THE Hakone Guide: Everything to Do in One Day! ♨️

THE Hakone Guide: Everything to Do in One Day! ♨️

You might have heard of Hakune’s hot springs, but do you know all the other super awesome stuff you can do here? Hi everyone, it’s Abby from Pctor. I’m a photographer and guide in Japan. Today I am finally in Hakon. So by the end of this video, you’re going to know if this is something you want to add to your itinerary, and if so, exactly what you can do here. I’m starting here at Hakon Yumoto station, which is probably where you’ll end up. And first we’re going to walk around, get a few snacks to start the day, and then head on to do some super awesome stuff I’m really excited to share with you guys. Let’s get some food. Come with me. Basically, once you come out of the station, there’s this little street here that has all different types of little souvenir shops and foods. So, I’m just going to take you along here and show you what’s worth getting. One thing I’m required to point out is that if you have ever watched Evangelion, you might know that the city that they use in there is actually based off of Hakon. So Tokyo 3 is based off of Hakon. And for that reason, they have this store literally right under the station where they have all of these really cute Evangelian goods. So, if this is up your alley, they have really unique stuff like very uh hotring evangelian combo of course in a yucata because that’s what you wear when you go to hot springs as you will see later. I’m so excited to get mine on and relax. First stop is right here, Nanohana, and they have onen mju. So, they have a shop where they sell them like normally, but if you want one that’s like hot and steamed, you can come right out here. Free hoji chop. So, we got two different types. We got normal red bean. I don’t know why I have this piece of paper. Normal red bean and black sesame. And anyone that has met me before knows I love Look at this cute little train. Look how cute it is going by. As I was saying, anyone that’s met me knows I love black sesame. It’s really hot. So, the inside is like red bean and the outside, I believe, is a mixture of like flour and brown sugar. So, it’s like soft and sort of cakey, but still chewy. And next up is the black sesame, which looks like a rock, but smells good. Yes. Yes. This is what I wanted. All black sesame. If you’ve never tried black sesame, you have to try it when you are here. The next place I was going to show you is closed. Um, really big tears. Closed on Wednesdays. So, that sucks, but it serves kamabokco, which are fish cakes. So, assuming you’re not here on a Wednesday, try some kamabokco. Only if you really want fish cake. We’re going to be eating so many different foods today, so it’s okay. All these shops have different little snacks. So like if you go in these little stores, they’ll also have kamabokco and they have really pretty ones that have like designs on them. If you want to try this. Yes, this is food. They have it. Hey, these are cute. Yeah, they have this in Kyoto. They have this everywhere. Obviously, we had to get one cuz it’s so cute. It says Hakon on it and it’s a little steam bath. Oh, that’s really good. So, this one has white bean inside of it. The outside’s really kind of crispy. The inside’s really soft, slightly sweet. Very satisfied. I also want to point out that the area near here is famous for wasabi stuff. So, they have all different like wasabi spices. Also, if you sneak through these buildings, you will get to see something. Yay. It’s a view with some water. Aane is also famous for what’s called Yosi Ziku. And that is a style of the wooden technique where you make things using like geometric patterns of different woods. So, we went in the shop Fujia and we got chopsticks. They have all kinds of things like cups or like display boxes or puzzle boxes. And we got chopsticks because I always like to get chopsticks when we travel because it’s representative of where you came from with a unique style. And oh my god, sesame dumpling. Honey, I need that. This was not on the list. New item dropped. I love walking and just finding a random place. And this has dangle. I’m a sucker for dangle. So, if you come here in the summer, shaved ice is a fabulous thing to get. And by here, I mean this country. The whole country has shaved ice. So, this one is kurumi miso. And it’s walnut miso. And I’m definitely going to get this all over my shirt. It’s really salty. The black sesame. I’ve never had black sesame dongle with miso. That’s a good combo. They also have mitarashi, which is like a sweet soy sauce glaze. If you want something sweet, there’s no way to eat dango without feeling like an animal. You just have to rip it off the stick. Like flesh from the bone. Pro tip, when you’re eating, you’re cracking me up. Pro tip, when you’re eating something, literally anything, stay by where you got it, and then you can actually use the trash can. Some of you are shocked when you come here and there’s no trash cans. I don’t know how because that’s all people talk about. Yeah. Or if there’s no trash can, you can just return it to the person who gave it to you like and they’ll take it from you. All right, last food here is at Chimoto, which is famous for their yumoi. Oh my god, this place is like really well renowned uh by Japanese people and it’s won a bunch of awards. Ooh. It’s like a marshmallow with like red bean. It’s so soft. This is the softest mochi I’ve ever had in my life. It’s so soft. Oh, it’s amazing. All right, now that I have lots of food in my stomach, we’re going to take the Tozan Railway to the Hakon Open Air Museum. That mochi was so good. We’ve like rushed to like make our train cuz these trains aren’t exactly every 5 minutes. This is not um Tokyo City, but I could eat like 20 of those. Highly recommend walking over there. It’s literally only like a 4minute walk from the station. Everything here is really close together. When you come to the station here, you probably don’t want to be responsible for your stuff the whole time while you walk around. So, what you can do is if you are immediately going back to your hotel after this, you can just put something in baggage storage. Or if you want to send stuff to your hotel because you’re going to go out like us and do stuff all day, we’ll go into the gate first and then I’ll show you what to do. All right. So right here is where you can bring your baggage and send it on to your hotel. So this is the Hakone Tozan Railway and it’s a really cool little train that is actually Japan’s oldest mountain railway. Goes back to 1919 and it features switchbacks where you will stop and you will have the train go the other direction. So you might be facing forward for a while and then suddenly you’re looking and everything has changed directions. and it actually reverses directions three times. So, it’ll be fun and they’ll announce it. And if you come here during the rainy season, they also have hydrangeas blooming. And they even have a light up event at night where you can go as well. All right. So, after a slightly crowded ride, you’re going to get off at Choku Nomorei and that’s how we’re going to get to the open air museum. This is just a really teeny tiny little station. And once you come out, you will just follow everyone else and go left. So we’ll go this way. While we walk towards the open air museum, let me give you a little info about Hakon. So Hakune itself actually refers to all of the little hotring towns around this area. Hakune became an important place, especially during the Edeto period when a checkpoint called the Hakone checkpoint and it was on the old Tokaido road. So everyone that was going in and out of Tokyo would stop here and they’d get checked for who’s coming and going and what’s coming and going. And at the time was considered a mayagashira. So sort of [Music] a at the time Hakon was considered a Mayagashira. So sort of an mid to upper tier level hotring area. But it wasn’t until the post-war period that really big business competition between two groups here boosted this place to now being one of the most famous and respected hot springs in Japan. And here we are. That was a really quick walk to the Hakune Open Air Museum. Let’s go this way. I really love how Hakan is just nestled in the mountains here. It just makes everything even more beautiful. Tickets. Cashless only here. And if you have cash, you can go right over there. So, the Hakunai Open Air Museum is actually Japan’s first outdoor museum. It opened in 1969 and it is 70,000 square meters of art. So, you have over 120 different well-renowned artists that are sharing their work here. And they’re also very well known for their stained glass, which is so beautiful and was one of the highlights of my first trip here as well. I always remembered that. So, this place was created in the post-war tourism boom here, but it was created to really intertwine cultural learning and tourism, and it was a really good way to have people enjoy art in a newer way, which is actually one of the museum’s goals to see how art interacts with light, with nature, with different sounds, with different weather, and experience it in, like I said, a very different way. And this place also helped shape Hakon’s reputation not as just a hotring resort, but a place to experience culture. And it’s given Hakon a much richer atmosphere, I believe. So, if you want to go inside here, this is a good time for me to mention the Hakone free pass, which is in my purse somewhere. It’s not free. I wish it was free, but it’s not. The free pass is something you can get. It’s valid for two days and for adults it is 5,000 yen and it pretty much covers all of the public transportation you could want to use here and it also gives you a discount at many of these major popular tourist places. So like you can get a 100 yen discount here and I’ll mention later other discounts you can get. All of the transport we’ve taken, so the train we just took just now was covered by this and all you do is you just put it in like a normal ticket and you either put it in again when you leave or you just show it. So, it’s super easy. Just keep it on you. And another important thing to note is a lot of you will be coming here from Tokyo. So, you can actually get your free pass in advance and it’ll be slightly different coming from different stations, but it will give you a discount on the fair from there. And side note, my recommended way to get here from Tokyo is to take the Old Romance card. You do have to pay an additional fee on top of this to take it, but it is super duper fast and efficient and you will be glad that you took it. So, you can spend more time enjoying a here. So, of course, this is a museum. I’m not going to go film inside. I want you to enjoy it with your own eyes and ears and everything else, but we’re going to go inside and enjoy it. And I’ll see you guys when we come out. Of course, I didn’t uh take a million videos and pictures for you guys. A because I don’t want to be sued and B because the point of art is to go and like appreciate it for yourself and not just have me tell you what I think about it. So, highly recommend checking this place out cuz it’s a so easy to get to and b a really really cool outdoor experience where you get to see all different kinds of art. There’s really something there for everyone. I just love the super fun shiny stuff. So, I love the glass and that’ll also be on my Instagram page. I took a few pictures in there. So, if you want to check it out, you can see it there. Anything shiny catches my eye, but there’s so many beautiful things, so see it with your own eyeballs. Honestly, the only bad part was the price, which was 1,900 yen after the free pass. But actually, that’s really not that expensive for a museum nowadays. So, okay. So, from here, we’re going to hop back on the train that we got here with. So, exact same place. walked like literally a minute and a half and we’re going to go one stop to Gora and then once we get to Gora, we’re going to transfer to the cable car. All I had to do was just show this and then go [Music] through. By the way, both of the trains that leave from here are on the same platform. So, make sure that you get on the one going to Gora and not the one going all the way back from where you came from. Um, because we’re only going one stop, so pay attention. [Music] We’re going to head out of here with our pass and then we’re going to go up there. All [Music] [Applause] right. Once you get off the cable car, we’re going to go up to the Hakune ropeway. Hopefully the roadway is a little more exciting than the cable car because that was not that fun. By the way, in winter they don’t do the ropeway so you have to take a bus. So, so if you happen to get this on your phone, you are not supposed to use a screenshot when you go through the gates. You have to actually pull it up. All right. Hakon ropeway entrance and if you need the stamp, it’s there. Ropeway is in operation until 4:45 p.m. We have to really go up to get to it. So on the way to the ropeway, you can actually go outside and have a foot bath and a terrace. Wow. Okay. Wow. There’s a line as you would [Music] figure. You will hear it before you see it. So, when you get here, obviously, you will wait in a line, then you will get on and everyone gets to sit down. Don’t worry. And I’m so excited. It’s so loud, though. This is also covered by the free pass, but if you don’t have it, it costs this much. [Music] No seat belt. Oh my gosh. Wow. [Music] Wow. [Music] Wow. Smells like smells like hot spring. Sulfuric hot spring. Where are my eggs at? I’m here for an egg. The ropeway was actually really fun. All right, here we are at Aakuani. This is a newly opened area. So, it’s all very shiny and new. It’s called Earth Valley Aakuani. Let’s head outside. It smells like eggs. Here we [Music] go. Wow. So, what is this, you might ask? So, this place is where an eruption of Mount Hakon was 3,000 years ago. Luckily, it has not erupted since, and hopefully, it does not today. But the biggest thing you can see here is all these really cool sulfur vents where very strong smelling sulfur comes out. Although, the air up here is really surprisingly fresh. I will give it that. So it’s it’s it’s eggy but fresh if that makes any sense whatsoever. And this place is really beautiful that they’ve built. So it gives you a really nice view. It’s very broad, very open. But of course um because sulfur, they’re also famous for what’s called kuro tamago or black eggs. And so the way they cook the eggs in the hot water, when the minerals in the water react with the eggshell, it turns it black. So, it is a normal chicken egg, but it is black. And it said that when you eat this egg, it extends your life for seven years. So, we somehow came here 5 years ago and did not eat the egg. So, I’m that that’s very concerning. So, we’re here to eat the egg. But I wonder if you eat more than one egg, does it give you like 14? Like 21? Does it does it double, triple? Is it compound? Let’s get that egg. on the big sign in Japanese where you guys can’t read it. It says Kuro Tamago. So, I’m going to show you where it is. You’re going to come out here and you’re going to go straight down to this building right here. So, when you get here, you’re going to go down this hill and you’ll have a variety of different black egg places to choose from. You also have the Hakon Geo Museum, which is right here. So, if you’re especially interested in geology and what exactly actually went on over here, maybe that’s a good spot for you to check out. But I got to get my egg. Follow the follow the arrows here to the egg. Egg is not covered by the free pass. Oh my god, the egg. All right, here we are. This is the most potently egg smelling spot I’ve ever been in my entire life. Except when you have your dad in the car and he locks the windows and the doors and then maybe that’s more potent. All right. Egg is upstairs. They have sweet eggs. I’m going to get every egg they have. Oh my god, they do. They have mju that looks like an egg. They also have curry cookies. Who comes here for cookies? Get the egg. You cannot escape her. She’s everywhere. Wow. They have so many goods for egg related items. So, so many egg items. Nothing like some good egg hand cream. O. We have a really long line. Everyone here wants to live a little bit longer. So, Mama, this is his home. Wow. All right. First up, we got four different things. This is a pork bun, and it’s black. It looks like a rock. Really normal. Super normal. But I’m so hungry. So, it’s really good. She’s a pork bun. Can’t eat it. is. Yeah, it’s shaped like an egg, but it’s mostly bun, less meat. Next up is the curry bread, which I’m excited for. And it’s black, obviously shaped like an egg as well. Oh, this is good. It tastes like good curry bread. Next up is the eggs. So, finally, it’s time to live a longer a longer life. So, this comes in a pack and you get four eggs for 500 yen and it’s literally black. It’s really, really hot. And I’m realizing I have to shell this and people have their shells down here. I’m not going to do that because I don’t know if that’s kosher activity. Probably not. But I don’t have a technique. I always do this in the kitchen sink. What am I supposed to be doing? All right. Oh, it’s easy to shell though. I’ll give it that. Whoops. I just screwed it up as I said that. Oh, when you have to work for your food. That’s why I get seven more years. It shows I have patience. It looks like an egg now that I’ve peeled it. But let’s see what it looks like on the inside. I guess it’s normal. I don’t know. It’s an egg. It’s literally It’s literally a boiled egg. That’s it. Maybe bring your own mustard and paprika or whatever you like to put on your eggs. But we have three more of these. Oh, yeah. They do probably give us salt. All right. So, our technique is we peeled the eggs and put them in the bag. And now we’re going to put salt in the bag. Are you Are you salt bay? Okay. You’re just getting it literally on the ground. Okay. There’s salt. And so now we’re going to do what you can do with in McDonald’s with French fries here and shaka shaka. If we had the McDonald’s shaka shaka seasoning, that would be great. All right, bartender. Egg egg tender. Give me the egg. Thank you. Now I have salt on my hand. So you can see it’s literally an egg. It’s better with salt. Now let’s play. Is it an egg or is it a mangju? And you can guess the answer. It’s a mangju. I’m excited to eat this. Between this and the egg, this is good. But I don’t know. I think I was just starving. I think those eggs like I need protein. Literally, that was the that was the protein that I needed. All right. My personal recommendation is eat the eggs to fuel you. Eat the mangju as a carb to follow your your protein and skip the skip the curry bread and the pork bun. They really didn’t excite me in any way, shape, or form unless you get up here and you’re starving. But we’re going to keep rolling from here. Just it’s fun to walk around and see the see the sights, see the eggs everywhere. People like bringing their dogs. Thank god they have ice cream. You can’t go anywhere here and not have ice cream. Unless you’re lactose intolerant. Evangelian bath bombs. Even the Sanreo characters have to make it here. More eggs. Oh my god. Is that an egg sk? No. Oh, dang it. Oh, that’s sick though. I can’t even see it. I was This is so cool. But I was really hoping it had an egg on it. Oh my god. I like the cone better. Yeah, we couldn’t see Mount Fuji today, I guess. So, from where we took the picture with the egg down there, right here, technically you can see Mount Fuji, which is back here. I don’t know if you can see it. Whoops. Is very hard to see today. If you come here in the mornings, you have a better chance of being able to see it. Letting you know. All right. So, from here, we’re going to use our free pass and we’re going to head up to Toendai. So, let’s go. All right. So, if we wanted to go back down, we would, of course, go back down this way, but we’re going to keep going up. So, we’re going to go this way. It’s going to take us over to where we want to go next to the lake area. So, follow the blue next driving on the right hand side. Yeah, let’s go. So, I know a lot of people wonder about when you can see Mount Fuji better, and I said in the mornings, it’s usually more clear. And also if you come in the summer, it’s harder to see it. So it’s better to come in winter if you really really want to see Mount Fuji. Here we [Music] go. So if you could see it would be I know. Wow. They have to get their egg. So on the way to Tendai, the first stop, if you get off, they have a place where you can view Mount Fuji. So, if you really just want to run out, go see Muji and then you can get back on another gondola and continue. Otherwise, don’t get off because we’re not there yet. Oh, you can kind of see it now. [Music] At station, you can have a meal at the view restaurant while enjoying the beautiful view of the lake. All right, once you arrive at Togendai, we are on the way to do something I am really excited to do because I have not done it, and that is the Hakune sightseeing cruise. So yes, this is also covered by the free pass. We love it. So we are going to find a boat. If you want a quick meal, you can go here to the Togan Dai view restaurant and of course look out on the water at the view that we will see momentarily. All right, here we are in line for our ride here. So, when you come here, you can use your free pass or you can buy tickets here. And I will add that you can actually pay, I believe, 700 yen. Uh, one way to upgrade to first class. And what that means is you get to be in like the front half of the boat. Um, so you can really see out more the front. So, they were sold out just now for this. Um, but if you want to get that, they sell out quickly. So, you’ll just want to stand in line and just wait until the next boat comes. You can’t like get it in advance. You have to literally just get here and get the first class. First class. Frankly, I’m just excited to get on. Let me show you. This is victory. Wow. So, if you want to go up to the front of the boat, you had to pay for the first class. Feel like we’re on the Titanic and we’re being like segregated by classes. But you can still go up here and see all of this and not climb up and pretend that you’re Luffy. Let’s go see what’s up here. [Music] So they have three different ships and They’re different sizes, different styles a little bit, but they’re all kind of like these really cool like pirate ship style. [Music] I need a 300 mm for this. So, at the first stop here, only get off here on this stop if you’re going to one of these places. Otherwise, we’re going to stay on the boat for the next stop. [Music] that you have all your Here we are at Moto Hako. We were joking that they should let people go up to the top area up there and pay like $50 for it and sign a waiver and I would do it. I would take that risk to get my Luffy moment. All right, now that we’re here, we’re going to get another snack first. But you can tell right away what we’re getting into here because you will see Tory gates on the way here and you will see this big Tory gate. And I will tell you, we’re here to see predominantly Hakon Shrine, which is a really beautiful, unique shrine with a really good view. They have like pirate themed foods, treasure puff, and pirate hot dog. We got this soda because why not? Sapphires, so they’re like jewels cuz I’m thirsty. [Music] Okay. It’s a really strong soda with jellies in it. It’s actually really good. After walking around and like being outside, you get thirsty. This is super refreshing. It tastes like something you would get at USJ. Yeah, this probably won’t be here forever. So, if you happen to be here, cute little place. And you can take all of the items that they have onto the ship. So, you can actually enjoy it on the ship instead of outside of the ship. So, when you get here to Moto Hakon, you’ll see there’s a 7-Eleven over there. And then here you have some of the buses. So, if you are finished here and you’re ready to go back, you might want to take a bus. So, if you’re going to Hakon Yumoto, if you happen to be staying over there, there’s buses that go directly there and they take approximately this long. So, if you’re thinking about where to stay here, if you stay around Hakuna Yumoto, it’s going to be more like family friendly. It’s also going to be more accessible because obviously you pulled straight into there from Shinjuku, from Tokyo. So, it’s um less transfers required, but it’s going to be maybe less upscale compared to Gora, which is probably where I would recommend couples to stay or people that want a more sort of like quiet, intimate experience. Gora is more nestled in the mountains. I think it feels a little bit more already like intimate, not even in terms of the hotel itself. But you’ll see ours later where we’re staying at a really fun place that I’m going to recommend to you. So stick around for that. But it will be a little bit harder to get to. But if you do stay in Gora, we’ll show you how to get there. So if you don’t just do a day trip here, which I will talk about day trip stuff later, it’s definitely something you want to think about where should I stay? Not even location, but hotel as well because there’s a lot to think about. So, like I said, stick around for that because I’m gonna talk about it. So, here we are and we’re gonna head through the gate towards Hakon Shrine. So, if you were to go the other way, back towards where the boat first stopped, it would bring you to a few different places such as the Hakon checkpoint. So, I told you that Hakuna used to be a checkpoint where they would see who and what was going in and out of Tokyo. And you can actually see some of the ruins of that if that’s up your alley. I don’t think it’s essential, especially if you have a limited amount of time here. But they also have a few other things around there that are pretty cool to check out. Right around here, of course, there’s also restaurants. There’s some unagi back there. This looks like tempura. more tempora. So, if you didn’t get lunch anywhere else yet or you’re just needing a snack, you have options here. I’m going to take you to get some bread first, though. So, the place I’m going to show you is called Bakery and Table, and they have very good Google reviews. So, of course, they have people here, but that’s okay. So, if you choose to come here, whenever you go to a bread place in Japan, the technique is you get a tray and you get one of these tongs. And please don’t pick up your bread with your bare hands. Not that I care, but that’s the etiquette. So, we got our bread and they have a second and third floor. And if you want to sit up there, you have to go upstairs and order. But we got lucky. And there’s a seat here. And they also have a place where you can put your feet in the water if you have a towel. If you have a towel. I do not. And we we have um socks and shoes on. So you do not have to use it. You still get a lovely view sitting here. So these are our breads. So let me show you our breads. We got custard cream. This is Tape’s favorite. He loves custard. This custard. Let’s see if it’s good. You’re going to really like this. And custard is a proper custard. It’s like eggy and dense and not too sweet. Exactly. I knew we’d say that at the same time. Next up, this is seasonal, but they have a normal one. It’s got strawberry cream inside of it. The bread is so soft. So soft. And last, because I like chocolate, I got this chocolate raspberry. Feels kind of like a scone. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. It’s very dense and dry looking. I semi regret ordering it. I hope it’s good. This is so good. Wait, this is so good. No regret. So, it’s kind of like a dense chocolate bread and has cranberries, um, pieces of chocolate, and what appears to be walnuts inside. So, it has a really good texture to it. Has enough texture that it’s not dry at all. It has a very satisfying like dense densess to it. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s very good. Like, it looks so unassuming and unexciting, but it’s good. It’s no wonder this place has so many good reviews on Google. And it’s so nice. What a nice view. You can stop looking at my face. Look at this instead. Much better. I’m joking. All right, so leaving bakery and table, which was some of the best bread I’ve had in this country. And I’ve had a lot of good bread in this country. Look at this. They have swan boats. 30 minutes only 1,500 yen. And you can take your little swan boat and you can go out where everyone is going to the tour gate out there. I don’t know if you can see it, but it’s out there. And that’s a fun option for you. But I don’t feel like exercising right now or doing anything of the kind. So instead, we’re going to head over to Hakon Shrine. You get to just walk along the water for this. This is beautiful. It’s really nice. So peaceful. Like yeah, there’s people here, but still. This is not as hectic as a lot of other places in Japan. Honestly, I thought it would be busier than this right now. [Music] Here we are at one of the entrances to Hakon shrine. So, Mount Hakon has been worshiped as a sacred mountain for a very long time. This shrine itself goes back to the middle of the 700s and it became a shrine that was well loved by samurai when Minamoto Nooritomo who was Japan’s first shogun came here after a bad battle and he was helped by one of the priests that was around here. So he became very fond of this shrine and so lots of warriors would continue to come here. It was even rebuilt by Tokugawa after it had burnt down. So it’s a place of great strength we might say. I’m gonna show you a little bit, but I don’t want to film too much inside because it is a sacred shrine. So, come here and enjoy it and appreciate the piece for yourself. The area around here is also very famous for cedar trees. So, they have a historic part of the old Tokaido road that you can walk on and it’s just full of trees. By the way, this whole area around here, including the Lake Ashi itself, was created from that eruption like 3,000 years ago. So, thank you, eruption, for creating this beautiful area. You can see all this magma came down and that’s literally what we’re standing on right now. So, congrats. You are able to stand on a volcanic eruption. To go into the main part of the shrine, you will head through this gate and up the stairs back here. And then you can go make a wish and do all the fun things you do at a shrine. Got to get there quicker. Yeah. So, if you come down here, they have the big Tory gate. It’s not as big as the one in Hiroshima. So, watch my Hiroshima video for a really cool toy gate in the water that you can get closer to than this. But there’s a line if you want to get a picture with the gate. All right. Once you’re ready to finally leave, you’ll come to the chaos zone here. Jeez Louise. And if you’re going to Akon Yumoto, you’re going to take the R line bus at bus stop two. So those people are on this side right now. And if you’re going to Gora, you’re going to come with me and you’re going to take the H-line bus stop one. That’s what I’ll show you how to do because if you’re going to Hakuto, this would just go straight there and you don’t hopefully need instructions for that. So, take the bus until you get to the open air museum stop. And that’ll take a while. And once you get to it, hop off and walk right down the hill until you get to the station that we came to in the morning. Chuku Nomi, and you’ll recognize where you are. And then literally just take that one stop and you’ll get back to Gora if that’s where you’re trying to go. Cuz that’s where we’re trying to go. And almost there. All right, finally to Gora station. And there’s a bunch of really cute little shops here you can walk around and look at. We have some souvenirs, beer. I’d rather get umesu at dinner. So, right near here, they have a brewery called Gora Brewery. And I’m going to try one of their beers cuz I don’t have time to run over there, but I want to try it. We have a Easy Juice IPA, Rising Sun IPA in Kohaku. It’s always good to try like local stuff. Why not? This is good stuff, too, but you can get that anywhere. Matcha and wasabi mayonnaise and more wasabi spice. So the area in Shizoka is well known for wasabi. So I highly recommend getting some kind of wasabi seasoning to take home with you. This one’s salt. So Hakon is in Kanazawa, but we’re close. But we’re so close that they have it. And this is wasabi soy sauce powder. So recommended. They’re good. So after you get here and check in, you can take your yucata. So these are men’s yucata and the bigger collection over here is for the ladies. So they’re by your height. So this is you know how to read. You know your height and you choose your yucata so that you can wear it. After you choose your yucata, make sure you get a belt to wear it with. Let’s get to the room. I’m ready to get in the bath. She’s all right. We have finally arrived at our docon. Is so nice. So this is Tokinoyu Satsugetska and we actually stayed here four or five years ago. It is just as nice as when we were here then. That’s how much we liked it that we wanted to come back and stay here again for this. So some people think that doing a day trip to Hakune is the best option. And I would like to say that I completely disagree with that. I think that honestly the best part of Hakon is getting to enjoy your day here and then look forward to finally going back and enjoying the so when you come to Hakune I recommend getting that full experience and not missing out on it because it will probably be the most fun you have in a hotel in Japan. So the the main reason that Japanese people come to Hakune is to enjoy Yokoon and to enjoy the baths and of course to also enjoy the food that many of them offer. Everything else is sort of like lots of cherries and toppings on top. This is really the bulk of the sundae right here. So, by skipping this, you’re really missing out on such an important part of the experience and such a comfortable part of the experience that I know you will enjoy after walking around Tokyo for 4 days or whatever you have planned. You will be so glad that you put this relaxing time into your schedule to just chill. And trust me, I know this because not only do I live here and I travel a lot, but I work with so many clients that have told me this that they are so happy they stayed here or shoot, they really wish they had. So, I’ve heard it. So, the place that we’re staying has a fabulous selection of different types of rooms. It has more Japanese style rooms. It has more western rooms. That’s pretty standard when you stay at a Yokan. You don’t need to sleep on the floor necessarily. You have some that have private baths like ours do. And the place we’re staying also has, even if you don’t get a private bath in your room, you can even go downstairs and they have ones that you can use. Or, of course, they just have general public hotspring baths, which is also something that is super normal here. And I know that people like Americans will need to get over the um the weirdness of it, but oh, it’s so peaceful and you will feel so good when you finally soak after just running around Japan for like days. And the food here is also fabulous. So that’s another important and really fun part of staying in a is if you get the food as part of your package, you can just chill here. You don’t even have to go anywhere else. You don’t have to think about anything else. You can just go downstairs and get your dinner. And the dinner we had here was so good. It was beef shaboo shaboo sushi and a million other things because of course they go all the way with these things. And it’s just classy and calm and honestly a really good deal for your money. And we also got the breakfast which was super duper yummy. It’s a really good example of like a nice hotel breakfast and you will feel full and you will feel satisfied after and you’ll be ready to continue on after enjoying the bads and enjoying the food. And I know another thing is many of you have tattoos because that’s really normal outside of Japan. And no, you might not be able to use the public baths, but you can use this and you can spend as much time in there as you want. So, even the private ones downstairs that you can rent and use like as a family or whatever for free. By the way, you don’t even have to get a room with a private bath here. You can just use the ones downstairs. You can do that, too. But, of course, you might be competing with other people. So, that’s why I just say spend a little more money. Make Hakon or make whatever hot spring place make that your splurge spot because I think it’s much more exciting to really enjoy a plush comfortable yokon than you know somewhere in Tokyo or whatever that you’ll be out all day doing stuff. It’s not about enjoying your hotel in Tokyo, but Hakon really is. That’s what it’s all about. So, I will be talking a lot more about the experience of staying at a Yokoon. really what you want to know in advance like booking them and enjoying them in another video. So definitely look forward to that. I’ll give you all the information that you might be anxious about. Also, this place gave us free snacks. So I’m going to eat some. So before I wrap up, let me tell you one more thing. There is of course many other fun things to do in Hakon. This is not the end all beall of Hakune. For example, you have the Venetian Glass Museum, which is nice. Um, I didn’t include it just because I know that many of you watching would just rather go to Venice. And if you have the time, sure, go by there. But honestly, I I like the open air museum a lot better, personally. And of course, another thing you can do if you have time here, maybe even in the morning before you leave, you can do the glass museum. And another thing you can do is some crafting. So, they have classes here where you just you go and you make something. Whether it be the wood that I showed you earlier, yakki ziku or like the glass that you can find here. You can literally make glass like glass beads, glass jewelry, a vase, you can make it. So look into that beforehand if you want to get more into doing something. But this is just the fundamental sort of one day Haku experience that I think majority of you will enjoy. So, this place has complimentary snacks downstairs. And so, I’m going to eat these and make some matcha and get in there. Hope you enjoyed this video. Let me know in the comments what you want to do in Hakon. And I will see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.

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Planning a trip to Hakone? This video is your complete guide to making the most of your day in this beautiful mountain town—just a short ride from Tokyo. I’ll walk you through the perfect itinerary, including must-see spots like the Hakone Open-Air Museum, Owakudani volcanic valley, the Hakone Ropeway, Lake Ashi, and the famous pirate ship cruise.

You’ll also learn how to use the Hakone Freepass, tips for riding the Romancecar, and the best spots to eat and relax in hot springs. Whether you’re visiting in spring, summer, autumn, or winter, this guide will help you travel smarter.