Fufu - Hakone｜A mountain inn with a view of Hakone's peaks and a healing winter onsen trip

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Fufu Hakone opens in the winter of 2022. The hotel is located in the Johoro area of Hakone and has a total of 39 rooms, all of which are suites, and all of which are also equipped with private baths, so you can enjoy the onsen privately without leaving your home.

You'll be greeted by someone as soon as the car pulls up to the main entrance, and then you'll be greeted directly by an understated, luxurious door. If you are coming by train, you can ask the hotel to pick you up at Gora Station.

The entire hotel is designed in simple black and gray tones, with all the guest rooms and public areas spread across three black-look buildings, each connected by a long corridor bridge, so it doesn't matter even if it's raining.

While being led to your room, you are introduced to the public areas of the hotel and the various amenities along the way. The hotel has a lot of rocky elements and corners are decorated with local stones, from small walls and drawer handles to the huge rock at the main entrance. The main reason for this is that the hotel is located in Hakone Gora, which is named after the rocky area with hard foundations like tortoise shells, and also means “stone hell” in Sanskrit.

Behind the lobby is a lounge - “Empty Woods” , which is open every evening until late at night. The photographs on the wall also feature rocks and the earth.

Fukufu Hakone is also symbolized by the Hakone mountain range and rocky shadows on a tortoiseshell background. In addition, with the spatial concept of a resort between the aroma of the forest, rocks and the Hakone mountain system, the view of the Hakone mountain range is skillfully extended to each space of the hotel, and enough landscape surface is preserved in the corridors, rooms and public spas, while there is a slight romance of greenery.

There are eight types of rooms in the hotel, and I booked a regular suite in the “Sugiyama Sugi” building. The name of each building here is very nice.

FUFU's guest rooms are generally designed in a Western style, and the rooms look out onto the Hakone mountain range. The room is about 50 square meters, with the entrance hall and bathroom, and the living room and bedroom.

The bedroom has a large walk-in closet against the inside, hanging bathrobes and jackets that you can wear at the hotel, and the overall design is cozy and homey.

The mini bar is free of charge except for the “necklace” sake, and Hakone's specialty yumomi-mochi is served as a welcome snack.

Another thoughtful design is that there is a hidden compartment with a button in the foyer, a two-way transfer box with the outside, room service can be through the hidden compartment. On the coffee table is the dinner menu and the main dishes that you need to choose, check the box and put it into the hidden compartment, press the button, and it will be taken away by the staff. The design is very suitable for i people.

On the window side is a washbasin and a private hot spring. The source of the private bath is drawn from Keangro Onsen, a clear and colorless alkaline sodium chloride hot spring, which is good for moisturizing the skin.

The 24-hour heated private soup experience is really top notch, and when you're slightly sweaty, you can climb onto a poolside mat to lay back and let loose. Another dip before bedtime and you can fall right back to sleep on the soft bed.

The toiletries in the room are all from FUFU's original YOKOU series, which is called “Yuuka”. The scent is a blend of three typical Japanese trees: pine, hinoki, and cedar, and I love it. All of the incense used at FUFU is my favorite woodsy scent, reminiscent of a forest after a summer rain.

The hot springs at the hotel's grand bath are also worth experiencing; FUFU offers two different sources of hot spring water, and the source of the grand bath is from the Owakudani hot spring, which is a milky-white, acidic, sulfate spring. And the outside of the big bath is really beautiful! The height is higher, so you can enjoy a whole forest space with floor-to-ceiling windows, and soak in the bath while enjoying the breeze.

May be each room has a private soup plus the number of rooms is small, the public soup during the day almost no one, two times to go is a person package. After the bubble after the rest area of the coffee milk, beer, Po Mineral Power are unlimited drinks.

In terms of food, FUFU should be considered a hot spring hotel of choice for foodies. Unlike traditional Japanese hotels, where meals are very Japanese, the food experience at FUFU is more eclectic. You can eat at the “Yamanokoro” restaurant, which is a regular restaurant, and the “Ishidaki” restaurant, which is a teppanyaki restaurant, where you have to choose a different set menu when you make a reservation.

For kaiseki, you can choose 3 main dishes in addition to the appetizer, soup and dessert, and there are more than 10 kinds of dishes to choose from, which are usually chosen in your room in the afternoon when you check in. There are more than 10 kinds of dishes to choose from, usually in the room when you check in in the afternoon. If each person chooses 3 dishes, you can have 6 different dishes for 2 people! If you really do not know how to choose, you can also choose the chef's recommendation.

Anyway, I personally feel that the meal looks better and tastes better than many hot spring hotels, and FUFU is the one that will grab the guests' stomachs!

Breakfast is also a more elaborate one-dish meal with kettle rice. The seats are by the window, so if you're there during the cherry blossom or maple leaf season, the view from the window will be beautiful.

Anyway, I think what FUFU is trying to create is probably a “modern Japanese” onsen ryokan, where the overall style of the hotel is more westernized from the decoration, the onsen, the food and beverage to the service. The overall style of the hotel is more westernized from the decoration, hot spring, food and beverage to the service. It has the hot spring experience of a Japanese inn and the comfort of a modern hotel, so if you're tired of the traditional Japanese and Japanese style inns, you may want to come and experience the eclectic feeling of the Wagamama.

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The richness of Hakone is that every time you go, you don't just stay at a hotel and soak in a hot spring, but you also have a lot of places for sightseeing and walking in your spare time. For example, there are many places such as Senshihara's mango grass, cherry blossoms, hydrangeas, and mountain trams in Hayakawadate, the red leaves of Kora, and the ferryboats of Lake Ashinoko, as well as countless museums of various sizes scattered among the mountains.

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