箱根八里(Hakone-Hachiri) Part 1 - The road to Hakone inn town: hot spring and preserved old Tokaido Highway

Hakone is one of the most popular tourist sites in Japan now. And it has been popular among Japanese for centuries for many reasons: hot springs, hiking trails, volcanic valley, great view of Mt.Fuji etc., but I will leave this part to my blog readers as you will find tons of info about Hakone. 

Anyhow, let get on the trail! 

The trail itself to Hakone inn town is one of the hardest on Tokaido route. Train only takes you up to Hakone Yumoto station by Hakone-Tozan railways. Hakone-Yumoto is a popular hot spring site. It’s a long uphill, and we pass by near Sounji temple, established in 1521 by Ujitsuna Hojo. Foliage season is gorgeous. 

Tokaido goes through lots of onsen ryokans(inns with hot spring tub) and hotels. Right after passing by Oumiya ryokan, there is a path that goes downhill. This is the original Tokaido than continues to Hakone inn town. There is a small tub by the path. This place used to have 馬立場(Umatateba), which is a rest area for horses to drink water out of this tub. 

When you proceed a bit further on this path, you will get to Cobbled Road at Sarusawa. This road preserves what old Tokaido in this area used to be. By the way, there is Hien waterfall across the river. 

The route is going along Sukumo river for a while. 

In general, Tokaido route has many overlaps with the national R-1 because R-1 was built based on Tokaido route. However, many parts of R-1 has been rerouted in order to smoothen the traffic. Consequently, former route of R-1 became prefectural- and city-owned routes such as Kanagawa prefectural R-732 which we are going here on this blog now. 

Going further, the road is becoming steeper. And there is an interesting point I circled green: Onna-Koroshizaka(the slope of falling women). Apparently, this section is so steep that women fell out of horses and died. 

Around this area, you’ll have to get off prefectural R-732 in order to follow the actual Tokaido route. There are signs that guide you to the actual one. I am going to show you the actual Tokaido route on the next picture. 

Now you see how the original route goes off from R-732.

The green circle is Ohsawa-zaka, another steep uphill. 

There is a small settlement in Hatajuku area. Although there was a Honjin inn in this settlement, this is not a part of Hakone inn town itself. Harajuku was one of 間宿(Ainoshuku), an unofficial inn town and normally staying overnight in Ainoshuku was prohibited. However, many lords stayed at Hatajuku honjin, which is located across today’s Hamamatsuya on this google map. It’s likely due to long and steep hike in Hakone. This honjin still has a garden. 

Apparently, there is a beautifully preserved ichizuka distance marker rat the edge of Hatajuku unofficial inn village. 

This distance makers were built every 4 kilometers which is equivalent to 1-ri(里). (Green circle on upper right on the picture below)

The route eventually merges with prefectural R-732 

and and off. 

And here comes another steep uphill, 西海子坂(Saikachisaka). I had no idea of how to read this combinations of Chinese characters. 

Sarusuberizaka(the hill of falling monkey) is another, very steep uphill from Tokyo side.(green circle on the right)

Now we are climbing over the somma, the outer rim of the Hakone volcanic crator. On the center of the picture, there are two old houses on Tokaido route. One of them is a free restaurant house with the museum about Tokaido and Hakone inn town. Another one is Amasake-Chaya(sweet-wine tea shop). They do serve sweet wine(alcohol-free) and snacks. The current owner is the 13th owner since Edo period. 

Further left on the picture, we are finally going downhill to Hakone inn town, on Otamazaka and Shiromizuzaja slopes.(green circle on the left). 

Hakone inn town is almost there…

References: 

Amasake-Chaya official homepage. https://www.amasake-chaya.jp/#section03 (Accessed in 4/10/2025)

Hakone Japan. Hakone Tourist Association. https://hakone-japan.com/ (Accessed in 4/10/2025)

Hakone Heritage Map. Hakone Committee of Revitalizing Heritage. https://hakone-japan.com/pre/wp/wp-content/uploads/901bbb4f5dc033ef99aded88b283d0a6.pdf (Accessed in 4/10/2025)