Why Hakone Has Been Tokyo’s Favorite Escape for Centuries

Hakone makes more sense when you stop thinking of it as a place to photograph Mt. Fuji.

For centuries, it has been somewhere people paused.

A checkpoint on the Tokaido

During the Edo period, the Tokaido road linking Edo and Kyoto crossed over Hakone’s mountains. The climb was difficult, and the Hakone checkpoint, established in 1619, was one of the shogunate’s most important barriers. Travelers were inspected before continuing along the road, making Hakone less a sightseeing stop than a place you had to pass through carefully.

A weathered vermilion torii standing in the shallows of Lake Ashi, with a stone path leading out to it and wooded hills across the water. — The Peace Torii of Hakone Shrine. The old checkpoint stood a little further along the same shore.

Why people stayed

The hot springs gave people a reason to stay.

Hakone’s onsen history reaches back at least to the eighth century, and by the Edo period its baths were already well known. After a long journey on foot, soaking in the mountains was practical before it became luxurious. Over time, that pause became part of Hakone’s identity.

Visitors walking along a path at Owakudani toward the Hakone Geomuseum, with volcanic steam rising from the bare hillside behind. — Steam still rises at Owakudani. Hakone’s hot springs are fed by the same volcano.

Opening to the world

Then Japan opened to the outside world. In 1878, the Fujiya Hotel opened in Miyanoshita with a particular focus on foreign guests, helping turn an old hot-spring town into one of Japan’s early international resort destinations.

The journey changed, but the appeal did not.

That is still the best way to understand Hakone today.

Hakone today

There is Lake Ashi, mountain scenery, art, ryokan and, when the weather cooperates, views of Mt. Fuji. But Hakone works best when those things are not treated as a checklist.

Looking up inside the Symphonic Sculpture at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, a spiral staircase rising through a tower of colored stained glass. — Inside the Symphonic Sculpture at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, where a spiral staircase climbs through the stained glass.

Day trip or overnight

We regularly see travelers try to fit Hakone into a fast day trip from Tokyo, often built around getting one photograph of Mt. Fuji. It can be done. But it misses much of the point.

Spend the night. Check into a ryokan. Take the onsen before dinner, then again in the morning. Let the weather change over the mountains.

Hakone Shrine’s red torii at the edge of Lake Ashi, beneath low gray cloud and mist over the forested hills. — The same shore under low cloud. On days like this, Mt. Fuji stays hidden.

Hakone has been asking travelers to slow down for centuries. It is still very good at it.

If Hakone is part of your journey, ask your tour manager whether it makes more sense as an overnight stay. Quite often, it does.