Bus ride up the soaring Hakone mountains, visit a traditional tea house serving a hot sweet drink, walk on a historic stone-paved Hakone path, visit Hakone Shrine, lunch at Motohakone, sail on a pirate boat, panoramic views from a ropeway, stop at fuming Owakudani Valley tasting black eggs boiled by volcanic heat, cable car descent to Gora, train ride to Tonosawa, visit Benzaiten Shrine and a dip in a hot spa.
Just outside the ticket gate of Hakone Yumoto Station
Customers and guide meet
Take a taxi to Amasake Chaya Tea House
Taste hot sweet drink and sweets in an old traditional Japanese-style wooden house
Walk on a mountain path, mostly covered by cobblestones, which linked Kyoto and Edo (present Tokyo) as Tokaido Highway in the old days
Visit Hakone Shrine, with its over 1,200 years history, worshipped by two powerful Shoguns, Minamotono Yoritomo and Tokugawa Ieyasu
Take lunch at a restaurant by the Lake Ashi
Sail on a Hakone Pirate Ship from Port Motohakone to Port Togendai
Take panoramic views from a ropeway
Stop at fuming Owakudani Volcanic Valley, tasting black eggs boiled with volcanic heat
Take a cable car ride through forests
Take a train ride on a railway line which goes zigzags down the slopes using the switchback method at three locations
Visit Benzaiten Shrine at the end of the Tonosawa Station platform, which is said to make worshipper's money many times valuable
Take a hot bath at Hakone Yuryo Hot Spa, a traditionally-styled countryside one-day hot spring resort, which offers both public and private baths
End of the tour: customers and guide part
Hakone Yumoto Station
guide fee
guide's transportation fee ¥6,170, guide's spa fee ¥1,600, tourist's transportation fee ¥4,740 (starting from Yumoto Sta.and getting to Yumoto Sta. using taxi from Yumoto Sta. to Amasake Chaya +public transportations from Amasake Chaya to Yumoto Sta.), tourist's meal, tourist's drink, tourist's spa fee ¥1,600 per person (if a private bath is used, ¥9,400 for a 2-people room or ¥10,400 for a 4-people room for two hours on a weekday. On weekends, ¥11,400 for a 2-people room and ¥12,400 for a 4-people room.)
1. The fee doesn't include the tourists' transportation fees.
2. The fee doesn't include the tourists' meals or beverages.
3. The fee doesn't include admission charges for visiting places or charges for hands-on activities.
4. Tourists pay the guide's transportation fees.
We walk more than one hour up a stone-paved path and there are some steep slopes. We take a hot spring bath. So we need following things:
1. shoes for walking
2. rain gear (umbrella or raincoat, just in case for the rain during walking)
3. changing clothes for hot spring bath
4. a washing towel and a drying towel for hot spring bath (you can buy a face towel for 250 yen and a bath towel for 450 yen)
We can shorten the tour time by omitting ferry cruising, ropeway, and cable cars.
(What To Expect)
You can experience a simple and basic style of life in Japan.
Like the travelers of old days, in a part of our tour, we walk on foot, going on a stone-paved path lined with cider trees and bamboo bushes, filled with nature.
It is dark inside the teahouse. Through the opened doors, the sunlight comes in and washes the wooden floors of the living space, elevated from the earthen floors. A hearth is dug in one wooden floor and we sit around the burning fire and are served with a hot sweet drink made from rice.
Hakone Shrine gives you a moment of peace in your mind, with the path quiet and serene leading to the main hall, the precinct light and open, and the surface of the lake bright reflecting the sunlight at the foot.
At the end of the tour, we relax in a hot spring. This spa is furnished with a variety of hot baths in the open air, facing the garden in the middle.
As means of transportation, we can try multiplicity of vehicles including bus, ferry, ropeway, cable car, and train.
Thank you takao for fitting in all our "must do" sights. We had a great day!
Hi, Amanda. Thank you for your good review! I really enjoyed the tour with you. Today I worked in the field, harvesting rice. Grasshoppers flew up and swallows flew down. And eaglet kept watching the field. I wanted to show Anderson the sight. Have a nice trip in Japan! Best regards, Takao Mizushima
Takao showed us the best day in Hakone! We were in Japan for well over two weeks and this was one of the most memorable days! It was rainy so he adjusted the schedule so we went to the Hakone museum after a tasty lunch with the locals. We also went to the best tea house and it was such a treat! Long day that we ended in the onsen. He is a wonderful guide and he showed us a perfect day that I couldn’t have shown my family on my own with the hike and these particular sights. I spend my money wisely. Hire this guy and you won’t regret it!
Hi, Michelle, Kristine, Aliana and William! Thank you for your nice review. It was such a nice tour for me, too! I really enjoyed talking with you, people from the City of Lawrence. You treated me very kindly and warmly with lunch + Japanese rice wine, Hakone Yuryo spa and dinner + beer! Please keep contact with me. I hope you’ll welcome me when I visit your facebook page soon. See you on the page! Best regards, Takao Mizushima
Highly Recommended! Outstanding knowledge of the area. Very patient and flexible with our needs as tourists, whether on bathroom breaks, change in attractions or extending time. We thoroughly enjoyed his company and unique way of giving information and navigating our itinerary!
Hi, Rod. Thank you for your kind review. I’ll always remember three of you posing surrounding the Black Egg monument with real black eggs in your hands. Beautiful Mt. Fuji welcomed you from behind. I’m happy I was able to help you in Hakone as a guide, thank you again. Best regards, Takao Mizushima
In spite of the unexpected bad weather of cold rain and wind, Takao did his best to provide convenient transportation and take us to most of the organized list of sights planned. He was very polite and attentive.
Hi, Theodore and Liubou. Thank you for your nice review. I didn’t expect to get such a kind and warm words. Yes, it was a challenging day. We were in the clouds and fogs and nothing was visible. I didn’t realize we were past Amasake Chaya Tea House. I kept searching for words to explain things although I was able to see nothing around. Mr. Fuji took a day off and did not show her face. I really enjoyed talking with you. That helped me to change difficulties into happy memories. I’m happy I was able to see you from the country of Cyprus which I would have never had a chance to have connections in my life without you. Have a nice trip in Japan. Best regards, Takao Mizushima