.com/e-romancecar

Mountaineering tram (actually a small train running on the track) on the strong Luo to drive for a long time (at least thirty minutes), look out the window to see the scenery and say hello to the passing cars. This train stops at every station on the mountain, and I found that at every station there are guests going up and down with their luggage, so there should be hotels everywhere, but of course the most concentrated is still Qiangluo.

And from Gora Station, the ride to Lake Ashi is even better: you have to take the cable car to Mt. Sawumo, then change to one of those sedan-style cable cars, and on the way, you'll pass through the Owakudani Valley (which can be hopped on/off, with restaurants, cafes, and hot springs to soak in), where you can look down at the geothermal heat, and smell the sulfur clearly, and, of course, more importantly, you'll be able to see Mt. Fuji all the way up the cable car! The most important thing, of course, is that on the cable car, you can see Mt! If you want to go on a pirate boat or a duck boat (both of which overlook Mt. Fuji on the lake), then get off at Momoyendai Station; if you want to go for a walk around the lake and see Mt. Fuji, then go to Motohakone Port.

🤗 Eating in Hakone

Personally, I highly recommend Hakone's soba and onsen manju. Jack Ma is said to be a fan of Hakone's sushi. That is to say, no matter where you come from, you will probably fall in love with the various cuisines in Hakone.

♥ Soba

What makes Hakone's soba so delicious is the pure mountain spring water, clean air and natural ingredients that make the soba so chewy. We recommend the soba steamed with yam, wasabi and seaweed.

♥ Sushi

Hakone sushi, which even Jack Ma loves, can be a bit pricey compared to the affordable prices in Tokyo, but after all, it's a resort area.

♥ Tofu skin over rice

Tofu skin made from Hakone's mountain spring water is also a high-quality representative. When you go to Hakone, we recommend you to try the tofu skin over rice. The rice absorbs the freshness and aroma of the tofu skin, making it extraordinarily delicious.

♥ Male Fish (Wakasagi)

The male fish from Lake Ashinoko in Hakone, it is a high-class freshwater fish and the locals love to eat it. Usually, males are deep-fried or boiled, or they can be skewered and eaten with rice. This year, it is said to be oilier and more flavorful than in previous years, and local restaurants say, "When you come to Hakone, please enjoy the flavor of the season.

♥ Onsen Manju

Stores selling onsen manju can be found everywhere in Hakone. It is a traditional Japanese steamed bun filled with sweet red bean paste. Onsen manju is a specialty dessert of Hakone, steamed in hot spring water.

♥ Black Eggs

A signature dish of Hakone. It is made by boiling the egg in hot spring water at 80°C for about an hour, and then, the egg is placed in a steamer at 100°C for another 15 minutes. Because of the chemical reaction between the geothermal heat and volcanic gases, the shell of the egg turns black.

🤗 Living in Hakone

Since Hakone is a mountainous area, it is important to know where to stay in order to be able to see all the sights and museums you want to see in one or two days. Ideally, you should stay in a place that is not too far from Owakudani, Lake Ashi, and various art museums. A Mirai Hakone Cottage Hotel is located in the heart of Hakone's attractions. It has 21 townhouses, each with its own entrance, and accommodates 4-10 people at a time, making it ideal for small groups of couples, friends, and families.

The Hakone POLA Museum of Art is just a 1-minute walk away. It is also close to the Hakone Glass Museum, Owakudani and Lake Ashi. This is one of the most popular places to visit in Hakone not only for Japanese but also for many foreigners.

The hotel is a 2-3 storey finely furnished villa, and the interior of the house is furnished in an elegant and antique style. The size ranges from 80-100 square meters. Compared to most ryokans in Japan, this size is a luxury.

Below is a partial view of the interior of the ryokan:

The ryokan has an outdoor open-air hot spring. The source spring flows 24 hours a day, allowing you to "soak" at any time. The spring is colorless and transparent, and is effective for muscle pains, chills, and fatigue recovery. The hot spring is on the second floor, and the natural wooden hot spring pools emit a light fragrance. Soak in the hot spring with the one you love while enjoying the scenery outside, and the taste of happiness will be there.

First floor toilet and bathroom

The bedroom on the third floor is a yoko room, and the first floor is a traditional Japanese tatami room. The maximum number of people that can stay at the same time is 10, so it is very spacious and cozy if 4-6 people stay there.

The kitchen is fully equipped with cooking utensils. You can buy some black bass and trout from Lake Ashinoko and cook them at the ryokan.

♥ Hakone Goro Huanchuilou

Just a five minute walk from Johor Bahru Station, the hotel, as its name suggests, is surrounded by lush greenery. I didn't expect this hotel to be so special, and it gave me all the original feeling of an old-fashioned Japanese hot spring vacation. The hotel house dates from 1868 and was the private villa of the Iwasaki family, the zaibatsu of Mitsubishi. It was later expanded and turned into a hotel in 1949, and the Emperor stayed here when he came to Hakone in 1995. ...... The handwritten paper and photos of the Emperor's visit at that time are still displayed today next to the front desk of the hotel, and the first poster of Onsen No. 1 (which is the hotel's public bath) used in 1949 is still offered at the entrance of the public bath.

The interior furnishings of the rooms are simple, but extremely clean, and the bathing suits for soaking in the soup are nice and of good quality. It has a total of about ten rooms, half of which have public bathrooms. I booked three large and one small, with its own bathroom and private soup, the private soup is really small enough to sit in only one person, negligible. But the hotel's public open-air breezeway is really beautiful, birds and flowers, just one person to enjoy this time. The open-air breezeway at the moment, and the fall.

The room we stayed in looked like this, and when we came back in the evening after dinner, it was turned into a tatami mat.

And the backyard of the hotel is enormous, so take a walk to appreciate how nice the hotel garden is. It was so interesting to push open the sliding door, sit on the threshold and look at the garden and the old house which is already 100 years old. The simplicity of the room conditions can be ignored.

It's breakfast, crab soup, grilled fish, etc., and as someone who usually has a cup of coffee for breakfast, it's a real luxury:

It's dinner. Wagyu beef and tora are served:

🤗 Transportation in Hakone

🤗 Eating in Hakone

🤗 Living in Hakone

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