JAPN Hakone Hot Springs Guide: Ryokan, Views and Day Trip Planning
Hakone Hot Springs Guide: Ryokan, Views and Day Trip Planning
Getting to Hakone and the Loop Route
The Hakone Free Pass from Odakyu covers the round trip from Shinjuku plus unlimited use of the Hakone Tozan train, cable car, ropeway, pirate ship, and buses for two or three days at 6,100 or 6,500 yen. The classic loop route runs clockwise: Hakone-Yumoto up the switchback mountain railway to Gora, cable car to Sounzan, ropeway over Owakudani volcanic valley to Togendai, pirate ship across Lake Ashi to Moto-Hakone, then bus back to Yumoto. The full loop takes roughly five to six hours with stops.
Hakone-Yumoto station sits at the bottom of the mountain and serves as the gateway town, lined with souvenir shops selling Hakone yosegi-zaiku wooden marquetry boxes and manju steamed buns. The Hakone Tozan Railway climbs 527 meters of elevation through three switchbacks where the train reverses direction on the mountainside, passing hydrangea bushes that bloom in spectacular color from mid-June through mid-July. Each switchback requires the driver and conductor to swap ends of the train.
Owakudani Volcanic Valley
Owakudani is an active volcanic zone where sulfurous steam billows from vents across a barren, yellow-stained hillside formed during Mount Hakone’s last major eruption 3,000 years ago. The ropeway carries passengers directly over the steaming landscape for views that, on clear days, include Mount Fuji’s symmetrical cone to the northwest. At the top station, vendors sell kuro-tamago black eggs boiled in the sulfuric hot spring pools until the shells turn jet black, sold five for 500 yen. Local legend claims eating one adds seven years to your life.
The walking trail from the ropeway station to the egg-boiling pools takes 15 minutes through a landscape that smells strongly of hydrogen sulfide. Volcanic activity levels are monitored constantly, and the trail closes during elevated alert periods, most recently for an extended closure from 2015 to 2019 after increased seismic activity. Even when the trail is closed, the ropeway itself usually operates, and eggs are available at the station. The views across the valley on a clear winter morning, with Fuji towering beyond the steam, rank among the most dramatic panoramas accessible by public transport anywhere near Tokyo.
Ryokan and Onsen Experiences
Hakone contains roughly 20 distinct hot spring areas each with different mineral compositions, from the sodium chloride springs of Yumoto to the sulfur springs near Owakudani and the alkaline springs of Sengokuhara. Ryokan ranging from luxury establishments charging 50,000 yen per person to modest family-run inns at 12,000 yen line the mountainsides. Most include dinner and breakfast in the rate, typically featuring kaiseki multi-course meals with local specialties like Hakone tofu and fresh wasabi grown in mountain streams.
Day-use onsen options for visitors not staying overnight include Hakone Yuryo, a modern facility near Yumoto station with indoor and outdoor baths, saunas, and relaxation rooms for 1,500 yen. Tenzan Tohjiso operates open-air baths built into a hillside alongside a mountain stream, charging 1,300 yen for an experience that feels far more natural than resort facilities. Tattoo-friendly onsen remain uncommon in Hakone, but private rental baths called kashikiri-buro at many ryokan allow tattooed guests to bathe privately for 2,000 to 4,000 yen per 45 minutes.
Lake Ashi and Surroundings
Lake Ashi fills a caldera formed by volcanic activity roughly 3,000 years ago, and the pirate ship replicas operated by Odakyu cross it in 30 minutes between Togendai, Hakone-machi, and Moto-Hakone. On still mornings, Mount Fuji reflects perfectly in the lake surface, and the vermilion torii gate of Hakone Shrine standing at the water’s edge creates one of the Hakone region’s signature photographs. The shrine itself sits in a cedar forest up a steep stone staircase from the lakeside.
The Hakone Checkpoint, reconstructed in 2007, replicates the Edo-period barrier gate where Tokugawa authorities inspected travelers on the Tokaido highway between Kyoto and Edo. The adjacent museum explains the checkpoint’s role in controlling the movement of weapons into Edo and preventing daimyo lords’ wives from fleeing their hostage residences in the capital. The Cedar Avenue of the Old Tokaido, a 500-meter stretch of massive cryptomeria trees planted in 1618, preserves the atmosphere of the original highway and connects the checkpoint to Moto-Hakone.
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