Good day everyone,
i’m travelling Japan with my girlfriend during Sep/Oct and we’d like to stay one night in a nice roykan, with onsen, kaiseki dinner, etc. And Hakone was the obvious choice, since it’s pretty much on the way.
Of course it should be a relatively relaxing experience, that’s why my question is … does it make sense to squeeze it in between?
Considering we’d ride the shinkansen early in the morning, need to get our suitcaces to the ryokan and of course want to spend a few hours visiting Hakone, i’d imagine it could become a little stressful or hectic.
by Neaeran
3 comments
Go as early as possible. The train ride is under 2 hours. Get to Hakone-Yumoto, drop your luggage (or if they allow you, check in first) and enjoy a whole day in the area. Going to all the sights should nicely take up most of your day. When you return in the evening, enjoy your onsen and kaiseki.
Hey, my wife and I did exactly that earlier this month.
I highly recommend forwarding your luggage from your hotel in Kyoto to your hotel in Tokyo, bringing just the bare minimum to your Ryokan stay.
Our hotel in Kyoto filled the Yamato paperwork for us, we gave them our luggage when we checked out and it was waiting for us in Tokyo when we checked in a day later. 🙂
Transport wise, we took the Shinkansen from Kyoto station to Odawara, then changed for the train to Hakone-Yumoto. At the Hakone train station, we bought tickets for the Hakone-Shinjuku Romance car for the day after.
But yeah, don’t bring your luggage with you to Hakone, just a change of clothes and toiletries. The Ryokan should have yukatas for you to change for the night. We loved our stay in a Ryokan, it was a highlight of our trip, enjoy!
Fully agree with Djorak. Either forward your luggage and take what you need for the night, or you can store your suitcases at Odawara station (although you would have to leave from there as well the next day.)
I should also say that while the tourist transit system presents itself as a “loop”, it’s actually pretty easy to ignore the loop and only go to specific places. I went to the sulphur mountain and the Open Air Museum during the day, went back to the Ryokan in time for dinner and spent the night, and then took the bus to do the Lake Ashi by boat ride the next morning, went back to the Ryokan to pick up my backpack and left for Tokyo.