Japan 🇯🇵 - Hakone

Tips 👏

• Rent a car: While trains in Japan are great, the Hakone and Five Lakes area is best explored by driving. It gives you total freedom to chase Mt. Fuji views. Toyota Rent-a-Car is super smooth and easy.
• Skip the Instagram line: The queue for the photo at the Hakone Shrine floating torii gate is insane. The temple itself is beautiful and quiet, don't waste hours just for one picture!
• Eat the Black Eggs: Legend says eating one black egg at Owakudani adds 7 years to your life. We tried them, tastes like a normal egg, but was cool. You can access it by car.
• Early bird gets the view: Mt. Fuji is shy. Your best chances of seeing the peak clear of clouds are early in the morning.

🏠 Accommodation

We stayed at BLISSTIA Hakone Sengokuhara. It was a fantastic base for the trip. The rooms were modern and spacious (rare for Japan!), and having an onsen right in the hotel was the perfect way to unwind after a long ady. We loved it so much we ate dinner in town nearby at Ohana both nights, highly recommended for a cozy, local meal.

🚗 Getting there

We landed at Haneda Airport at 8 AM and picked up our car from Toyota Rent-a-Car (they have a free shuttle from the terminal). The process was smooth, and we were on the road by 10 AM. The drive to Hakone took about 2 hours. Driving in Japan is surprisingly chill, just remember they drive on the left!

⏱ Duration

We spent 3 days and 2 nights, which allowed us to do the full Hakone loop, a massive circle around Mt. Fuji, and a day trip to the coast before heading to Osaka.

Hakone Loop & Black Eggs 🥚

After dropping our luggage, we grabbed a quick lunch of soba noodles at Sengoku Ukyo and headed straight for the famous Hakone Shrine. As mentioned in the tips, the queue for the photo was too much, so we visited the main temple instead and walked around, much more peaceful. We hopped on the sightseeing boat for a 40-minute cruise across Lake Ashi. The views were awesome, doing three stops. We completed the full loop, and took back the car to the Owakudani ropeway station to see the volcanic vents and eat the famous black eggs. Note that we didn't took the ropeway simply because the station is accessible by car, faster and cheaper.

The Ultimate Fuji Day 🗻

We woke up early on Friday to catch clear skies, and started our journey 360deg around the Fuji mountain. Luckily it was blue-sky day!

• Panoramic Ropeway: Great views of the lake and Mt Fuji, and a cute small shrine at the top.
• Oishi Park: The classic view of Fuji across the lake.
• Hidden Gems: On the drive, we stumbled upon a little local festival and a stunning alley of maple trees with bright red leaves, must-do in autumn.
• Chureito Pagoda: You mostly likely know the picture, the pagoda with Fuji in the background. Just friendly reminder that there are steep stairs to get up there!
• Lunch: We stopped at Houtou Foudou for the local specialty, flat udon noodles in miso soup. Delicious, warming and super popular!
• Shiraito Waterfalls: A bit further out, but totally worth the drive. Beautiful, wide falls fed by Fuji’s spring water.

We then drove back to the hotel via the "other side" of the mountain to complete a full 360° view of the area.

Enoshima Coast & Slam Dunk 🌊

The next day, we packed up early and drove 1.5 hours to the coastal city of Enoshima. We started by the famous railroad crossing from the Slam Dunk anime. There's a parking lot close to the viewpoint where you can see the green train pass with the sea in the background.

We then parked the car near the bridge and walked over to Enoshima Island. We bought the full pass (do it!) which covers the escalators, the Sea Candle tower (360° views), the shrines, the bell, and the caves at the back of the island. It’s a fun, lively spot with a great shopping street. After lunch, instead of walking all the way back, we took the boat from the back of the island straight to the bridge, a huge time saver and opportunity to see the island from the sea.

Hope this was helpful, you can ask us any questions on Instagram.