7 October 2026
Awake early. Today we leave Tokyo to go towards Kyoto, but with a two-night stop near Lake Ashi.
Check out from the hotel is until 10. First breakfast at the café downstairs. We packed most yesterday, there’s just a last check if everything’s gone. At the reception I have to pay 200 yen (1.10 €) tourist tax. Then we try to send our luggage to Kyoto. But since it’s not a hotel we’re sending to, we have to go to the local office of Yamato Transport. Luckily, it’s just around the corner.
A little bit of a language barrier which we solve with Google Translate, and after she understood what we wanted it went very fast. Our luggage will arrive in Kyoto (close to our hotel) on 7.10. in the afternoon. That way, the big and heavy luggage isn’t with us the whole way. And all for the price of 2,600 yen (15 €) per piece.
And then one last time, our train all the way to Shinjuku Station. Our Hakone Free Pass for three days is valid from there. This is a ride of about 25 minutes.
Shinjuku Station is big, but we find our train platform fast. The Odakyu Line down to Odawara. We also pay a little extra for the limited express Romancecar (about 1,000 yen / 5.50 €). Very nice train with comfy seats. The weather is a little cloudy today with some slight rain.
1 hour 20 minutes for the ride. In Odawara, we get the station stamp and then look for lunch. There are some restaurants in the station and we choose the pork cutlet curry with rice. Great taste for just 5 €.
We have a few more legs to go. Next is the local train to Hakone-Yumoto Station and then a smaller train with some very interesting climbing and turns all the way to Gora (links are coming for the interested).
This is a tourist route and at Gora there’s a queue for the ropeway up to Hakone Ropeway Sounzan Station. We use some time to take a look at Gora Park, which has free entry for us with the Hakone Free Pass. A not-so-small incline to get there. The park itself has seen better times. Instead of being the well-organized botanical garden they had in mind at some point, it lacks maintenance, and sometimes it feels like they just store flowers they didn’t need at home somewhere. There’s a fountain at the top and a small café where we buy soft-serve ice cream.
Instead of going down again, we take the ropeway two stops down. Then there’s enough room to get our backpacks and hand luggage out of the locker, which we were smart enough to choose instead of pulling it uphill, and back to the ropeway.
Some confusion with an Australian family. Google said the last tour is at 16:15, which is not good when it’s 16:19. 😂 But they found out (and for us in a way) that the last trip towards Lake Ashi is at 17:00. So that is possible.
Up on the cable car station, we’re in the clouds, which are extremely low today. Nearly no view. We had hoped to see the crater of an active volcano, but all we have is fog, and maybe the cables are visible. But you smell the sulfur. Very intense. You have to switch cable cars at the Owakudani Station. Few people waiting here. All the day tourists have been on the opposite cable cars.
We’re leaving after one stop at Ubako Station and feel the need for umbrellas. Not heavy rain but like a mist. 15-minute walk downhill to our next hotel: Hakone Diamond Society.
The entrance area with the reception is spacious. In a way you feel like you step back into the 70s or 80s. The staff is helpful and we have our room 217. A simple room with two beds, a toilet, and a washing basin. No showers. That you have to do in another way.
We’re hungry and the hotel doesn’t offer dinner. But there are three restaurants that offer a shuttle service to/from the hotel. We get a reservation at 18:00. Time enough to settle in.
Waiting in the lobby, the driver comes and we and two other guests arrive at a small restaurant. On the pictures it looked like traditional sitting on the floor, but it’s fake. You can sit and hang your legs under the table. Lucky for us. Our joints might not have liked traditional Japanese sitting. 😁
A good meal. Got some fried chicken and rice, and Tim a big tempura plate. Some drinks. Not expensive at all and all right quality.
And then the drive back, a little rushed from the restaurant. They don’t sit for hours over a meal here.
Time for onsen. The traditional dress you wear to go there doesn’t fit me, but it only would have been a fun gimmick. The onsen is divided into men and women. First you get a locker and undress completely. We got large and small towels. The small one you could use to cover yourself, but that doesn’t help anyway because you run around naked and sit in the hot spring naked. So we opted out and just went in.
This is quite strict here, no tattoos allowed in the onsen. And a sign says “no laundry,” I don’t want to know what made them hang up that sign.
First you have to rinse. You sit in a small chair in front of a mirror, a shower head, a small bucket, and all the shampoo and body wash you need. Just wash thoroughly. After that you can sit in the warm water. There’s an indoor and outdoor area, but the outdoor is nicer in this weather. And the water is really warm. The first half minute was a little awkward, then you just walk, sit, talk, and it feels very relaxed and normal.
After 10 minutes (it’s very warm) you rinse and cool down, before entering the water again. This is really relaxing. Two sessions are enough for us today. There’s also a sauna, but we’re already boiled.
The drying, going to the locker, and then they have a station with chairs and everything you need: combs, hair dryers, body lotion, hair lotion, shavers. This is also the only way you can shower in the hotel.
Now time for an after-onsen drink on the balcony/terrace of the hotel. The crickets I mentioned sound very fake. It might be speakers somewhere.
I have a Fuji single malt whisky. We order some nuts and get a handful for 1.50 €. No more nuts. Very nice to sit there and chill. Besides the AC that starts up in between, we are hit with the random sulfur vapor coming from the volcanic area.
Inside, and in many other places we’ve been, they play calming music. Classical and classical versions of modern songs.
This was a quieter day.
