Side Trips from Tokyo - Tokyo - page 293

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stop off at the “foot onsen” near the Picture Gallery, where you can immerse your tired feet
in soothing, hot-spring water. The museum is open daily 9am to 5pm; admission is ¥1,600
adults, ¥1,100 university and high-school students and seniors, and ¥800 children. Your
Hakone Free Pass gives you a ¥200 discount.

BY CABLE CAR TO SOUNZAN
Cable cars leave Gora every 20 minutes or so and arrive 9 minutes later at the end station
of Sounzan, making several stops along the way as they travel steeply uphill. One of the
stops is Koen-Kami, from which it's only a minute's walk to the Hakone Museum of Art
( & 0460/82-2623 ). This five-room museum displays Japanese pottery and ceramics
from the Jomon Period (around 4000-2000 b.c.) to the Edo Period, including terra-
cotta haniwa burial figures, huge 16th-century Bizen jars, and Imari ware. What makes
this place particularly rewarding are the bamboo grove and small but lovely moss garden,
shaded by Japanese maples, with a teahouse where you can sample Japanese tea for ¥630.
It is most beautiful in autumn. Open Friday through Wednesday from 9:30am to
4:30pm (to 4pm Dec-Mar); admission is ¥900 for adults, ¥700 for seniors, ¥400 for
university and high-school students, and free for children. The Hakone Free Pass gives
you a ¥200 discount. Plan on spending about a half-hour here, more if you opt for tea.

BY ROPEWAY TO TOGENDAI
From Sounzan, you board a ropeway with gondolas for a long, 30-minute haul over a
mountain to Togendai on the other side, which lies beside Lake Ashi, known as Lake
Ashinoko in Japanese. Note that the ropeway stops running at around 5:15pm in sum-
mer and 4pm in winter.
Before reaching Togendai, however, get off at Owakudani, the ropeway's highest point,
to hike the 30-minute Owakudani Nature Trail . Owakudani means “Great Boiling
Valley,” and you'll soon understand how it got its name when you see (and smell) the
sulfurous steam escaping from fissures in the rock, testimony to the volcanic activity still
present here. Most Japanese commemorate their trip by buying boiled eggs, cooked here
in the boiling waters, available at the small hut midway along the trail.

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ACROSS LAKE ASHI BY BOAT
From Togendai you can take a pleasure boat across Lake Ashi, also referred to as “Lake
Hakone” in some English-language brochures. Believe it or not, a couple of the boats
plying the waters are replicas of a man-of-war pirate ship. It takes about half an hour to
cross the lake to Hakone-machi (also called simply Hakone; machi means “city”) and
Moto-Hakone, two resort towns right next to each other on the southern edge of the
lake. This end of the lake affords the best view of Mount Fuji, one often depicted in
tourist publications. Boats are in operation year-round (though they run less frequently
in winter and not at all in stormy weather); the last boat departs around 5pm from the
end of March to the end of November. Otherwise, buses connect Togendai with Moto-
Hakone, Odawara, and Shinjuku.
After the boat ride, if you're heading back to Tokyo, buses depart for Odawara near
the boat piers in both Hakone-machi and Moto-Hakone. Otherwise, for more sightsee-
ing, get off the boat in Hakone-machi, turn left, and walk about 5 minutes on the town's
main road, following the signs and turning left to Hakone Check Point (Hakone Seki-
sho) ( & 0460/83-6635 ), on a road lined with souvenir shops. This is a reconstructed
guardhouse originally built in 1619 to serve as a checkpoint along the famous Tokaido