Hakone Onsen — photo: Quercus acuta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Hakone onsen: which area to stay in, and the water in each
Most people book Hakone the same way: they see "Hakone" on a map, pick an inn with a nice photo, and only later find out it is 40 minutes up a mountain railway from the station, that their bags will not fit on the train, and that the milky bath they saw online is at a different inn on the other side of the valley. Hakone is easy to reach from Tokyo. It is not easy to get around, and it is not one place.
One name, a whole valley
Locals speak of the 箱根十七湯 (Hakone jūnana-yu), the "seventeen springs of Hakone": separate hot spring areas spread from the river gorge at the bottom to the high grassland near Lake Ashi. Our database holds 1,538 onsen towns across Japan, and it records Hakone as a parent area containing nine of these by name — Yumoto, Tōnosawa, Miyanoshita, Kowakudani, Gōra, Ninotaira, Sengokuhara, Ashinoko and Takogawa — plus Sokokura and Ubako as towns of their own.
What makes Hakone unusual is the water. Between them, these areas list five of Japan's ten official water types: simple, salt (chloride), bicarbonate, sulfate and sulfur. Of the 1,441 towns in our records with a water type listed, only 11 list five or more. The others are places like Noboribetsu, Beppu, Zaō and Nasu — none of them within 100 km of Tokyo. Hakone is the only one.
Why that matters if you are coming from Tokyo
There are 58 onsen towns within 100 km of Tokyo Station in our database. Only five of them list three or more water types. And of the 43 with a source temperature on record, only six come out of the ground at 42 °C or above; one of those six is Ubako, inside Hakone, at 44 to 63 °C. The rest of the near-Tokyo map is mostly mild, lukewarm water that is heated before it reaches the bath.
So Hakone's popularity is not only marketing. It is the closest place to Tokyo where the water actually varies from one bath to the next, and where some of it arrives hot. The catch is that the variety is spread across the valley, and which water you get depends on which area you sleep in.
The areas, from the bottom up
Yumoto and Tōnosawa. 箱根湯本 (Hakone-Yumoto) is where the Odakyu Romancecar from Shinjuku ends, about 85 minutes with no change. The town begins at the station exit, with the largest number of inns and day-bathing places in Hakone. The water here is mostly clear and mild. Tōnosawa is one stop up the mountain railway, a handful of old inns in a steep river gorge. Stay down here if you arrive late, if you have heavy bags, or if you only have one night.
Miyanoshita and Sokokura. Twenty-odd minutes up the railway, Miyanoshita is the old foreign-visitor end of Hakone, with a Western-style hotel from the 1870s and a short street of antique shops. Sokokura, just below it, is listed in our records as a salt spring. These are quieter than Yumoto and still on the train line.
Kowakudani, Gōra and Ninotaira. The railway ends at Gōra, about 40 minutes from Yumoto, after climbing roughly 450 metres through a series of switchbacks where the train reverses direction. Gōra is where many of the newer, more expensive inns with in-room baths are. It is also the start of the cable car and ropeway, which makes it a good base for the sightseeing loop.
Sengokuhara, Ubako and the lake. Beyond Gōra, you are on buses. Sengokuhara is an open plateau of pampas grass, museums and scattered inns; Ubako is a small spot near the ropeway, with the hottest recorded water in the valley; the Ashinoko area sits on the lake shore, with views of Mount Fuji on a clear day. These are the calmest places to stay in Hakone and the hardest to reach.
Where the milky water comes from
The white, sulfur-smelling bath in the photos is not natural spring water in the way most people imagine. Much of it is made at 大涌谷 (Ōwakudani), the steaming volcanic vent you see from the ropeway: water is sprayed into the ground, heated by volcanic steam and gas, and piped down to inns in Gōra, Sengokuhara and nearby areas. Japanese calls this 造成温泉 (zōsei onsen), "made hot spring". It is still legally a hot spring, and it is still the real thing to sit in; it just depends on the volcano rather than a well.
The practical point: if you want the milky sulfur water, look for an inn in Gōra or Sengokuhara whose listing says it uses Ōwakudani water. If you stay in Yumoto, you will usually get the clear, gentle kind. Neither is better. They feel different, and sulfur water blackens silver, so take off rings and earrings first. The changing-room sign (the 温泉分析書 (onsen bunsekisho), the water analysis) tells you what you are getting.
Getting around: the loop, and the timing
The classic day in Hakone is a loop: mountain railway up to Gōra, cable car to Sōunzan, ropeway over Ōwakudani to Tōgendai on the lake, the sightseeing boat across Lake Ashi, and a bus back down to Yumoto. The 箱根フリーパス (Hakone Free Pass), sold by Odakyu, covers all of it plus the train from Shinjuku. Allow most of a day. On autumn and holiday weekends the queue for the mountain railway at Yumoto can be long, and so can the one for the ropeway.
Ōwakudani is an active volcano. In 2015 and again in 2019, rising volcanic activity closed the area and suspended the ropeway, and replacement buses ran instead. If the ropeway is closed on your day, the loop still works by bus, but it takes longer.
The trap is the check-in. Ryokan dinners are served at a set time, often around 18:00. If you do the full loop on your arrival day, with bags, and your inn is in Sengokuhara, you will be late. Do the loop on the second day, or do it before you check in and send your bags ahead.
Bags
The mountain railway is a small, crowded train with no luggage space, and several of the stations are up steps. At Hakone-Yumoto Station there is a luggage service that will take your cases up to many inns in the valley and hold them until check-in; drop them off in the morning and they arrive before you do. Check that your inn is on the list before you rely on it. The other option is to leave big cases in Tokyo and come with a day bag, which is what many Japanese visitors do.
Without staying the night
Hakone works as a day trip from Tokyo, and Yumoto is the place to do it. Several large day-bathing facilities are a short walk or bus ride from the station, and many inns accept visitors under the sign 日帰り入浴 (higaeri nyūyoku). Expect roughly 1,000 to 2,500 yen, with towels often extra, and expect inns to take day visitors only in an afternoon window. Kowakudani also has a large hot-spring park where you wear a swimsuit, which is an option for families.
If Hakone is full
Hakone sells out on weekends and in the autumn leaf season. Two nearby alternatives are worth knowing. Yugawara, about 87 km from Tokyo Station on the coast side of the same mountains, is recorded at 30 to 88 °C with salt and sulfate water, and is on the JR line past Odawara, so there are no mountain railways to deal with. Izusan, just above Atami, lists salt, sulfate and iron springs, and is one of the other four towns within 100 km of Tokyo with three or more water types.
Things not to do
Do not book the cheapest inn in "Hakone" without checking which area it is in. An inn listed as Hakone can be a 10-minute walk from Yumoto Station or an hour away by train and bus.
Do not plan to arrive at a Sengokuhara or lake-shore inn after dark on public transport. Buses thin out in the evening, and the roads are narrow and winding.
Do not assume tattoos are fine because Hakone is used to foreign visitors. Many inns and day-bathing places still refuse them. A private bath is the reliable answer.
Do not walk off the marked paths at Ōwakudani. The gas is the reason for the closures.
Do not treat Hakone as a single bath and leave after one soak. Two areas with different water, a day apart, is what makes the trip worth it.
New to this? Start with how an onsen stay actually works and onsen etiquette. For other towns near Tokyo, see onsen near Tokyo. For what the water types mean, see reading the water sign and sulfur onsen. Tattooed, or shy? See going to an onsen with tattoos and baths you can have to yourself.