Opening hours, prices and tickets for places worth your time.
The Hakone Open-Air Museum, opened in 1969, shows around 120 modern and contemporary sculptures across lawns and hillsides in the Hakone mountains, with works by Henry Moore, Rodin and others. Indoor galleries include a pavilion with more than 300 works by Pablo Picasso, and a hot-spring footbath lies along the walk.
Ōwakudani is a volcanic valley on Mount Hakone, formed by an eruption about 3,000 years ago, where sulphur vents and hot springs steam from the slopes. The Hakone Ropeway stops here between Sōunzan and Lake Ashi, and eggs boiled black in the hot springs are sold at the station. Access depends on volcanic gas levels.
Hakone Shrine is a Shinto shrine on the shore of Lake Ashi, founded according to tradition in 757. Stone steps lead up through cedar forest to the red main hall, and its Torii of Peace stands in the lake. The precinct also holds the Kuzuryū Shrine's branch hall and a treasure hall with the shrine's cultural properties.
The Pola Museum of Art opened in 2002 in the forest of Sengokuhara to show the collection of Suzuki Tsuneshi, former head of the Pola cosmetics company. Its galleries hold French Impressionist and later Western paintings, Japanese Western-style paintings, glass and ceramics; the low glass building sits mostly below ground, and a forest walk runs beside it.
Onshi Hakone Park occupies a small peninsula on Lake Ashi where the Hakone Detached Palace of the imperial family stood from 1886. The palace buildings were lost to earthquakes, and the grounds became a public park in 1946; paths lead to viewpoints over the lake towards Mount Fuji, and the Lakeside Observation Hall has displays on the palace.
The Hakone Checkpoint guarded the Tōkaidō road between Edo and Kyoto on the shore of Lake Ashi from 1619 to 1869, checking travellers' permits. The guardhouses, gates and lookout were rebuilt in 2007 with Edo-period methods from records found in 1983, and a museum beside them shows travel documents and weapons.
Lake Ashi is a crater lake in the caldera of the Hakone volcano, about 7 km long. Sightseeing ships styled as sailing ships cross it between Hakone-machi, Moto-Hakone and Tōgendai, where the Hakone Ropeway starts; Hakone Shrine's torii stands in the water near Moto-Hakone, and Mount Fuji is visible on clear days.
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