The Hakone region is once of the closest sightseeing areas to Tokyo, and the average weekend sees hordes of visitors. The weather cooperated for our visit, and Mt Fuji was free from all but a few small clouds. It truly is an impressive mountain.

We took the popular loop trip, which ended up taking much longer, due to large crowds and part of the cable cars being repaired. Starting from Shinjuku station, you board the Odakyu line to Hakone-Yumoto. Here you change trains to the narrow gauge Hakone-Tozan line, which climbs to the village of Gora; you then change to a funicular (inclined railway) which makes a steep ascent to Soun-zan where you change AGAIN to a ropeway (cable car) for the final ascent to the thermal area at Owakudani. Try the black, hardboiled eggs, cooked in a thermal pool, then board a bus for the descent to Togendai. Here you take a lake cruise on a pirate ship(!) with some very nice views of Mt Fuji as the sun sets. Finish the cruise at either Moto-hakone, or Hakone-machi (depending on how quick you are at getting off the ship- eh Gavin?) and catch the bus back to Hakone-yumoto. It was a trip that felt like we never stopped moving, but we saw a lot! Highly recommended to visit midweek, hopefully the crowds would thin somewhat, but this is Japan....