Hello steempeeps,
Continuing our journey through Japan; we wanted to let you guys wander through the small town of Hakone (箱根町,Hakone-machi) near Tokyo. This was our first destination at day one of our trip to Japan. It was quite stressful trying to get here, it being our first stop to a foreign country and only having google maps for navigation, but we eventually managed. With a nice dinner waiting for us, an onsen (hotspring) to release all our stress from travel, and comfy Japanese style futon and clean tatami rooms, who else is complaining?
We stayed at Mountview Ryokan, which is one of many ryokans in Hakone, and it was one of the best experiences we’ve had in Japan. This small town was secluded from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and it really felt like a nice getaway from…our getaway. HA! This is one of the closest places to get access to Mt. Fuji and there are a bunch of sightseeing experiences in Hakone so it was definitely worth the visit. If you are planning a trip to Japan, you definitely need to experience the traditional Japanese style ryokans. Mountview was one of the pricier ones but it was definitely worth it. We were served breakfast and dinner; public onsens were available 24 hours or if you want to book a private onsen for yourself, that can definitely be arranged with a extra fee of approx. 3000 yen or a little over $25. Or if you are like us, get up in the wee hours of the morning and use the public onsen while all the other guests are snoozing away. (No extra cost and it would be as if you have a private onsen…Worth it!)
You’re probably wondering: How does the public onsens work? Basically, you bathe (soak) with other people. Before you dip in, you must shower and clean off first so the water in the hotspring stays as clean as possible as it gets changed once or twice a day. Some onsens let you wear your swimsuits, most only let you go al naturale only. Don’t be shy; if you’re not a fan of sharing, go super early as we said earlier. And we mean between 2AM- 4AM.
Here are some photos of the ryokan we stayed in, the onsens and of course the multi-course meals that were served to us!
Each Japanese style tatami room came with mochi snacks and tea sets to steam up a nice cup of green tea!
Here is the private onsen for 2 that we had reserved for.
This one was the public one. As you can see we had it to ourselves since it was super early :)
Now the meals! We were served breakfast and dinner, kaiseki style, which was a traditional Japanese multi-course meal which varies each day. As you can see there were so many things to eat and all the colorful plates used! Yum!
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Keep wandering!