Japan trip recap: Hakone

It was a rare summer weekend here in San Francisco and I took full of advantage with two rounds of golf and a night out with high school friends. I had a blast, but I am a bit beat today. It’s officially over a week since I’ve been back from my trip, so I think it’s time to finally put a wraps on this trip recap this week.

Hakone: Day 10-11

After a great morning exploring Arashiyama and putting a bow on our trip to Kyoto, we got our bags and headed to catch the bullet train to head back east to Hakone. I knew that we had to do a stay at a traditional Japanese hotel called a ryokan at least for one night. Hakone is a popular area an hour south of Tokyo known for having many ryokans and onsens.

Sophia and I grabbed a few ekibens for our two+ hour train ride to Hakone and hopped on the bullet train. The wait to get tickets was a bit crowded and frustrating, but in Japanese fashion everything moved quickly and was so orderly. I couldn’t help but contrast that to a travel day at Penn Station.

We checked in to our ryokan called Hakone Airu. It was a very interesting place as it had a lot of traditional Japanese build but also mixed with modern and Balinese elements. We checked into our room and we were immediately stoked by how much space we had compared to our hotel rooms. We booked the room with a private hot tub on the deck and the view was just incredible.

After relaxing, we changed into our Japanese robes and headed to a semi-private room for our dinner. We went with steak the first night and unfortunately we were a bit underwhelmed. There was quite a bit of food which was awesome, but nothing really stood out. The steak was not very tender. It wasn’t bad by any means, but we had some high hopes.

The next day we decided to take the late morning and early afternoon to explore. Hakone is in a mountainous area with a bunch of natural hot springs. We book the bus to the trolley which took us to the top of the mountain. At the top were a few stores, some hot springs, and a gorgeous view of the entire area. The area is known for a bit of a tourist gimmick called black eggs where the eggs are steamed in the hot springs giving them a black shell. I was thinking about trying one but it really just seemed like a hard boiled egg so I passed.

Afterwards we took the trolley all the way down to the town called Gora to grab lunch. I found this great local spot called Futaba that cooked some fire tofu and tonkatsu for Sophia and I who were very hungry. After lunch, we decided to grab a few drinks at this place called Gora Brewery. I was pleasantly surprised to find a brewery in this region. The beer was just okay, but the Japanese bar snacks were great. They had some homemade squid jerky which was unique and delicious.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to just relax the rest of the afternoon. We grabbed some sake and spent a few hours in and out of our private onsen while enjoying the view. For tonight’s dinner, we decided to go with the king crab. I was excited as it’s nearly impossible to screw up king crab. To our surprise, the dinner that night as fantastic and felt night and day from the night before. All the dishes were excellent and it was all capped off with a good serving of king crab.

That night was one of those moments where I was just smiling ear to ear. I was happy to be alive and felt incredibly blessed. I was sitting in my Japanese robe in a private dining area facing the sunset over the mountains eating a traditional Japanese multi-course dinner next to my wife. I’m not sure I deserve to be so lucky in this life.

After dinner, we decided to go to the bar downstairs for a few drinks. The bartender was incredibly friendly and had this amazing laugh. And he laughed often. His English wasn’t great, but we used a lot of google translate to have conversations. We chatted about work, Hakone, and life in general. It was another one of those moments where I sat just amazed how much tech has improved our lives. I knew we were leaving the next morning and while I was ready to get out, I was definitely sad to say goodbye to the bartender.

We went to bed early and slept in. The breakfast at the hotel was great and filling. I wish I could have a Japanese breakfast every morning. It’s a healthy, nutritious, and tastes amazing. After enjoying the onsen and view for a couple more hours, we hopped on the train back to Tokyo. The train is pretty interesting as it’s been branded the “Romance Car” which I believe is in reference to the two seats and the views/sights you see while on this train. Hakone is a bit of a romantic place.

The Romance Car took us straight to Shinjuku station which was nice as it was just a short walk to our hotel. Given how far our last hotel was from the station, we decided to book a place at a hotel as close as possible to the train station this time. It was about 10x less stressful getting to our new hotel than it was the prior week when we first got to Tokyo.

Next, we end the trip in Tokyo with a bunch of food and shopping.