Woke up early to keep our appointment in the private onsen, Kawato, that we had booked for before breakfast. It was all the way back down the slope car to the ground floor again and this time back towards the main building. I wasn’t expecting steps, but up we went.
Only to find that we were then going back down again… I have a feeling we should have been told about this. :/ My knee is pretty good but certainly it’s a little stiff in the mornings still.
We eventually found the right place – found a comfortable and well equipped change room and shower like all the other onsens.
And then stepped outside to see this! WOW!!! What a simply glorious and decadent space. I was blown away.
Surrounded by the forest, and the sounds of running water and bird song, it was just magic. I must have been standing there (nekkid!) admiring the space for about two or three minutes before I realised there were steps going down into the water and it was 1.1m deep!
This was just beautiful.. the water was soft and silky, the steam rising off the water looks inviting, the green forest beside the infinity pool was just so relaxing. I’m totally seeing how this would be just the most sublime break from the big city if you lived in Tokyo’s bright neon sing-songy streets.
I didn’t want to leave!
After our amazing onsen bath, we went back to the room for a while and cooled down before heading up to breakfast in the restaurant… another private dining room with a beautifully presented breakfast.
In the box: vegetable castealla; Boiled duck; Auricularia; Bayberry, pickles; Marinated egg with soy sauce; Hadano vegetable with home made dressing.
Breakfast sashimi is definitely something I could get used to: mackerel and Hokkaido scallops.
Dried horse mackerel.
Steamed vegetables and grated radish ponzu sauce.
Hot pot dish: Chicken ball and grilled green onions with fried tofu.
Yoghurt with fruit and agave syrup.
Breakfast everywhere we have gone has been amazing, I haven’t managed to finish a single one of them, but it’s always beautifully presented and often filling enough that we skip lunch.
Some more photos around the reception while we get ready to head to town for the day.
When we returned to the ryokan, we had been moved to a different room – the Internet in our room kept dropping out. It was attached to the back of the television and was overheating and turning itself off and back on again once it had cool… not a problem when you’re on holiday, quite a big problem when you’re on a work trip mixed with a bit of holidaying. We didn’t really want to move rooms – we were super happy with our enormous day bed and lovely balcony onsen, but they upgraded us and moved us from the first floor to the fifth floor… to an even bigger room!
Same tasteful decor.
I swear the first time we stayed in Japan we stayed in an Airbnb with four of us in a room a fraction this size… and the second time we came to Japan we stayed in an APA hotel with a double bed in it and not enough space on the floor to open a single suitcase! 🤣 Things have changed.
This room had an enormous walk in close that could be used as a dressing room, with paper screen doors that closed together for privacy.
It also had a traditional Japanese living/sleeping room with a handful of futons in the closet in here.
Talk about lux… they could have just popped to a BIC Camera and picked up a ¥7000 modem and we would have been quite happy where we were.
The staff even moved all my saké stash to the fridge in the new room too. Score!
Good to know we weren’t suffering with a ‘lesser’ hairdryer down in the other room. 🙂
Okay, then for the star of the show for this room: a fabulous outdoor lounge and a much larger onsen bath… sweet.
It was lovely… and so was the saké.
We had spent the day showing the Messrs Stokes around Hakone and they had come back to our ryokan to have dinner with us tonight. With a bit of pre-planning, the staff at Hatsuhanna were only too happy to help us have a fancy kaiseki dinner party. So we had booked a private onsen for the guys to go have a bath and relax, while Mr K and I had a soak on the deck. Then it was time to go to dinner all relaxed and chill.
We had an excellent photographer capture us a happy group pic.
It’s difficult to see in this image, but this peanut sized dish it double stacked high, and has a lid on it. The top level comes off, and gets laid across the bottom level leaving a “+” shaped dish.
Such a creative serving concept. In the centre above: Ayu sweet fish and rose with herbal medicine stew; and char-grilled Pacific saury with tomato.
Below: Pinchos sushi with Kinatarou trout, avocado, and chopped wasabi.
Sweet shrimp with maple leaf; Boiled crab and chrysanthemum daisy leaf salad; Glutinous barley tofu.
This may have been before the attempted mass monetisation of an effort to save Australia’s honey bees..? Hard to say.
Chrysanthemum soup with shrimp Shinjo (or cake), leafs and bud.
Sashimi course was awesome: tuna, yellowtail, mackerel, konjac under there and sweet boiled shrimp.
Grilled marbled rock fish with rock salt, Kabous (citrus) fruit), Japanese ginger, ginko nuts, Ginko biloba rice crackers.
Above: Japanese pickles. Eggplant pickled in sweet vinegar and watercress from Hakone, and red miso soup.
Charcoal Joshu beef loin with porcini sauce served with small turnip, King trumpet mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, Maitake mushrooms.
Seasonal Odawara Harumi rice.
Deep-fried sesame tofu with grated names mushroom, green beans, cart shape like momiji.
If someone had told me twelve months ago, that these three people would be dining together in Japan in 2024, I would have been damn near been ready to bet our house against it… it’s so weird how things work out. We had a lovely evening, I hope it was a memorable experience for the Messrs Stokes also.
Woke up to a simply gorgeous morning! Wish it had been this clear yesterday while we were out hunting for views of the mountain… but from the warm and comfort of our large onsen bath – I won’t complain
At breakfast this morning we were lead to a dining room with a view!
Boiiled seasonal vegetables; Ganmodoki (deep-fried tofu mixed with thinly sliced vegetables); Grated yam with Yukari, Minced raw tuna; Kamaboko mad in Odawara; Pickled Japanese horseradish; Simmered prawn in seasoned broth; Boiled whitebait; Grilled spicy fish eggs; rolled tamago; Pickles; Salad made in Hadano and fruit… holy shit that is a lot.
Homemade tofu with soy and ponzu sauce. Plus there was broiled miso soup and miso-marinated black cod.
Thus endeth our stay at Hakone’s Hatsuhana. Loved every minute of it… gorgeous place, amazing staff and excellent food and accommodations. I have to say though… I kinda prefer the more traditional ryokans, this one is definitely designed to impress people who are kinda over the traditional Japanese way of doing things. We are checking out this morning and starting the transit home. Again.
