Scaredy Cat Travels

Hakone 

Transportation: Oh my – train(s) from Tokyo Disney area to Shinjuku Station then the Romancecar Train to the Hakone area. Once in Hakone, it’s a cornucopia of transportation methods. 

Hotel: Hakone Hotel 

Plans: This is where it gets complicated. There are oh so many things that can go wrong. This is also where we switch from the anime, kawaii focus of Tokyo and Disney to the natural beauty that permeates the rest of Japan and makes our family a little nervous.

The first thing on the to do list is figuring out how to transfer our suitcases to our Kyoto hotel so we don’t have to maneuver the next couple of days with them. This is common practice in Japan, and I am hoping the Disney employees can help me figure it out before I ship my bags to Taiwan by accident. The second thing is figuring out how to fit 2-3 days of necessities into our backpacks only. We are not good at packing light, and I am not sure where I’ll store the 50 Eggslut t-shirts I need to bring back.

Once luggage is sorted we’ll make our way to Shinjuku Station to catch the Romancecar. There are other easier ways to get to Hakone from the Disney area, but I think the extra hassle will be worth taking Romancecar. Not sure where that name came from but the trains have large windows and a classic vibe so maybe that’s romantic.

Fun Fact – Shinjuku Station is the busiest transportation hub in the world with almost 4 million people using it daily, making it an excellent place to lose your children. Which I may be interested in doing by this point in the trip.

The Hakone area is technically inside the ancient caldera walls of a long dormant volcano but is also still an active volcano itself. I will admit I don’t understand what that really means. The area is best known for three things – views of Mount Fuji, its steaming volcanic valley and the hot springs which the Japanese tap into for their onsen baths.

Fun Fact – you cannot use a public onsen bath if you have a tattoo.

Most tourists visiting Hakone do the “loop” which is a circuit of different scenic transportation methods circling the area.

Our hotel is right on the shores of Lake Ashi, a beautiful crater lake formed thousands of years ago after a massive landslide. This area should be a good setting off point. The first leg in our circuit will be a pirate ship that takes us across the lake while offering views of Mount Fuji if we’re lucky as well as views of the beautiful Torii gate at the edge of the water. From there, we’ll take a ropeway up the mountain and over the steaming sulfuric vents of Owakudani. Owakudani translates to “great boiling valley”. Here we can get out and walk around if weather and the volcano permit. Eggs boiled in the sulfur-infused water of the area turn black and are a local delicacy said to add seven years to your life.

Fun Fact – Owakundani used to be named “Hell Valley” but locals changed the name to “Great Boiling Valley”, which is soooo much better, when Emperor Meiji visited in 1873. They felt it was inappropriate to invite the emperor to someplace with Hell in the name.

If we survive the volcano, we’ll take a switchback train back down the mountain. We may have missed cherry blossom season in Tokyo but we will be in Hakone during hydrangea season. The beautiful flowers line the tracks and bloom all summer.

My hope is we’ll still have some time later that day to visit the Torii gate, the Hakone Shrine and walk the Old Tokaido Stone Graveled Road which travels through the forest near the shrine and is a portion of an ancient walking path that connected Kyoto and Edo.

Fun Fact – Edo is the original name of Tokyo. It was changed in 1868.

Scaredy Cat rating: On a scale of 1-5…one million paws. Oh, how I hate a mountain road. The mere mention of switchback sends a shiver down my spine so there are lots of pieces of me that want to change this day to something else entirely. I am especially sensitive after becoming overconfident in Utah two summers ago and ending up on a terrifying mountain road that almost led the kids and I to moving to Deer Valley, Utah simply because I could not go down the road I had just come up. Fortunately there were other slightly more acceptable routes and we were able to return to the fine state of Texas eventually.  

The ropeway also scares me but at the same time, I like them. If there is a little wind or they stop and sway for a bit you can add another million paws or so. 

Last month I made the mistake of watching that Netflix documentary about the tourists and the volcano in New Zealand. Pro tip – do not watch it if you ever plan to visit Hakone.

These fears almost completely overshadow the logistical concerns again of getting to Hakone from Tokyo. Almost. It looks pretty straight-forward, but we will be on a tight schedule since we only have one night here.

The $$$ – I splurged on a set of Apple AirTags just in case I actually ship my luggage somewhere strange. I used a gift certificate I had stashed. Otherwise the set of four would have cost me $90. Shipping services run about $10-20 USD per bag. At the moment, I am planning to purchase the Hakone Fuji Pass which bundles one way transportation from Tokyo with unlimited transportation around Hakone and Lake Kawaguchi by Fuji as well as free and discounted entry into some attractions. The three-day pass is about $72 USD per person. Hotel cost is listed below.

Costs could go up significantly if I chicken out and back out of the bus that travels between Fuji and Hakone. If that happens we’ll have to take a train back to Tokyo and then down to Fuji.

Hotel #4 – Hakone Hotel Extended

As mentioned in the ‘The “Itinerary”’ the first hotel change for this part of the stay occurred when I realized that traveling between the Mount Fuji area and Hakone was not convenient and most importantly, not not scary. The first itinerary had us going to Mount Fuji first then on to Hakone but when I researched options, it was significantly more efficient to go to Hakone first and then to Fuji for reasons I cannot recall at the moment. Something about bullet trains and schedules and transfers and going to Kyoto next. So initially the hotel booked here was not even in Hakone.  

Once I made that schedule change, I briefly booked a room at the Hotel Indigo in the town of Gora which would be convenient to many tourist attractions. The hotel was lovely, not expensive, had balconies overlooking a stream and even had a private hot spring bath on the balcony. The Hakone area is known for their onsens (Japanese hot spring baths), but I knew our family is unlikely to visit a public onsen so having our own would be a good middle ground and check one of my keeping Rowan happy boxes. But after watching a million more YouTube videos, I decided it would be better to stay in lodging on Lake Ashi so I canceled and rebooked at… 

Hotel de Yama – a lovely but dated hotel right on the shores of Lake Ashi. This hotel is the former residence of someone important with money who loved beautiful gardens so the land around the hotel features a large flower garden leading right up to the lake. The only negative was the location – a little hard to get to and not a direct view of Mount Fuji so I canceled here and rebooked at… 

Hakone Villa Bizan, a small inn overlooking Lake Ashi with beautiful views of the famous Ashi Torii gate and easy access to the pier where the sightseeing boats load. While Rowan felt the rooms looked “rough”; Jackson liked the cabin-like qualities. I felt it was somewhere in between their opinions. After cramming into the Disney room together for several days, having a large suite with a lake-view balcony, kitchen and four beds as well as a second regular room, all with free breakfast, would have been wonderful. I cannot remember the tub situation though. 

But alas a little over a week after booking that hotel I received an email from the inn saying they had decided to close permanently on May 31^st – one day before our arrival – so it was back to the drawing board. Fortunately, during my numerous hotel searches in the area, I had developed a good idea of what my options were and where I wanted to stay. It only took me a few minutes to rebook once again just down the street from Villa Bizan in the Hakone Hotel. The Hakone Hotel reviews mention that it is also a bit dated but it has lovely views of the lake, the same easy access to the buses and boats and is close to a few restaurants and bakeries. As a bonus, the prices here had gone down since my original search so I was able to book one Junior Suite with Lake Views and one regular Lake View room with breakfast included and a large tub. 

Total hotel & breakfast cost for the two rooms = $404