I knew, going in to a trip to Hakone, that it was a tourist destination. I also knew it was a haven for Hot Springs, or Onsen, which I adore. Having stayed there for almost exactly 48 hours there is a lot to reflect on.

Hakone is beautiful. It is up in the mountains so the fresh mountain air and scenery everywhere you look seems surreal. Add to that the bountiful Onsen water fed from the active volcano churning below it and it really is a dream come true.

On the other hand, there were a lot of things about this area that frustrated me (to the point that as tempting as all the Onsen are, I don’t know if I’d come back). The first was the lack of pedestrian walkways. There are many area where, if you are walking, you are forced to walk on the road, which is often very narrow itself. This was particularly frightening as I had to do it on the way to or from my lodging every time just to get to a bus stop. On the plus side, the green moss covered barriers were lovely.

The bus system was another down side for me. This is the only place I’ve been to in Japan that was not inundated with train systems. Your only choice was to take the bus. That wouldn’t be so bad except that it was very confusing to figure out. I never ended up on the wrong bus (by some miracle), but I witnessed many tourists that did. In addition to that (and likely the reason there are no trains) the buses were treking what they call “meandering roads” which was a recipe for motion sickness for me. Throw me on one of those busses for an hour (something I needed to do 3 times-2 to get to and from the nearest train station, and one to get to Hiewa no Tori) and I was a mess most of this trip.

The bus system combined with the pedestrian issues made this a difficult visit for me. If I do ever go back, I would do things MUCH differently. I even considered getting a cab to some bus stations at one point, but the price of the cabs deterred me.

Lastly, and I know this is typical of Japan, there were no places to throw away trash or recycle bottles. More so than anywhere in Japan I’ve ever seen-which is really saying something. Even at a cafe where I purchased some ice cream and tea, there was nowhere to dispose of the bottle or trash from my snack. It wasn’t until 3 hours later that I found these:

Because I didn’t take meals in my Ryokan, and the rules said that, not only could I not eat in the room, but that all trash had to be taken with me, I was loaded with a bag of trash that I couldn’t dispose of until I traveled to Yokohama.

All in all, Hakone is beautiful. I don’t think I would come back, however. I had planned this in my itinerary in February just to see the Little Prince Museum, which closed permanently on March. The Onsen was nice, but I’m not sure it was worth all the trouble.