Things to do in West Of Tokyo
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Hakone Open-Air Museum
Once you’ve arrived at Hakone-Yumoto Station, you might want to stop in at the Hakone Tourist Information Centre in front before you start exploring. It’s possible to board the delightful two-car mountain train that slowly winds through the forest to Gōra. Between Odawara and Gōra on the toy-train Hakone-Tōzan Line is the Hakone Open-Air Museum. This art museum is a short walk from Chōkoku-no-mori Station, just before Gōra. As well as paintings, the museum has a 70,000-sq-metre outdoor sculpture park that features works by artists such as Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore. The outdoor bronzes are particularly lovely in the winter under a light blanket of snow.
reviewed
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Ryōsen-Ji Treasure Museum
Located next to Ryōsen-ji temple is the Ryōsen-ji Treasure Museum, displaying exhibits relating to the arrival of Westerners in Japan. These include pictures depicting Okichi-san, a courtesan who was forced to give up the man she loved in order to attend to the needs of the brutal barbarian, Harris. When Harris left Japan five years later, Okichi-san was stigmatised for having had a relationship with a foreigner and she was eventually driven to drink and suicide.
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Black Ship Cruises
Black Ship cruises around the bay take about 20 minutes and depart from Shimoda Harbour every 30 minutes. There are three boats per day (9.40am, 11am and 2pm) that leave on a course for Iro-zaki. You can leave the boat at Iro-zaki (one way ¥1530, 40 minutes) and travel by bus northwards up the peninsula, or stay on the boat to return to Shimoda. Note: three boats per day leave on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; during holiday seasons the schedule is daily.
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Hakone Museum of Art
Gōra is at the end of the Hakone-Tōzan Line and the start of the funicular and cable-car trip to Tōgendai on the shore of Ashi-no-ko. There’s nothing to see at Gōra, and you’ll probably want to wander on. Further up the hill, 10 minutes from Gōra Station, is the Hakone Museum of Art, which has an interesting moss garden and a collection of ceramics from Japan and across Asia.
reviewed
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Tenzan
This large, popular bath is 2km southwest of town; weekends and holidays can be busy. A free shuttle bus runs from the bridge near Hakone-Yumoto Station. After soaking in rotemburo of varying temperatures and designs (one is constructed to resemble a natural cave), the 20-minute walk back down the hill along the river is invigorating.
reviewed
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Ryōsen-Ji
About 700m south of Izukyū Shimoda Station is Ryōsen-ji, which is now famous as the site where Commodore Perry and representatives of the Tokugawa shōgunate signed a treaty whose conditions (favourable to the US, of course) supplemented those outlined in the Treaty of Kanagawa, which was signed, in 1854.
reviewed
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Page One
Tucked away in a row of old shops on Perry Rd, shop-eatery Page One sells women’s clothing along with pizza and pastas such as the watarigani no tomato kurīmu sōsu pasuta (Japanese blue crab pasta with tomato sauce; ¥1600).
reviewed
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Hatsuhana
Slurp some soba at this pleasant eatery along the Haya-gawa (Haya River). Hang a left on the next main street after passing the tourist information centre in Hakone-Yumoto; it’s over the bridge on the left.
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Sushi Take
Try the excellent sets at this friendly spot near Perry Road such as the jizakana sushi setto (local-fish sushi set, ¥1500). There’s a picture menu, and a green-and-white sign outside.
reviewed
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Amazake-Chaya
Since the Edo era, this tea house has been serving up amazake (warm, sweet sake) and light snacks. It’s about 550m up the Old Tōkaidō Hwy from Moto-Hakone.
reviewed
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Kappa Tengoku
Just up the hill from Hakone-Yumoto Station, Kappa Tengoku is a nice rotemburo (outdoor bath) if it’s not crowded.
reviewed
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Chōraku-Ji
Next door to Ryōsen-ji is Chōraku-ji, a pleasant little temple that is worth a quick look.
reviewed
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Hōfuku-ji
In the centre of town is Hōfuku-ji, a temple that is chiefly a museum memorialising the life of Okichi.
The museum is filled with scenes and artefacts from the various movie adaptations of her life on stage and screen. Okichi's grave is also here, in the far corner of the back garden, next to a faded copper statue. Other stones in this garden are dedicated to her, with the names of actors who played her.
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Gorosaya
Elegant, understated ambience and fantastic seafood. Try the simmered fish, usually a whole red snapper (kinmedai) in a delicate, sweet and salty broth. The Isōjiru soup is made from over a dozen varieties of shellfish and looks like a tide pool in a bowl. Look for the wooden fish decorating the entrance and come early for lunch.
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Musashi
In business since 1916, serving hearty comfort food like kamo nabeyaki udon (duck hotpot; ¥1000); there's a big badger out the front.
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Zendera Soba
This local institution serves its speciality namesake Zendera soba (¥1260) with a stalk of fresh wasabi root to grate yourself. It's steps from the bus station on the river side of the street, and has white and black banners.
reviewed
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Tosaya Bar
One of the oddest mash-ups we've seen: a traditional residence from the era of the Black Ships that's now a soul-music bar complete with disco ball. It's actually wicked fun. Just look for the lattice-pattern walls and twinkling lights.
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Togawa-ke Oshi-no-Ie Restored Pilgrim's Inn
Fuji-Yoshida's oshi-no-ie (pilgrims' inns) have served visitors to the mountain since the days when climbing Mt Fuji was a pilgrimage rather than a tourist event. Shide (paper streamers) still mark their entrances, though very few still function as inns. Togawa-ke Oshi-no-le, on Honchō dōri, offers some insight into the fascinating Edo-era practice of Mt Fuji worship.
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Shimoda Kōen & Wakanoura Promenade Park
If you keep walking east from Perry Rd, you'll reach the pleasant hillside park of Shimoda Kōen, which overlooks the bay. It's loveliest in June, when the hydrangeas are in bloom. The coastal road is also a fine place to walk. If you have an hour or so, keep following it around the bay, passing an overpriced aquarium, and eventually you'll meet up with the 2km-long Wakanoura Promenade, a stone path along a peaceful stretch of beach.
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Sanrokuen
Here diners sit on the floor around traditional irori charcoal pits grilling their own meals – skewers of choice fish, meat, tofu and vegies. There's a picture menu. From Kawaguchi-ko Station, turn left, left again after the 7-Eleven and after 600m you'll see the thatched roof on the right.
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Sai-ko Iyashi-no-Sato Nenba
This complex opened in 2006 on the site of some historic thatched-roof houses, washed away in a typhoon 40 years earlier. Inside these dozen reconstructed frames are demonstrations of silk and paper crafts; restaurants specialise in soba and konyakku (arrowroot starch).
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Ryōsen-ji & Chōraku-ji
A 25-minute walk south of Shimoda Station is Ryōsen-ji, site of the treaty that opened Shimoda, signed by Commodore Perry and representatives of the Tokugawa shōgunate. The temple's Black Ship Art Gallery displays artefacts relating to Perry, the Black Ships, and Japan as seen through foreign eyes and vice versa.
Behind and up the steps from Ryōsen-ji is Chōraku-ji, where a Russo-Japanese treaty was signed in 1854; look for the cemetery and namako-kabe (black-and-white lattice-patterned) walls.
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Porto Caro
Colourful, 2nd-floor trattoria specialising in pasta dishes with local seafood, and pizzas; look for the English sign two blocks down from the post office.
reviewed
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Panorama-dai
This trail ends in a spectacular, spot-on view of Mt Fuji. It's a one-hour hike from the trailhead, a 20-minute walk beyond the Motosu-Iriguchi bus stop (¥1240, 45 minutes from Kawaguchi-ko).
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Narusawa Ice Cave
Close to the road, this cave was formed by lava flows from a prehistoric eruption of Mt Fuji.
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