The Hixson Holiday Headlines: Yokohama to Hakone National Park, Japan

Sunday, April 27, 2019 Yokohama to Hakone National Park, Japan

At the very last minute we planned a trip out of the city to see Mount Fuji from the Hakone National Park. We waited till the last minute because we wanted to go on a sunny day. The weather the day before it had been snowing in the area, but today we got up to some gorgeous sunshine so off we went.

We hired a guide from the port terminal. After talking with several tourist information centers days in advance, we found that it was not a straight shot and it took a lot of train changes…all told us that it was quite complicated….and it was. Our guide, Hi-Ro, was a seventy-five year old retiree who enjoyed spending his days showing tourist his country. He had pretty good English and was energetic.

Around 8:30am we walked to the train station around a mile.

The train station had these intricate mosaics on the walls.

We were able to get on the train immediately. We rode it for about ten minutes and then changed for another train and then yet another for a 45 minute ride.

The trains were basically empty, but as we got into the national park that all changed.

Cat nappers

We stepped off that train and walked across the platform to board another train.

Happy travelers!

He saved us about a 45 minute wait when purchasing tickets for the park entrance because he could purchase tickets in the Japanese line.

We would have never been able to figure out all these train changes in a timely manner.

First sighting of Mt Fuji from the train

Sights at the bus stop

From there we boarded a bus with standing room only (this was the final Sunday of Spring Break) and rode about 20 minutes up a curvy mountain road finally arriving at Ashinoko-chaya.

Here we boarded a ship for a cruise across Lake Ashi.

We always love a boat ride!

Gorgeous views of Mt Fuji from the boat

Hakone-jinja Shrine

Odakyu Hotel de Yama

After crossing the lake we rode the ropeway (better known in the US as a aerial cable car or gondola) to the top of the mountain (Owakudani) for views of Mount Fuji….

So SPECTACUTLAR with fresh snow from the day before!

We also viewed the sulfuric smelling areas of steam coming from crevasses in the mountainside. This reminded us of Yellowstone, Wyoming.

The infamous black egg....eating an egg boiled in the sulfuric waters is suppose to add 7 years to your life...….give us a dozen.

It was very crowded at the Mt. Fuji viewing area...look at that line! Hiro led us down the other side of the mountain with no line. He sure knew what he was doing!!!!

Hi-ro told us that there are 110 active volcanoes (10% of all Japanese volcanoes) in Japan.

Hi-ro led us past an hour long line to the cable cars that took us down the other side of the mountain with no waiting! Haleluja!

From Sounzan we rode the Hokone Tozan Cable Car down to disembark onto a large tram (1921) that was almost 100 years old to the town of Gora .From there Hi-ro took us to the train station for a 30 minute ride .

This tea house owner welcomed us into her home for a Japanese style cup of tea.

Here we went to an authentic tea house and enjoyed a tiny sweet pastry and two kinds of tea….a very cultural experience.

Two ladies came in to share their kimonos.

Afterwards we caught two more trains into the city and a little taxi ride back to the port arriving at 6:00pm. What a day of transportation…trains, bus, boat, rope pulley, tram, taxi. It was a full day but worth every minute of all the experiences. We could have never completed it so quickly without
Hi-ro.