1 Night in Hakone - Visiting a Hot Springs Ryokan and the Hakone Ropeway
On my last trip to Japan, I visited Hakone for the first time! Since we were with a rather large group and we wanted to do some fresh sightseeing, we decided to visit this famous area to enjoy the mountainous nature and experience the kurotamago (black egg) firsthand!
Hot springs ryokan
We spent one night in Hakone and decided to check out one of the many hot springs ryokans available in the area!
Choosing a ryokan
For our stay, we decided to stay at Nagominoyado Hanagokoro. Honestly, it’s a little overwhelming sorting through all of the different options since there are just so many at varying price points and different amenities. I would say if you’re debating which ryokan is right for you, decide what aspects of the experience you value most and seek those out.
One of the reasons we ended up choosing this location was the private hot springs. We were traveling with a large group and we all are pretty private people and weren’t too psyched at the idea of using a public onsen. This ryokan was also very close to the Hakone Ropeway which we knew we wanted to visit, so location seemed pretty good as well.
Getting to the ryokan
Getting around Hakone can be a little bit tricky if you’re primarily using public transportation. I think it can definitely be done if you’re with a small/nimble group, but as we were a pretty large party where everyone had a bit of luggage, we found that the public transportation would be too difficult for us to manage. Instead we opted to use taxis.
Rideshare apps are not widely available in this area, so the only app that we were able to use here was the Go Taxi App. This app does require your phone to be able to receive SMS, so there’s some limitations here if you don’t have international cellular service. Of course you can always hail a taxi the old-fashioned way! But the Go Taxi App was exactly what we needed. I really liked that you can even call up to 3 cars on the same ride request, so we were able to securely transport our large group across two cars and still manage to keep us all together.
My experience
Overall, I would say that I was disappointed with this ryokan experience, and I can’t say I would recommend it unfortunately.
Finding the ryokan entrance
Screenshot from Google Maps image of the ryokan entrance
When we got to the location, it was difficult to find, and our drivers had to loop around a couple times to find the entrance on the side of the road. And to get to the entrance of the building, we had to take these large stone steps down to the entrance which was difficult to do with luggage. The staff did end up helping some of us with our luggage when they saw that we had arrived, which was very nice!
Private onsen miscommunication
We booked 3 separate rooms, and each room had its own private onsen. Through the booking.com listing, I thought that meant that each room had its own onsen. This was not actually the case. Each room had access to its own onsen, which was actually located separately from the rooms themselves. Not only that, in order to access the onsen you actually have to leave the building and go down these outdoor staircases in order to get to the onsen that’s assigned to your room.
In the evening, when I tried to access our room’s onsen, the sun had already set so it was dark outside, and the outdoor staircase had little to no lighting, so I had to use my phone flashlight to navigate down the stairs, which is easily a falling hazard. There are also sooo many large, loud, buzzing insects all around that are absolutely terrifying. (I’m not an outdoorsy person so this was really terrible for me). This did look very nice and scenic during the daytime, but at night, it felt a little more like an eerie movie scene. And this may be unavoidable, but there were sooo many mosquitoes inside and outside of the onsen area that I was generally just very uncomfortable and too paranoid about the mosquitos to even enjoy being in the onsen. The onsen room area itself also has no light, so if you visit it at night you’re literally sitting in the dark. It’s quite scary.
I did try again in the morning when it was light out, and while it was nice to be able to see where I was going, the bugs and the general discomfort did not subside, so I didn’t really enjoy the experience after all. Maybe attempting this in the summer just isn’t the right move.
Room cleanliness
The rooms themselves were actually very spacious. There was lots of room as well as a large table with chairs and a decent sized bathroom. In general, I thought the rooms were okay.
However, the cleanliness was lacking. We found multiple grubby bugs in our room, and even found one in the sheets in the bed. There were also some ants crawling on the sheets occasionally as well. As a person who is very afraid of bugs, this was kind of a nightmare of a room, but given how remote we were I didn’t feel like we had any other option but to stick it out. I’m also not a very confrontational person either, so there wasn’t anything I was realistically going to do about any of this. Instead I just had a fitful night’s sleep, jerking around every so often in case a bug found its way onto me.
The kaiseki meal
Part of the ryokan experience can include the kaiseki dinner and/breakfast that is essentially a tasting menu of different seasonal dishes. I would say that overall the meals were nice and well prepared. The food tasted fresh and the dishware and presentation in particular were very pretty! Some of the dishes were not to my taste, but that’s the risk you run with any kaiseki meal since you don’t get to choose your dishes.
our breakfast - what a beautiful spread!
Between the two meals, I think I enjoyed the breakfast more. Everything was very tasty and I also really enjoyed each dish!
Checking out
The service during our stay was quite nice - everyone we interacted with was kind. However, I felt like when we checked out, the courtesy kind of ended there. When we had arrived, they helped us bring our bags down, but did not offer to do the same when we were leaving even though the staff was in the lobby. I felt it would have been a nice courtesy since we were traveling with seniors, but I understand that’s not necessarily required.
I had also asked if it was possible for them to call a taxi for us since I wasn’t sure if we would be successful in calling a Go Taxi to our location since our taxis got lost finding the spot when we arrived, and we had thought maybe if a Japanese speaker could communicate with the driver it’d be easier for them to find us? They refused. This was another thing that I thought lodging places generally are pretty open to, but they were not. Instead we tried our luck with the Go Taxi App, and resorted to standing on the side of the road and looking for our taxis’ license plates to flag them down. Quite a sight to see I would think.
Overall
I generally don’t like being a downer or criticizing a business too much, but I just really had a bad experience here. I felt misled with regards to the private onsen, and was even more disappointed with the state of the situation. The room was uncomfortable and honestly I was just glad we were only spending one night there - I’m not sure I could have survived a second one. I think I’ve been disenchanted by the idea of private hot springs baths - maybe it’s just not for me. I will say that I am aware that price point does play a part in the overall experience. This spot was one of the more affordable places, which was one of the reasons we chose it. So maybe the lesson for me here is that if I’m going to be spending on an experience like this, it’s worth it to spend a little more.
Hokane Ropeway
The Hakone Ropeway is a gondola transportation system that goes up the Hakone mountains through a volcanic hot spring area and straight to Lake Ashi on the other side of the mountain. It’s very scenic and beautiful, and on a clear day you can even see Mt. Fuji from the gondola!
Riding the Hakone Ropeway requires a separate admission ticket. At the stations, you can buy either a day pass or a one-way ticket. The day pass was 2500 yen per adult, and since we knew we were going to ride the whole way and back, we went with a day pass.
Sounzan Station
Sounzan Station is the starting station of the Hakone Ropeway. You can either take the Hakone Cable Car up to Sounzan Station which is already pretty high up in the mountains and transfer to the Ropeway from there, or if you’re staying nearby it could be a short walk or taxi ride away.
The ryokan we stayed at the night before was actually very conveniently located just down the street from Sounzan Station so it was literally a 5-minute walk for us.
Purchasing a ticket
The Hakone Ropeway requires a separate ticket to ride, which you can purchase through a kiosk at the station. You can either purchase a one-way ticket or a day pass that was 2500 yen per adult when we visited (July 2025). Since we had planned to ride the ropeway all the way to the last station at Lake Ashi and back, since our lodging was located next to Sounzan Station, a day pass made the most sense for us.
The tickets are also quite cute! They’re paper tickets that have some cute little sketch-style drawings on them and there are several different designs! These definitely make for a cute little keepsake to remember the trip by!
Riding the Ropeway
There’s pretty clear signage for which line to get in depending on which station you are trying to travel to, along with color-coded taped arrows on the ground, so you can follow those when navigating station transfers.
A station employee also stands at the line entrances to stamp your ticket before you reach the gondolas.
The gondolas are quite big, so if you’re in a small party you will most likely end up sharing one with other groups. On a warm day, it can get quite hot inside - there are some small fans operating inside the gondolas to help with airflow, but it can get quite hot. I found that having my own portable fan was very helpful when we were sitting inside.
The ride experience is pretty smooth and feels very secure. You can also get some nice views of the surrounding area and even Mt. Fuji on a clear day! We were there in the summer so the view was so clear! (even if Mt. Fuji was a little bald)
Visiting Owakudani Station
Owakudani Station is famous for their kurotamago, which translates to black egg. These black eggs are boiled in the hot springs water that comes from the mountains. The elements in the water are what give the shell the black color. It’s said that if you have a kurotamago from Owakudani, you’ll extend your life by 7 years! So of course we had to try it!
The eggs themselves taste quite the same as any other boiled egg. They’re boiled for an hour in the sulfuric water so they’re verryyy hard boiled. If you’re not a fan of hard-boiled yolk, you’ll find that they’re quite chalky.
We were able to purchase these at the kurotamagokan that’s right next to the station which was 500 yen for 4 eggs (cash only). These eggs are some of the many black egg-themed souvenirs that you can purchase at the gift shop!
The station area is quite large - there’s a lookout ledge that you can walk over to see the sulfur and the mountain.
Everything here is kurotamago-themed, including two literal black egg statues that you can get photos with! They also have a very cute collaboration with Sanrio, so you can find a bunch of souvenirs with Sanrio characters as black eggs! And of course Gudetama gets his moment to shine here. Adorable!
Lake Ashi
The end of Hakone Ropeyway takes you directly to Lake Ashi, a large beautiful lake!
And parked right at the lake is a large pirate ship-themed cruise ship, which guests can purchase tickets to ride. From here, you can take the cruise down the lake, which will bring you down to the huge gate that is famous in Hakone.
I believe the cruise does take a few hours, so you’ll need to set aside time to partake in this. We didn’t have that much time to spend here, so we skipped it. It’s a very popular activity, and it’s basically the main attractions when you get to Togendai Station.
You can walk around the surrounding area for a bit, but it’s pretty sparse with tourist activities, so other than taking the cruise and looking at the lake, we didn’t have too much else to do so we returned back to Sounzan Station after enjoying the view for a bit.
Is it worth the visit?
We only allotted about half a day to doing the whole ropeway and visiting Owakudani Station. With that amount of time, we didn’t really have enough time to do everything like the pirate ship cruise. But for the limited amount of time that we did have, it was really nice and scenic!
I think it would make more sense to dedicate a full day and including the Lake Ashi cruise as part of the activities just to get a fuller sense of the area and visit the really beautiful Hakone gate! Seeing Lake Ashi alone was just a bit lackluster, so I think doing the whole experience would really make it feel nice and complete.
But otherwise it was a great time! The gondola was a fun ride, and the views were really beautiful! I’d recommend Hakone as a nice little day trip with a bit of a calmer tone in comparison to the bustling metropolitan feel of somewhere like Tokyo.
