Overall, the staff were very polite and able to speak English well enough! Sadly not tattoo friendly, but we chose this place knowing that would be the case as we wanted to focus on sightseeing instead. The beef shabu shabu dinner is the better choice, and the breakfast is suuuper salty. Make sure to show up before 8am to be seated for breakfast. They also have a free ramen snack from 10pm-11pm. There’s not many dinner options in the immediate area and the konbinis either close at 7pm or are a bit further away, so if you didn’t get dinner included with your stay, then you might have a hard time finding dinner if you don’t take a bus to the city. Make sure to prepare dinner options in advance in that case.

We tried to go to the private bath, but it was often full. There are lights at the bottom that indicate if it’s in use or not: light on = in use. Note that the lights in front of the private bath are just regular lights, they’ll be on regardless of usage. We didn’t know that, and another couple literally stole the open bath right in front of us (we were standing RIGHT in front of the door too) without asking if we were gonna use it simply because we stood around for a second too long, wondering about the lights or if the door locks would show “occupied”…

The outdoor bath in our room was also really nice! I liked it better than the private bath since we were able to get a good view outside. It seems almost no one used their personal bath, as we didn’t hear any voices or water running around us. It was very very cold during windy nights, however, not a good combination when you’re showering outdoors.

The location was a really good spot, literally next to the buses and train station! Note that everything seems to kind of close on Wednesday!!!! We didn’t realize this and no one posts their open days/hours, and almost all the little stores next to the hotel were CLOSED on Wednesday, so sadly we actually never got to explore the immediate area at all. Very close to the Hakone Open-Air Museum and the Hakone Ropeway. A bit further away, but there’s also the Hakone Glass Museum, which looks amazing when the sun’s out!

Also advice to those traveling with luggage - DON’T! Make sure you figure out how to find / take buses before coming. The buses were suuupppeerrr packed and it was a nightmare to store our luggage and retrieve them when it was time to get off our stop. The train may take 15 mins longer, but the extra space is WORTH IT. In fact, I recommend coming here with little to no luggage at all so that you can move around more easily. The Google Maps directions don’t usually translate the stop names for the buses and trains in Hakone, so you really have to pay attention to each stop.

The buses and trains move really fast, so heads up that you’ll see some nice views but it’ll be hard to take pics of them.

Due to the sulfur, we smelled like sulfur after leaving!! We came back home and still smelled sulfur somewhere lol (which we didn’t mind but a heads up). Also it caused giant clouds and so it was cloudy / rainy most of our visit :(( Make sure to plan your visits on a sunny day for best views!

Also, make use of the Hakone Daypass, which covers all transportation from the Odakyu company, the railway, and discounts some events!! You have to keep the page open at all times so internet access is needed — load it a few mins before you’ll use it, and just show the QR code to conductors and staff. They also have you scan it at some train stations. Some museums even give you a discount if you show them the pass.

Lastly, make sure not to plan too many activities in the day — most stores open around 10am-11:30am and close around 4pm-5pm.

Overall, I think it was a pretty good start for our first ryokan!