Hotel de Yama where we stayed in Hakone was very “old school” by Japanese standards. It had been owned by a doyen of the family that had founded one of the big Japanese engineering companies Mitsubishi and the had originally been a holiday lodge - the hotel was established to cater-to wealthy inhabitants of Tokyo who were looking for some R&R and a nice view of Mount Fuji.
As a consequence, all the rooms had lake views, there was lots of wood panelling and leather armchairs as well as two excellent restaurants and an on-site thermal bath - on separate levels - one catering to the Ladies and on the floor below, the Gentleman (any clothing or swim suits very much frowned upon).
As we had found in our previous hotels, each room came equipped with a set of pyjamas for each guest and in this hotel a kind of samurai style dressing-gown which I decided to wear down to the Onsen once we had unpacked our bags.
The Gentleman’s section comprised a changing room area that led to a wet room where there were rows of seats facing a shower head attached to the wall and separated by a low wall from its neighbour. On the table in front of the seat were bottles of shampoo and shower gell and a big bowl which I discovered was to be used to wash down the seat and the surround areas once you had finished your ablutions.
The idea was to throughly wash your self down and use the shower head to get rid of the suds and then to go into the thermal pools - one of which was inside the building and one of which was in an enclosed courtyard area outside. Both pools had a running faucet that delivered the volcanically heated water from the thermal springs beneath hotel (with a sign above it confirming in a variety of languages that the water was for external use only).
Although there was a slight smell of sulphur it was a very pleasant environment especially sitting in the hot but not scalding waters in the outside pool (the weather had closed in again and so the rain was teeming down although the pool was partially sheltered by the trees and walls of the courtyard and canopy provided by the floor above us).
It was very atmospheric as the thunder rolled and echoed above and although there were a couple of other users when I arrived I was soon able to enjoy the outside pool on my own while I gently poached in the steaming water.
I eventually moved inside to try out the indoor pool which was significantly hotter so I only lasted a couple of minutes before returning to the wet room to thoroughly wash myself down again (not sure I had been this clean for a very time….) before heading back to the room.
Following the deluge that had greeted us upon our arrival at Hakone the day before, the following morning dawned sunny and reasonably clear and pulling back our curtains we were treated to a spectacular view of the lake and mountains surrounding our hotel.
Our first task was to take advantage of the blue skies and finds a good view of Mount Fuji before the clouds settled in again and we were directed by the Hotel concierge to the Hakone “Ropeway” which started at the far edge of the lake. This was in fact a cable car that transported us up the side of a volcano with views both over the lake and also over the smoking vents and decimated landscape where the steam and gasses bubbled up from the lava streams below.
My guide book described the area as a “hellscape” (see photos below) and it was indeed an extraordinary sight as the steam billowed from the vents and the lava field surface below us appeared to be bleached white over the years of eruptions and stained yellow by the sulphur emissions as it lay twisted and torn as we sailed through the air. It almost caused us to miss our first view of Mount Fuji which unexpectedly appeared to our right towering above the mountains and forests below our cable car.
It was a truly amazing sight as it completely dominated the surrounding landscape and although probably 10 - 15 km away it looked absolutely huge, an effect accentuated by the clouds that had gathered around the middle section leaving the peak sitting in splendid isolation in the vivid blue skies (not sure I entirely did it justice in the photos but you do get a good sense of its size).
There were a couple of ropeway stations on the route which allowed us to get out and take a closer look at the volcanic activities (although you need to have booked a guided tour and a hard hat to go through the lava fields) and take some photos of views towards Mount Fuji.
The return journey very helpfully also took us back to the embarkation point for the private ship that plies its trade taking sightseers across the lake and after lunch a the Pirate Cafe we took a voyage to MotoHakone on the other side of the peninsular where our Hotel was located - this was accompanied by threatening skies as the sunshine gave way to dark storm clouds and by the time we reached the other side the rain was once again pelting down. Fortunately there were a number of museums to take shelter in including what appeared to be a museum devoted to a local University running team and a recreation of roadside checkpoint from the Samurai era.
There was also a lovely art gallery with views across the lake and a terrific collection of local artists which we were able to shelter in after a lake side walk back towards the Hotel during a break in the rain.
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