ハウスベイダー — Local services in Hakone

As a Japanese, it is embarrassing how rude this owner was. He seemed unfriendly the minute we walked in, but he yelled out, “Stop!!!” when our son started to take a picture of one of his products. The sign only said not to wear shoes on the mat, so he took his shoes off, and was respectful.

I said to him in Japanese, “sorry, we didn’t see a sign not to take pictures”, and he snapped that it’s common sense that we shouldn’t take pictures if it does not belong to us, and then continued to preach that in this day and age, people are quick to take photos to post on social media but it’s not something we should be doing, blah blah. He didn’t even look at me. We left.

In a very touristy place such as Hakone, I think it’s common sense to post a sign saying no pictures, especially if he has such adversity to this (and he’s already gone out of his way to post “no shoes”). Seeing these reviews, he’s a bit of a moody guy, which is not good for business. Maybe even racist (a couple of white guys in the family) unless you get him on a good day. He could have made a sale had he been more gracious. A simple, “no pictures, please” is reasonable, not a yell. In such a small store, this kind of rash behavior is alarming, to say the least. It was the worst experience on this entire Japan trip, and the thing is, I think he is righteous and prideful about leaving customers with this experience.

And his IG account? Sprinkled in between pictures of store are porn-level anime pictures. Disgusting. A disgrace, if I can be frank. Sorry to...

One of the nicest store owners I've met, tried talking to me in English much as he could and the store was really interesting. I hope anyone who visits hakone will visit the House of Vader. You can get candy, star wars goods and play a rifle game where you try to shoot down prizes ( very similar to the games you play at festivals ). Again a super interesting place that anyone should visit. (In regards to the previous reviews I will say I am half Japanese but was identifed as an American tourist almost instantly had a touristy looking bag maybe? Whatever it is I was treated with respect and I didn't have anything bad said about me as I understand a fair bit of Japanese alot of signs are in English so maybe he has turned over...

Genuinely came into to the store as a tourist, to look and buy something. The owner didn’t acknowledge me when I walked in, despite me saying hello, he prohibited me from taking a photo of something I was about to buy. He avoided eye contact and faced away from me at all times. So I left and put...