Favorite Part of Japan Trip Was Not Tokyo; It Was Small Town of Hakone

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

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

However, the tour also brought us to some places I may not have found on my own, including the quaint, quirky mountain town of Hakone.

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.

We loved the town’s famous hot springs

Hakone is full of onsens, or natural hot springs, heated by geothermal activity happening beneath Japan. During my visit, I got to experience several types of onsens — and I still dream of sitting in their soothing waters.

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.

I also tried a traditional onsen, 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Our trip featured some unique activities, including a visit to a mind-blowing sculpture garden

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.

Beyond its gates, we found larger-than-life interactive sculptures unlike anything we’ve seen at traditional art museums.

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.

My children even swung on colorfully knitted balls hanging from an elaborate net, seemingly suspended from the sky.

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.

Fortunately, there were many other unique and fun things for us to do in Hakone.

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 — I devoured every morsel.

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.

Hakone was a wonderful stop on our trip, and I’d happily return

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

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.

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.