The next day, we woke up early to relax at the onsen. Hakone is one of the top destinations in Japan for onsen, but since we were travelling around spring break, it was packed with local tourists. Thank God we had our transportation, or we would have been stuck.
After researching the different onsen, we decided to pick Hakone Yuryo since the locals seemed to like it more than others. The trade-off was that there were no English-speaking staff at that time. (However, I think they do have it now; I can’t confirm). It didn’t matter anyway since some of our friends are Japanese. I am pretty sure this was my first time going into a public onsen fully naked.
The onsen itself is good. It is large, with lovely green mountain scenery. There is also a sauna inside. Too bad we had to share the place with so many other people. The place was crowded but not fully packed. When you are done, make sure to end your onsen experience with THE cold chocolate milk drink.
Before sending off some friends, we visited the Anest Iwata Sky Lounge to view Mount Fuji again. This is also where the Initial D Fifth stage took place. The weather for the past few days had been excellent, and we could see Mount Fuji. At one point, we could even see Gunma!
After dropping off our friends at the train station and picking up a new friend, we headed to our next destination. A ryokan! I had never stayed at a Ryokan before, so I was looking forward to it. See you in the next post!
