Gone Seoul Searching in Japan: Staying in the Fuji-Hakone Guest House

The Fuji-Hakone Guest House is a wonderful place to stay while visiting Hakone or Mt. Fuji and trying onsen.

Our private room slept 4 people.

Staying at the Fuji-Hakone Guest House was an amazing breath of fresh air from the crowded streets of Tokyo. After taking an hour and 30 minute train to Hakone and walking around a bit, my friends and I hopped on the bus to the guest house. The ride was windy and could easily make someone with a light stomache sick, but was a beautiful experience as we cut our way through the mountainsides.

The guest house is right off the main road in a nice location close to a few shops and restaurants. Everything closes pretty early on the mountain as it is mostly a day time place for tourists and those vacationing. There is no bumping night life or club nearby, so if you're looking for a party this is not the place. The area around the guest house is lush with trees and beautiful views of the mountains.

The indoor onsen, we opened the window at night to cool down!

When we arrived we were greeted by the owner who explained the guest house rules and gave us a ton of information about the area. One of the nice things about this guest house is that there are two onsen. The indoor onsen is free of charge and you can simply put your name up on the sign in sheet outside of the door for your private 30 minute slot. My friends and I signed up for 1 hour together and when we came home after a long day of sightseeing and travel we hopped in and were bad foreigners eating ice cream and having some drinks. This is a truly private onsen experience, which is great if you are one of those people who are afraid to be in a room with other naked people.

The guest house breakfast is nice but you can also cook in the kitchen.

The curfew at this guest house is 10pm. It seems strange to have a curfew, but in all reality because everything closes so early in the area its no problem. Just visit the  Lawson's convenience store down the street and stock up on some food and drinks if you want to hang out in your room with your friends all night.

Inside the common area at Fuji-Hakone Guest house.

The guest house serves an optional breakfast in the morning. The food looked delicious, but we decided to save a little money and cook ourselves. There is a full kitchen with all of the supplies that you need to do any cooking. I got up first and made my friends banana pancakes and eggs and we all ate breakfast on the floor in our traditional Japanese room listening to Jack Johnson's famous song Banana Pancakes and sung along to the main chorus line "make you banana pancakes pretend like its the weekend now we could pretend it all the time."

I highly recommend buying the Hakone Fuji Day pass and staying at this guest house. The price is very reasonable for what you get and it is comfortable and easy. Sharing the room with 3 or 4 other people can help you cut down on your costs and will give you a traditional Japanese experience. For a lower price they have dormitory rooms, however these were fully booked when we called. Make sure to call ahead of time and make a reservation. They will take your credit card information to hold the room, but there is no room charge for canceling or changing. They are quite flexible and have wonderful service!

Our breakfast that we cooked in the kitchen. All ingredients came from the Lawson's convenience store!

The front entrance sign to the Fuji-Hakone Guest House.

My friends and I messing around after the 10 pm curfew. 

The beautiful main rod which will take you to nearby restaurants and museums.

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    Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.