A Weekend in Hakone and Odawara
I’ve noticed that during the fall of the school year, whether it’d be in Japan or the States, there are a lot of three or four day weekends. For this past three day weekend, I had planned a trip to Hakone. I had gone as a kid before with my mom on a group tour but didn’t remember much of it besides eating the black eggs, that are supposed to prolong your life by 7 years.
Hakone is known as an onsen town. It is highly recommended to stay at a ryokan or a Japanese inn. It has the same feeling as a bed and breakfast. It’s a great experience if you can afford it, but if it’s out of your budget range, some ryokans offer rates for just for the onsen visit. Most ryokans are located in the mountains, which make the views amazing depending on the season. During the fall, you get a view of beautiful fall foliage; and in the spring, it’s cherry blossom season. Here is one I stayed at two Aprils ago in Okayama. Our room had a private onsen on the balcony, overlooking the mountain. I’d imagine the fall scene would be really beautiful at this ryokan. When you stay at an onsen, there is a kaiseki dinner included.
Getting to Tokyo Station
On this trip, I was joined by one of my study abroad friends, Sean. He’d never been to Hakone before so he didn’t know what to expect. We managed to meet up at Tokyo station as he was coming from Ibaraki prefecture.
First step after getting off a plane in Tokyo is to get to Odawara station. There are quite a few options on how to get to Tokyo station from Narita Airport. I usually take the ¥1000 shuttle but seeing as I arrived around 4:15 pm, I didn’t want to take my chances with rush hour traffic. I decided to take the Keisei Skyliner for the first time, since Vanilla Air was selling a voucher at a discounted price. The Keisei Skyliner stops at Nippori Station or Ueno Station. You could also take the Narita Express which also stops in Chiba before stopping at Tokyo Station. The Narita Express, however, costs the most out of the three ways to get to Tokyo Station.
**NOTE: Something they don’t tell you about riding the Keisei Skyliner, is that you need two tickets, or you need to tap your IC card after passing through the Keisei Skyliner gates to transfer to the JR or Metro Lines. The one ticket has your destination and seat number written on it, and the other is the fare ticket (?). I don’t really know. I didn’t run into much trouble with this traveling to Tokyo Station since I copied the people in front of me, but I forgot I had to do this when I was going back to the airport, and because I forgot, I was met with a really irritated office train man as I tried to explain to him in English and broken Japanese, that I didn’t tap my IC card. I told him I could pay for it by taking out my wallet so he knew what I was talking about. Taking the Skyliner back to the airport, the ladies there informed me that I needed two tickets for the Skyliner. No where did it say on the ticket machine that I needed two. Tokyo is usually so on point with signage so what happened?
Getting to Odawara
From Tokyo station, we bought tickets for the Shinkansen (bullet train) to head to Odawara Station. Getting off the Shinkansen through the ticket gates is pretty straightforward so nothing to worry about here.
I had booked an Airbnb in Odawara because it was cheaper than Hakone itself and it was located not too far from Odawara station. I’ll link it here; the host is rated a super host and his place had a lot of good comments on it. Getting to the Airbnb from the station was also quite easy. It is walkable but because I had a large duffel bag with me, we opted to take the bus. We didn’t know which bus stop to be at but after asking another bus driver, he pointed us in the right direction. The other nights coming back from Odawara station, we walked the route to and from.
Around the station, there are a lot of restaurants and izakayas so there is no shortage of food. However, unlike a big city, most of these establishments close at between 10 pm and midnight.
Hakone Day 1
Around the corner from our Airbnb, we discovered a cute café that served soufflé pancakes. This was actually our first mistake in the day when it comes to scheduling. The food was great but because it didn’t open until 10 am, we got a later start to our sightseeing adventure than we would’ve liked. The café had more sweet pancake dishes than it did savory. I had trouble deciding between the Royal Milk Tea pancakes or the savory breakfast pancake dish. Since I’m a sucker for the savory breakfasts, I went with the latter option. This meal also came with fluffy pancakes, but the texture was different because they make it out of whole grain. Still delicious and filled me up to the point where, we didn’t eat again till the night. Sean ordered the Sweet Potato pancakes and gave me a bite of his pancake, which was light and fluffy, just as the photos advertised.
Getting to Hakone was pretty easy to be honest. I had done research about transportation around and discovered that there is a travel pass called the Hakone Free Pass. You can purchase it Shinjuku or Odawara Station, and the best part is that it’s available to locals as well. There are certain rail passes that are only available to tourists and not residents or long term visa holders. I highly recommended getting the free pass because it is so convenient. You just flash the pass to the ticket office and they let you right through. Certain tourist attractions and omiyage shops will also give you a discount on certain items. I had only gotten a 1-Day Pass because I thought we’d get through to everywhere by the day is done, but in retrospect, I should’ve gotten the 2-Day Pass. One of the goals for going to Hakone, was to see fall foliage but you can’t really do that if the sun goes down at like 4 pm, and some of the modes of transportation close at 5 pm.
Our stops on Day 1 were the Hakone Open Air Museum, Gora Park, Owadukani, and Hakone Yuryo. If I were to do this day over, I’d probably skip the Open Air Museum. Don’t get me wrong, the museum had a beautiful aesthetic but since we got a later start than we had planned, I’d skip the museum to spend more time in the other locations. Especially since the main way to get to the Owadukani was via the Hakone Ropeway, and it closed at 5 pm. We got with less than an hour to spare to Owadukani, just enough time to get the black eggs and buy omiyage. Sean wanted to eat the black ramen but we had no time to look for it. More about that later.
The Open Air Museum is exactly what you it sounds like; it’s essentially a park littered with sculptures. One of the exhibits that is there year round is the Picasso Exhibit. There are two large sized sculptures that catered to kids so you could hear screaming children in some parts of the museum. Art museums don’t really do it for me anymore though, I’d much prefer visiting a castle or history museum.
We went to Gora Park after the museum since the map that we got from the ticket office, said that fall foliage could be seen at this park. It must’ve been really beautiful in the beginning of fall, but because we went near the end of November, most of the leaves lost most of their vibrant shades. We did see a few roses around the park. Very fitting since the café in the park, sold rose soft cream. I’m skeptical of flower flavored things tasting good because in my experience, they usually taste like soap. However, like the wisteria flavored soft serve, I was pleasantly surprised by the rose soft cream. There was a slight hint of soapy flavor which quickly dissipated to a soft berry flavor.
After walking through the park, we continued our journey to Owakudani, otherwise known as “The Valley of Hell” or “The Great Boiling Valley.” The only way to get there according to the map, was via Hakone Ropeway, which are essentially cable gondolas. As said before, we didn’t really get to spend much time here because they closed at 5 pm and we got there right around 4 pm. That gave us about 30 minutes to get the black eggs and buy omiyage, before having to get back in line to take the gondolas back. On the way there, we were too busy awing at the steam coming out of the mountain, to notice Mt. Fuji in the corner. We noticed him peaking his head out of the clouds on the way back down the mountain. Since Mt. Hakone is still considered an active volcano, you can bet you’ll be smelling sulfuric fumes all around.
These black eggs I keep talking about are basically chicken eggs. Its their cooking process that turns the shell black but the inside of the egg is still the same. The eggs are placed in 80 degrees Celsius for 60 minutes in natural spring water. Then steamed at 100 degrees for 15 minutes in steel baskets. The yolks were more cooked than what I like, but overall, a good tasting egg.
**NOTE: There are probably other ways to get off the mountain like cabs or bus, but our map did not advertise such options.
By the end of the day, the both of us were frozen to the core. I could not really feel my legs anymore and my shoulders were tense from trying to keep the heat in my body. We stopped at Hakone Yuryo, an onsen that is open to the public. If you have the Hakone Free Pass, I believe there is a 300 yen discount of the original price. You will have to buy one of their bath or face towels since they do not offer towel rentals, unless you book a private onsen. There is a shuttle that takes you from Hakone Yumoto Station to the onsen. It’s about a 3 minute drive. You could definitely walk there but it’s all up a VERY STEEP hill. Going to the onsen was just what we needed from a long day of traveling.
Hakone Day 2
On Day 2, we got the day started a little earlier, had breakfast at the station, and took a bus all the way down to Hakone Shrine. I’m glad we got on the bus at the very start of the route and got a seat, because the ride there was just over an hour with slight traffic. Another way to get to the shrine, was across Lake Ashi by boat via the Pirate Ship tour. Since that also closes at 5 pm, we were unable to go there the previous day.
Sean was on a time crunch to get back to Ibaraki Prefecture so we didn’t explore the whole shrine (mostly because I did not feel like walking up a million stairs). We opted to just wait in a very long line to take photos under one of the Torii gates that sits on the water near the shrine. We probably waited about 30-45 minutes to get to the front to take photos as there were a lot of friends and couples in line. We saw a lot of people opt out of waiting in line and just took pictures of it from the side. Because these gates were by the lake, it was very windy and also very cold. I wore two heat techs this day and also a light puffy down jacket. I had a hand warmer in one pocket, wishing I had another for my other pocket. I love the cold but also hate being cold in the cold 😅.
Following the shrine, we decided to eat at a noodle shop on the way back to bus stop. Okinawa soba’s buckwheat counterpart, is probably the most popular regional food you can find in Hakone, next to kamaboko (fish cake). Sean ordered a teishoku set with soba and fried wakasagi (pond smelt), whereas I ordered udon with vegetables and an ala carte order with fried wakasagi. Our server must’ve misheard me because my order came with soba noodles instead of udon noodles. I’m not someone who likes to cause a fuss so I ate it anyway.
We had to get back to Odawara Station so Sean could retrieve his duffel bag, so we decided to go back the way we came via bus. This was the second mistake we did this trip, putting our faith in the bus system. Mainland buses are way more convenient and reliable compared to Okinawa, but sometimes the bus schedules can be unclear. We stood at the bus stop, watching three buses pass because they were heading to Hakone Yumoto Station and not Odawara Station. We decided to get on a bus going to Hakone Yumoto, however, if we had waited five more minutes, we could’ve gotten on the bus going to Odawara Station. At some point of the journey, we had gotten stuck in a major traffic jam. The bus driver slowed down at around Ohiradai Station and informed everyone that there is traffic up ahead. If we were in a rush, she should probably get off at the station.
Third mistake, we should’ve gotten off the bus. The traffic was basically bumper to bumper but we were about two stations away from Hakone Yumoto so we got off at the stop that was right before, HY Station. There was a pathway of uphill stairs leading back up to Tonosawa Station that we would not have found if I wasn’t looking out the window before we got off. Despite this, we saw the most fall colors here while we were going to Tonosawa Station.
Sean and I parted ways at the Hakone Yumoto Station since I wanted to explore the shopping street we missed the previous day. I bought more omiyage here, ate some fried kamaboko, and headed for Hakone Yuryo once more. This time was full price because I did not have the Hakone Free Pass.
Back in Odawara, because I had ate the fried kamaboko, I wasn’t super hungry. I spent a good 20 minutes, walking back and forth, trying to figure out what I wanted to eat. I’m glad I did because I found a Japanese restaurant that serves kamameshi. This is a Japanese style rice pilaf, often made with a mix of meats or seafood. All the ingredients including the rice, are cooked and served in an iron pot. The rice is often burnt at the bottom but it adds a nice flavor to the rest of the dish. They had so many options that I could not decide but eventually ordered the asari ikura kamameshi (clam and salmon roe rice). When the dish was served, it came with some chicken stock which could be reordered for free. I wasn’t able to get a refill of it though, because I had made it to the restaurant right before closing.
Overall…
The goal of going to Hakone was to see fall foliage, so even though some of the colors had faded, mission accomplished! The other mission was to go to the onsen at least twice, which I also did. I didn’t eat as much on this trip as I did on other trips so this was primarily a sightseeing trip. The only snafu’s we experienced was a lot of waiting time between trains and very packed trains as well, since it was a long weekend in Japan.