Day 01
Hakone Hachiri Hike from Odawara to Mishima
- Catch the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo, Shinagawa, or Shin-Yokohama and get off at Odawara Station, the tour start point, where your guide will pick you up at 08:30 am.
- Catch the local Odakyu train to Hakone Yumoto, then take the Hakone Tozan public bus up to Amazake Chaya teahouse, one of the few remaining teahouses from the hundreds that once adorned the old Tokaido.
- After some heart-warming amazake (non-alcoholic), follow the stone-paved Tokaido on foot through the forest down to the shore of Lake Ashinoko in Moto-Hakone.
- Next, stroll the kilometre-long Cedar Avenue, lined on both sides with towering 400-year-old Japanese cedar (sugi), to Hakone Checkpoint. This faithful recreation on the original foundations demonstrates life on the Tokaido during the Edo Period.
- Have lunch at a restaurant by the lake. After lunch, rejoin the ancient Tokaido for another 6 km forest hike to Yamanaka Castle Ruins, with a Mount Fuji photo opportunity, weather permitting.
- Then take a Tokai Bus to Mishima and stroll along the Genbegawa World Heritage Water Area to Mishima Station, the end point of the tour, at 17:10. Mishima is also a setting in James Clavell's epic novel Shogun.
