2019/11/14
Hakone Shrine - Hakone Sekisho - Togendai - Hakone Yumoto
Today we are exploring Hakone for a day!
We were super grateful the weather was amazing as Hakone is mostly for outdoor activities.
Breakfast at the ryokan! This meal was served buffet styled. Click here to read details on our experience!
Prior to our visit there was a relatively large typhoon that was in the area. Parts of Hakone needed repair so the city had Buses put in place of some of the transportation routes for safety measures. Due to this reason, Wait times and transportation times were longer.
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For our one day trip around Hakone, we bought the Hakone free pass to use. This pass can be used for 2 (or 3) consecutive days and covers unlimited rides to throughout the Hakone area. (tozan bus, tozan railway, tozan cable car, tozan ropeway, sightseeing cruise, and the Robway. The price differs according to your departure station. If you are planning to sightsee in Hakone and utilising all the different transportation options the city has to offer, I would highly recommend purchasing this pass.
Hakone Shrine 箱根神社
We made Hakone Shrine our first stop in order to beat the crowds and we weren't sure how much time we would spend at the shrine.
It was a sunny day but there were strong winds especially near the harbour side. The waves were rushing up by the dyke and the pier!
A short walk from the first torii, up the hills is the main building of Hakone shrine.
Up the stairs and voila, this beautiful grand structure. This was the year the Heisei emperor retires and thus the start of a new era "Reiwa". Due to this, there were many celebratory flags around the shrines all over Japan, as well as here at Hakone Jinja too.
Obligatory omikuji time!
There were a few different types of omikuji so I tried the kaiun omikuji on the far right.
One thing different from the usual omikuji, other than your paper fortune, you will also receive a small charm indicating your luck!
The list of lucky charms includes: lucky bamboo rake (熊手), God of prosperity (大黒天), God of luck (恵比寿), lucky cat (招き猫), lucky mallet (小槌), frog (かえる), spotted turtle (銭亀), daruma (だるま).
I got the lucky mallet, kozuchi, is an item that can "tap out" anything that is wished for.
A grand carriage showcase in a glass encased display.
Also got my goshuin when we came out! :D
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After taking our time around the area, we made our way to the famous Hakone shrine torii gate.
There was already a small lineup for this photo spot so we quickly joined the crowd.
Beautiful, imagine viewing this from the water, would definitely give off a different vibe with the shrine as the backdrop.
It was really hard to get a nice photo as:
We couldn't back up too far for the photo due to the lineup
We didn't want to take too many shots since there was a long line behind us
The wind was strong and thus pushing the water up this stone path, I cherish my life and also don't want to get wet lol.
In the end, it just felt like a place we need to quickly check in, take a picture, and done, now let's get out of here kind of vibe. Kind of disappointing since I was looking forward to this moment for quite some time.
And who would've known, just a few walk away, was this nice quiet spot with a nice view and a red zen bridge.
So..uh.. picture time? HAHA
If you have time, I believe there are some trails around the area, with the amazing mountain and sea view, I would definitely recommend spending some time to explore the area!
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On our way to the bus stop, we saw these nicely decorated vending machines! lol.
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Hakone Sekisho 箱根関所
Hakone Sekisho is located near Hakone shrine as well as the pier to board the Hakone pirate ship. It looked pretty interesting so we decided to stop by and tour around.
In the Edo period, this place served as an important site of communication and transport.
The whole site is restored to resemble that of the Edo era.
There were restaurants, gift shops that lined this "shopping street" on your way in, and the floor was embellished with unique tiles by the entrance.
To visit the main building of the Hakone Sekisho, you would need to pay an entry fee of 400 yen for adults, which is pretty cheap since the inside is quite big and can be a fun experience if you like to learn about history and culture.
The rooms are decorated with furniture and human stone figures to replicate what would actually happen during that era. I really love this kind of presentation style as it adds a more realistic feeling for visitors instead of an empty room and an info card on the side.
Jail space they keep the prisoners... you can climb inside lol.
To the back of the main building are stairs leading uphill to the watch tower.
The watchtower LOL. I love how they even put stone figure here..
The view from the top of the hill was simply breathtaking. You can even catch a slight glimpse of Mt Fuji from here!
Squint your eyes reeaal hard -o-
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Hakone Sightseeing Cruise
Minutes away from Hakone Sekisho is the harbour to board the famous pirate ship sightseeing cruise. There are three docks to board the ship: Hakonemachi-ko, Motohakone-ko, and Togendai-ko. Since we are travelling upwards to board the Hakone ropeway, we arrived at the Motohakone-ko.
Here's our ship coming our way... the Victory!
The decor of the ship is grand! Victory is modeled after the famous HMS Victory, a warship from the 18th century. The bold colours and the details on the ship is definitely a cool experience.
On the deck!
A peek in the first class cabin we didn't pay for lol
The seating and room decor is more elegant, and offers guests a front row view to the beautiful scenery outside.
We sailed by Hakone Shrine a few minutes after we departed and it looks amazing from the waterside!
Love the autumn foliage ♥
The boat ride is approx 25mins, a fairly short ride, before we knew it, we've arrived at Togendai-ko!
From the harbour, we transferred to the ropeway to Oowakudani.
This is when our plans go off on our schedule, we spent more time than we imagined on traffic and most destinations in Hakone close fairly early. With time ticking tight, we decided to just make our way back to the hotel. :(
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Since we had some extra time to kill before dinner time, we went around all the souvenir stores that were still open by Hakone Yumoto station.
from the top left: dorayaki with butter and red bean filling/chestnut manjuu/yaki mont blanc/honey cheese tart.
There were sooo many goodies from wagashi to cheese tarts and biscuits, we didn't get a chance to visit many attractions so we went all out and bought everything we wanted to snack on later at the hotel haha!
so many snacks 😂
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& then it's time for dinner!
Super delicious! I will be missing the food and the people here so much :(((
Now off for our last dip in the onsen...
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Tbh, I wished we had more time to explore or planned our day better since we didn't have the opportunity to visit many destinations, but it was great to have a day to slow down our pace and just admire the scenery around us :)
Also, if you haven't seen already, here's a detailed post of our stay at Hakone no Mori Okada
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Byee~ see you next blog in Kyoto!
DAY 4 - HAKONE
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