Blogs from Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan, Asia
December 5th 2010
Destination: Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture (Distance from Tokyo: 96km, approximately 60 miles) Map → http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/kanagawa/hakone.html Date: November, 2007 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you waken up early in the morning and injected a lot of fresh clean air of highland into your body? If so, you might know how it feels. It’s so nice huh? (unless you have a hangover). On the second day of our stay in Hakone, we got up around 6:00am and started the day with taking a walk in the hotel’s neighborhood to get that feeling. The whole Hakone area actually consists of several onsen towns from the foot of its mountains near Hakone Yumoto station. And the town we stayed is, called Sengokuhara (http://www.sengokuhara.info) the highest and deepest onsen spot in the area. The higher ... read more
November 8th 2009
Every October 24, on top of Mt Komagatake in Hakone, the Goshinkasai Motomiya Reisai festival takes place. It is an important festival for the Hakone shrine and it consists of lighting a fire of which burning coals will be distributed to all related shrines in the area. This year, the top of Mt Komagatake was covered in clouds which gave a special feel to this matsuri. In the photo to the right, two Shinto priests are using a bow drill to light a fire while two others are trying to keep them out of the strong winds. Once the torch was lit, the Guuji (head priest) of the shrine brought it to the pyre and light it. The ceremony continued with a miko dance and offerings of sasaki branches and prayers. By this time the pyre ... read more
November 3rd 2009
Waking up to a slight snowfall in Nikko, I was happy to move on to Hakone, hoping it would be slightly warmer there. From Nikko we took a taxi, a local train, two bullet trains, a local bus, a pirate ship and finally another local bus to get to our destination of Hakone. We were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji both on the train and on the Pirate ship. It was an almost clear day so most of Mt Fuji was in view. Due to the cold weather she looked stunning with just a nice sprinkle of sweet sugar on her. At our lovely Guesthouse we were greeted by the two friendly owners, who gave us the rules of the house then one sat down to show us how make a bird ... read more
Hopping it in Hakone - Switchbacks, funiculars, cable cars, pirate ships and buses.
Published: August 11th 2009Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Hakone
August 11th 2009
28th of August and there I was sitting on the bullet train sipping my English tea and eating a raisin bun (how I miss these pleasures) waiting for the trains departure bound for Odawara and onwards to Hakone for a full day of adventuring! It turned out to be a rather hectic but serene day all at the same time starting off with a jolted off the bullet train in Odawara because I had it in my mind that I had a 55min journey when in fact it was only 35minutes. Lucky I managed to jump off the train before the doors closed thankfully avoiding a serious backtrack! Once off the train I managed to successfully hack in Odawara for good on 2 hours beginning with an epic foreign exchange mission (Note to self don’t spend ... read more
July 2nd 2009
We went to breakfast a bit earlier today and there was a different crowd. But we ate well and checked out and set out on the next leg of Bec’s journey. It was raining this morning but we didn’t care. We had had two great days experiencing Tokyo without getting wet. We had to negotiate our bags on the subway in peak hour to get to Shinagawa where the shinkansen (bullet train) left from. Happy to say we survived and had a few minutes to spare. We took the Shinkansen to Odawara and then transferred to Hakone Yumoto where we were spending the night. We booked the last row of the carriage we were in as there is storage behind the last row for suitcases. The trip took only ½ hour and was very smooth. Once ... read more
Hakone: Cable Cars, Sulfur Springs and Mt. Fuji
Published: January 25th 2010Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Hakone
March 13th 2009
Hakone is a small, quaint town with lots of character. This is where we stayed in our second Ryokan (our first was in Koyasan) and despite how fancy the hotels were, the traditional was my preferred accomodations. Upon arriving and dropping off our bags, we headed into town for a quick meal before making our way to the ropeway that led up to Owakudani. Owakudani is the area around a crater created during the last eruption of Mt. Hakone some 3000 years ago. Today, much of the area is an active volcanic zone where sulfurous fumes, hot springs and hot rivers can be experienced. Owakudani has good views of Mt. Fuji on clear days. Luckily for us it was a semi-clear day. The clouds blocked our view momentarily, but we were able to see Mt. Fuji ... read more
March 3rd 2009
Day 5/6 The next day after another great breakfast there was time to walk through the town before catching the local train and two shinkansen to at a town where we were to catch the bus to Hakone. Upon arrival our leader advised us that it was snowing up at Hakone for only the third time this winter. This was not the small patches of snow that we had seen in Nikko. The town was covered and we walked carefully to our new ryokan (Fuji Hakone Guest House). We had a warm welcome and once settled made our way into the town for a warm dinner (I chose yams and eggplant). An origami lesson to make Cranes was held back in the ryokan but I took my cold off to bed. The following day we took ... read more
October 9th 2008
The Hakone area which is about an hour by train from Tokyo (depending on which part of the area you're heading for) is one of the places where you may get to see Fuji-san in its grandeur. It all depends weather the clouds are hiding the mountain - and more often than not they are. Chances are before 9 a.m. you're more likely to have some view of the mountain. And if you expect to see Fuji-san with its snow-capped peak you can forget it at this time of the year as it has been summer and the autumn has been warm and there doesn't seem to be any snow as yet. And if you're wondering why I've referred to Mount Fuji as "Fuji-san" (no it's not Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms Fuji), it's because that is the correct way ... read more
September 28th 2008
Went on a day trip to Hakone with the host family. Hakone is famous for its volcanic hot springs and is a big tourist attraction in the summer and fall because of its views of its mountains and hills. On good days, Mt. Fuji is also visible. It was pretty cloudy today and at first it looked like I was going to be shut out again of seeing the big famous mountain (first time was Mt. McKinley), but as we were coming down from one volcanic mountain the sun came out and burned off enough of the clouds to catch a glimpse of Fuji-san. In the fall supposedly its even clearer and you can see the whole mountain. I'd like to climb part of it while I'm here...the family said that July is best for that. ... read more
