Give it one night. Ride the loop from Hakone-Yumoto: the Tozan railway up through three switchbacks to Gora, the cable car to Sounzan, the ropeway over the sulphur vents at Owakudani, then the boat down Lake Ashi to Moto-Hakone for the shrine's red gate standing in the water. Break it with the Open-Air Museum and one long bath. Look for Fuji before eleven, before the haze goes up.
Hakone is a live volcanic caldera an hour and a half from Shinjuku, and Japan's most practised weekend. One loop links a switchback railway, a funicular, a ropeway over a steaming valley and a boat across Lake Ashi. Between them sit hot springs, art museums and, on a clear morning, Mount Fuji.
Japan's first open-air museum, open since 1969, sets sculpture across 70,000 square metres of hillside with the mountains behind it. One pavilion is given over to Picasso. Come for the siting as much as the art, and use the hot-spring foot bath by the exit on the way out.
The ropeway crosses a valley that is still venting: bare yellow ground, sulphur in the air, and Fuji straight ahead when the sky is clear. It was opened by the same collapse that dammed Lake Ashi. Buy the black eggs boiled in the springs, four for ¥500, and read the gas notices before you walk.
Galleon-styled boats run the length of the lake between Togendai, Moto-Hakone and Hakone-machi, roughly half an hour end to end. This is the fourth leg of the Hakone loop and the one with the view: the crater rim on both sides, and the shrine's red torii in the water on the southern shore.
Founded in 757 on the slope above Lake Ashi and reached by a stone stair under cedars. The red gate standing in the water below, the Heiwa no Torii, went up in 1952 and now draws a long photograph queue. Kuzuryu Shrine beside it honours the nine-headed dragon said to live in the lake.
Four kilometres of cable in four stations, Sounzan to Togendai, with an 18-person gondola arriving about every minute. It climbs over Owakudani and then drops to the lake, which is why the whole loop is built around it. Wind and volcanic gas shut sections without much warning.
About 10,000 works, built by the family behind the Pola cosmetics company and opened in 2002, with one of the strongest Impressionist holdings in Japan: Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Picasso. The building is sunk into the forest so it barely clears the tree line, and a wooded path loops the site.
Japan's first mountain railway, running since 1919 and modelled on the Bernina line in Switzerland. Between Hakone-Yumoto and Gora it takes a gradient of 8 percent through three switchbacks, where driver and conductor swap ends. In June and July hydrangeas crowd the cutting.
A thatched teahouse on the old Tokaido that the same family has kept for around four centuries, now in its thirteenth generation. The order is amazake, the unfiltered rice drink it is named for, with chikara-mochi pounded that morning. Walk in along the cedar avenue rather than arriving by bus.
The Tokugawa barrier that controlled the Tokaido between Edo and Kyoto, rebuilt on its own foundations and finished in 2007: gates, guardhouse, prison cell and lookout tower. Climb to the tower for the view the guards had of everyone coming through. The museum next door holds the paperwork.
An imperial summer villa stood on this headland until the 1923 earthquake brought it down. The grounds opened to the public in 1946 and cost nothing. From the balcony of the lakeside observation building you get Lake Ashi, the torii and Fuji in one frame, far quieter than the queue below.
Open-air pools stepped down a wooded gorge, open until 11pm. Cash only, and tattooed bathers are admitted.
Two minutes uphill behind the station, ¥900, open until 8pm. The cheapest real outdoor bath in Hakone.
A swimsuit zone of novelty baths plus a traditional nude section. The one that works with children.
The quieter half of the Kowakien pair: a modern bathhouse with private rooms if you want to stay past the bath.
Hakone's oldest museum, open since 1952, and really a garden: about 130 mosses under some 200 maples.
Around 4,000 Japanese-style paintings, and a 50 metre window onto the lake, the torii and Fuji.
More than 1,500 Lalique pieces, over 200 of them jewels. Closed the third Thursday of the month, except in August.
Venetian glass in a garden strung with crystal, which is either the appeal or the objection. Open until 5.30pm.
The marquetry hall in the village where yosegi-zaiku has been cut for 300 years. Workshops can be booked.
Minced pork between slices of tofu, fried, then simmered with egg in a clay pot. Open since 1973.
Buckwheat bound with grated wild yam and egg instead of water, by the same family since 1934.
A dozen fillings ordered by the plate, and a queue outside from opening. Cheap by Hakone standards.
Hakone's own brewery, pouring what it makes on site beside wagyu and Japanese-wheat pizza.
Wagyu cut and cooked at the counter under the Nobu name. Reserve, and expect to pay for it.
Cut into the valley side, with an open-air bath on every room's terrace over the gorge.
Open since 1878, one of Japan's first western resort hotels. Chaplin, Einstein and Lennon all signed in.
Reached across a suspension footbridge over the river, which is most of the point of it.
Every room faces the river. Reopened in August 2025 with a marquetry workshop built into the stay.
Bread on the ground floor, a restaurant above it, and a foot bath on the terrace facing the lake.
The Fujiya Hotel's old bus waiting room, kept as it was. Order the azuki parfait with the coffee.
The Hotel de Yama tea room on the lake shore, French pastry, and Fuji through the glass when it shows.
The tea house inside Onshi Hakone Park, looking down the lake at the torii. The park itself is free.
Where the Romancecar arrives. Souvenir street, day baths, and the cheapest beds in Hakone.
The nineteenth-century resort quarter, built around the Fujiya. Quiet, and the best of the cafes.
The grass plateau west of the crater: the Pola and Lalique museums, and the pampas fields.
The Hojo clan's stronghold until Hideyoshi took it in 1590. The castle is ten minutes from the station.
Premium Outlets at the foot of Fuji, and the closest clear view of the mountain in the region.
Kawaguchiko and the northern face of Fuji, a change or two away and worth the whole day.
The Tokyo to Hakone university relay, 217 km over 2 and 3 January. The turn is on the shore of Lake Ashi.
Beans thrown at demons on water skis on 3 February, with a fireworks night over the lake before it.
The pampas plateau is burned off in early March, which is what keeps it grassland rather than forest.
Houraien opens its azalea garden from April into late May, when the hillside above the loop turns.
Seven to ten thousand plants line the cutting, opening low in mid-June and higher into July.
The 31 July rite for Kuzuryu, the lake's nine-headed dragon, with red-bean rice rowed out onto the water.
Two torii built on the lake are set alight on 5 August, closing Hakone's summer festival week.
About 400 people in Edo dress walk six kilometres through Yumoto on 3 November, as a lord's train did.
The limited express from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto, about 80 minutes, reserved seats only. The Free Pass does not include the limited-express surcharge.
The Tokaido Shinkansen stop, about 35 minutes from Tokyo Station, then the Tozan line or a bus into the caldera. The faster arrival if you already hold a rail pass.
Tozan train to Gora, cable car to Sounzan, ropeway over Owakudani, boat down Lake Ashi, bus back. The Hakone Free Pass covers all of it: ¥7,100 for two days from Shinjuku, ¥6,000 from Odawara.
Buses reach Sengokuhara, the museums and the lake road, and most lines are covered by the pass. Taxis wait at the main stations; away from them, book through your ryokan.
Unfiltered fermented rice, served hot and sweet without any sugar going into it.
Eggs boiled in the Owakudani springs until iron blackens the shell. Four for ¥500.
Buckwheat bound with grated wild yam rather than water, which is the Hakone way.
Minced pork between slices of tofu, fried, then simmered with egg in a clay pot.
The skin lifted off simmering soy milk, silky enough to eat plain with a little soy.
Steamed fish cake from Sagami Bay whitefish, springy and clean. Sold by the loaf.
Pounded rice cake grilled over charcoal, dressed with black sesame or soy.
Steamed buns filled with red bean, sold hot along the Yumoto shopping street.
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