using our Hakone pass to get to Hakone and around the sights
using our Hakone pass to get to Hakone and around the sights
Today started stressfully as we had trouble leaving bags at hotel because we were not staying here again when we come back. I asked about luggage storage at Shinjuku station and the front desk offered to do an exception where we paid 1000 yen a day per bag plus she only charged us for 4 days instead of 4.5 days so only $55 for us to store our 2 bags. Perfect! We rushed over to the station and caught the first of our 3 trains to Hakone with 2 transfers. The fare was included in our Hakone Pass, which includes round trip Tokyo to Hakone on non-bullet trains plus local transportation in the Hakone area and the tourist loop of the cable car (furnicular), ropeway (gondola), and pirate ship (pirate ship). Best of all, we could buy our Hakone Pass online and use the individually generated QR code on their website to scan into train stations and entry points.
cherry blossom trees are everywhere as we
look out the train window
Cherry blossoms are everywhere! Every time we looked out the window we’d see little groves of them. Our transfers went smoothly (we really are figuring out the system here!) and 3 hours later we are in Gora Station. The last train from Hakone-Yumoto to Gora is especially interesting as it takes the mountain in steps, using switchbacks. It drives up to the left side, then the conductor gets out and shifts the track from the lower line to the upper, then he proceeds in the opposite direction going along the upper track. Japanese are so efficient! As the automated conductor voice told us, the mountain is too steep for the train to climb directly so we will do 3 switchbacks to get up the mountain. 8 degrees of grade make this the steepest train track in Japan and the second steepest in the world. There is also a place where we make a turn of only 30m radius so it’s a very narrow train and they keep a water tank under the engine train which sprinkles water on the tracks during the curve to keep the wheels from wearing out.
Goya station is also where the furnicular starts
At Gora Station we use the bathroom, which like many public restrooms has the sound of a stream and birds chirping so you don’t hear everyone else doing their business! Then we find a locker to store our luggage so we can do the tourist loop. The furnicular is pretty standard, but the view from the top is pleasant if uninspiring. From there we board the ropeway, which starts out pretty boring until we crest a hill. I was facing the wrong way but there was a collective “oh” from everyone and I turned to see several steam vents in the ground below. They were billowing impressive amounts of sulfur steam. However that was not what everyone had gasped about. Turning the other way we got our first sight of Mt. Fuji with a ring of clouds. So cool!
crowd exiting on right before new folks enter on left
looking back down the furnicular
view from the top of the furnicular
ropeway gondola
on the ropeway gondola
First sighting of Mt Fuji from the gondola
steam vents in the mountain pass
Mt. Fuji in all it's glory
our pirate ship arrives
From the next peak we boarded another ropeway that took us down to the lake where we got on a pirate ship to cross the lake. There’s a cute town there as well but we were hoping to get back to Gora station in time to see the Hakone Open Air Museum. We walk to the bus stop and wait for the bus. It takes quite awhile and is not according to schedule. Eventually one of the waiting buses pulls out to start his route. He’s a bit grumpy and makes the first couple stepping on the bus get off. We all return to the curb and wait. After a bit he seems to give up (I think I heard the word “line” and suspect he wanted us to form a neat line) and lets us on the bus. We pick up several more people in the next few stops until it was standing room only. Then he became known to us as “the crazy bus driver.”
crowd hanging on during
a turn by our crazy bus driver
He whizzed around sharp curves as fast as he could, throwing people back and forth. It was comedic and alarming at the same time. Clearly the guy was having a bad day and was enjoying throwing tourists around! We got off at our stop and hurried down the hill because they close entry to the museum at 4:30. Unfortunately we got there at 4:32. The lady at the gate was putting out the closed sign and would have let us in with the knowledge that they close at 5, but we did not have tickets and the ticket office was closed and shuttered. Instead we contented ourselves by looking at pictures of the open air museum on Google.
waiting for our hotel pickup outside Gora Station
Once we got back to Gora Station, the hotel picked us up and took us up the steep hill to Gora Hanaougi, this fancy ryoken where you have your own hot spring fed onsen in your room plus kaiseki dinner and breakfast. This is a fixed multi course meal served in a private room. At $600/night it was pricey, but worth it for this once in a lifetime experience. The room was beautiful! The toilet was in a separate area and when you walked up the lights turned on and the bidet seat automatically opened. The onsen was in an enclosed balcony area and the water ran continuously from a little waterfall faucet and drained from a ledge near the top like a swimming pool does. We dressed in our yukata and went to dinner.
our hostess greets us with tea
a variety of bidet options
Our amazing room at Gora Hanaougi
I love the bathroom here! The lights turn on as you approach, and the lid of the bidet opens automatically as well:
Julia dressed in the robe for dinner
Dinner was fabulous. They had us meet on the 2nd floor then ushered us into our own private dining area. Our server brought out each course and showed us what to mix or which sauce went with which dish. It was quite the experience! We got fresh hot face towels 3 different times and they gave us three different sets of chopsticks to use. There were 9 dishes, several of which had multiple items. My favorites were the julienned ginger (which surprises me because I am not a big fan of ginger but it was that good!), the boiled octopus which I’m a little sad about since they are such intelligent creatures, the sea bream roe, fatsia sprouts with pickled plum, and of course the main course of omi beef. It was outstanding, Shabu shabu (hot pot) where they light some paraffin them bring a bowl of broth already heated and you cook your meat in it then you can drink the broth.
dinner appetizer
dinner
other dinner dishes
dinner soup and rice
dinner main course
dinner menu with my favorites highlighted
seated for dinner
private onsen fed by the local hot springs in Hakone
After that we tried out our private onsen. It was HOT. I think close to 120F. I eased in very very slowly. Julia came in awhile later and after testing the water proposed adding some cold water from the faucet. A couple minutes later it was still hot but manageable though I think as time went on the water became hotter. The cold night air was a nice cooling contrast. The onsen was in an enclosed area of the balcony and there was a small area unenclosed where I later stood to cool off. You do need to shower afterwards to wash off the minerals from the hot springs, but soaking in them hopefully will help restore my poor feet which are sore and tired from days of walking and standing. The breakfast the next day was a similar affair though smaller. I’m not a huge fan of fish for breakfast but everything else (and there was a lot!) was really good.
breakfast menu
breakfast
Julia figured out which way the bus is going
We then embarked on a long trip to Kyoto which involved backtracking a bit towards Tokyo and 2 local trains, a bus, twp bullet trains, and a subway train. The bus was the hard part as Navitime sent us to the wrong side of the street for the bus stop and it took us several minutes to figure out though our bus didn’t come during that time so it didn’t impact our time. 4.5 hours later we were EXTREMELY happy to walk out of the subway station and find Hyatt Place Kyoto literally 15 yards away.
the bus arrives at last
empty train in the reserved section
me getting startled by the passing bullet train
Bullet trains are so fast! I got a video of one that did not stop at our station and blew past us:
Finally arriving at Hyatt place Kyoto
This featured blog entry was written by nutmeg2000 from the blog My Semester off for travel 2025.
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