TRIPS TO JAPAN'S HAKONE NATIONAL PARK
One very popular daytrip destination for American servicemen stationed around Tokyo in the 1950s was Hakone National Park — the lake, the mountains, the hot spring resorts — all in the shadow of magnificent Mount Fuji. Easy to get to and a complete break from the daily routine, Hakone was also a cheap little vacation. I went there several times when I was stationed at Oji Camp in 1957-58, and several more times while at North Camp Drake in 1958-59. The first time was by car, the rest by train. In 1964 I revisited Hakone on vacation, and again in 1971 while on a business trip.
The map above covers most of the national park, showing transportation routes by train, bus, cable car, and boat.
Hakone's central attraction is Lake Ashi, across whose blue waters rises the serene image of Mount Fuji — that is, if sky conditions cooperate and the view is not obscured by haze. The photo at the top of this page is of the 17th-century red torii entrance to Hakone Shrine, a sacred spot in the Shinto religion that sits right on the water's edge. This was first founded in the 8th century.
Lake Ashi was easily reached by taking a train to Odawara, then a bus.
Being a popular tourist destination, Hakone abounds in colorful characters, such as this bird-whistle seller (photo, left). Much of the activity takes place around the small lakeside town of Moto-Hakone, located at the southern end. My roomate and I once had a cheap lunch there, filling up on curry rice for a mere ¥50 (14¢ U.S.). Beer cost a few yen more, but not much. Just about everything in Japan was dirt cheap back in the 1950s, so even peon soldiers could afford to live it up. Unhappily, this is no longer true.
These kids are at the edge of Lake Ashi.
Nearby is a section of the ancient Tokaido Road, which linked the imperial capital of Kyoto with the headquarters of the shogunate in Edo (today's Tokyo). A barrier was erected here in 1618 to control the flow of feudal lords (daimyos) and their retainers, thus protecting the shogun's dominance over the land. The barrier was demolished during the Meiji Restoration in 1869, but has since been rebuilt as a tourist attraction.
From this end of the lake we would take a boat (photo, right) to Togendai at the north end, then a cable car (photo, below) to Owakudani, a stop midway on the ropeway to Sounzan. Getting off here offers a fabulous view of Mount Fuji (weather permitting!) and a chance to stroll about the smelly Valley of Greater Boiling, where sulphuric fumes rise from hellish crevasses in the old crater of Mount Kamiyama.
Continuing on to Sounzan, we changed to a funicular to Gora. There we connected with a switchback railway for a hair-raising descent to Odawara. Then it was a regular JNR train back to Tokyo Central or the Odakyu train to Tokyo Shinjuku.
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