Indeed, I coupled these two days as we did the Hakone tour over Sunday and Monday… we had a good reason to do this. You will see that it is really busy, it implies trains, shuttle buses, cable car, rope way, boat and taxis… add typhoon alerts in the middle and spa/hot springs in the equation, you need two days!
Our calculations made us move to the Open Air Museum on the Hakone line as if the weather was turning sour we could somehow compensate on the Monday but we have been lucky as the rain hit us at the end of the route and so could enjoy what you see below.
Quick point: I made a pic in the Picasso pavilion (did not see it is prohibited) and for the first time, I have been asked to prove I deleted the picture!
Being back in Hilton Odawara in the middle of the afternoon, Isabelle could enjoy both the spa and the hot springs!
That ended our day 10 😊
So I guess you understood we now go for the biggest part of Hakone tour! After our train journey to Gora, 10 minutes in a funicular to get us at the start of the Ropeway (cable car) to reach the top of the Hakone volcano and see the mine work and the sulfur visible at the surface. You can also eat black hard boil eggs which reminded us similar activity in Taiwan 🇹🇼 with Skylar and her parents. On our way down to the lake, we could see Mount Fuji 🗻!!!
Once we reached the lake, we boarded a boat to cross the lake and took a bus to the Skywalk where, guess what, we saw Mount Fuji again 🙄.
After this exciting Skywalk we moved to Hotel Hakone for a tasteless lunch (barely recollection of what we ate!) but a nice view of the lake!
Then we had a nice walk to the Hakone observatory where we could again see 🗻 and then follow the Cedars’ walk that the shoguns used to follow centuries ago.
From there, train and taxi to get back to the hotel to end day 11, mission accomplished as it was the whole purpose of our stay in Odawara, spa and Hakone!
Quick tip: buy the 2 days pass to do the tour as it gives all flexibility for public transport including cable car, trains, boat, Ropeway and buses with no limits for two days. Also connections are easy and frequent 😊
Categories: Food&Fun
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