{"id":1147,"date":"2026-04-09T06:48:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1147\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:48:23","slug":"favorite-part-of-japan-trip-was-not-tokyo-it-was-small-town-of-hakone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/1147\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite Part of Japan Trip Was Not Tokyo; It Was Small Town of Hakone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visiting Japan has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I finally booked a trip after relentless pleas from my children \u2014 and reading about how the US dollar is strong against the Japanese yen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n Loading audio narration…\n <\/p>\n

To simplify planning, I booked a family tour<\/a> through Intrepid Travel. Unsurprisingly, the tour went to Tokyo and Kyoto, popular tourist destinations that draw many visitors (including my family) to Japan.<\/p>\n

However, the tour also brought us to some places I may not have found on my own, including the quaint, quirky mountain town<\/a> of Hakone.<\/p>\n

Visiting the town, which is southwest of central Tokyo and about a 90-minute railway ride away, turned out to be my favorite part of the trip.<\/p>\n

We loved the town’s famous hot springs <\/p>\n

\"Author<\/p>\n

Our trip was complete with incredible views.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jamie Davis Smith<\/p>\n

Hakone is full of onsens, or natural hot springs<\/a>, heated by geothermal activity happening beneath Japan. During my visit, I got to experience several types of onsens \u2014 and I still dream of sitting in their soothing waters.<\/p>\n

First, I tried a bucolic onsen overlooking the mountains, which were lush and green when I visited during the summer. Lounging in a naturally fed hot spring from the top of a mountain allowed me to slow down, relax, and appreciate the beauty of Japan outside of its big cities.<\/p>\n

I also tried a traditional onsen<\/a>, which was segregated by gender and required visitors to disrobe completely. As an American, I’m not used to bathing naked with strangers, but I didn’t want to miss this quintessential Japanese experience. <\/p>\n

Although I didn’t stay long, it was eye-opening to see how this tradition, so different than my own, quickly helped me feel more comfortable in my own skin. This is something I would not have experienced if I had not gone to Hakone.<\/p>\n

Finally, my kids and I tried a series of themed onsens at Yunessun, a hot-spring theme park<\/a>, which was one of the quirkier experiences I have had while traveling. <\/p>\n

There, I hopped into an onsen shaped like a ramen bowl, complete with blow-up toppings. My kids joked that we were experiencing what it felt like to be cooked on a stovetop. <\/p>\n

I also got to try unique baths, including one filled with coffee and another containing wine. My skin felt smooth and soft when I left.<\/p>\n

Our trip featured some unique activities, including a visit to a mind-blowing sculpture garden<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

The whole family had a blast at the Hakone Open-Air Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jamie Davis Smith<\/p>\n

Although my children don’t always share my affinity for looking at paintings and sculptures, they agreed to accompany me to the Hakone Open-Air Museum.<\/p>\n

Beyond its gates, we found larger-than-life interactive sculptures unlike anything we’ve seen at traditional art museums.<\/p>\n

As we walked through the museum’s gardens, we hopped through rainbows, climbed to the top of a stained-glass tower, and walked underground to peek up at the sky from below. <\/p>\n

My children even swung on colorfully knitted balls hanging from an elaborate net, seemingly suspended from the sky. <\/p>\n

Near the exit of the gardens, I sat and soaked my feet in a hot-spring footbath while gazing out at the surrounding forest. I wish that every large attraction had something similar at the end.<\/p>\n

\"Child<\/p>\n

There were some fun photo opportunities at the Hakone Open-Air Museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jamie Davis Smith<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there were many other unique and fun things for us to do in Hakone. <\/p>\n

While there, I ate one of the town’s famous black eggs, which had been transformed from their original white after boiling in a sulfur-rich hot spring. Legend has it that eating one of these adds seven years to your life \u2014 I devoured every morsel.<\/p>\n

\"Hand<\/p>\n

Hakone is famous for its hard-boiled black eggs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jamie Davis Smith<\/p>\n

We also got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji from the Hakone Tozan Railway and rode on a pirate ship to get a fantastic view of Hakone’s bright-red Torii Gate standing in a lake.<\/p>\n

Hakone was a wonderful stop on our trip, and I’d happily return <\/p>\n

\"Child<\/p>\n

We saw so much in Hakone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jamie Davis Smith<\/p>\n

During our time in Hakone, we stayed in a ryokan, a type of traditional Japanese inn<\/a>, and were able to explore a lot of the relatively small town on foot. <\/p>\n

Along the way, we wound through mountain roads dotted with small restaurants and shops, a welcome reprieve from the heat of the bigger cities we had visited earlier in our trip. We even took some time to hike along Hakone’s lush forest paths.<\/p>\n

Although it’s easy to see the appeal of Japan’s bigger cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, if I ever return to the country, I would spend more time in Hakone and seek out other small towns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visiting Japan has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I finally booked a trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1520,1524,1527,1202,1517,8,1518,151,1522,1525,1521,1519,1526,1523,52,1528],"class_list":{"0":"post-1147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kyoto","8":"tag-big-city","9":"tag-child","10":"tag-foot","11":"tag-garden","12":"tag-hakone","13":"tag-japan","14":"tag-japan-trip","15":"tag-kyoto","16":"tag-long-time","17":"tag-mountain","18":"tag-natural-hot-spring","19":"tag-onsen","20":"tag-several-type","21":"tag-small-town","22":"tag-tokyo","23":"tag-top"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}