Hakone

Where the shopping street ends, day-use baths line the far bank. Many still turn away tattoos, so it is worth checking first. Towels are usually charged separately; bring your own.

Gas readings close the area at short notice, and on bad days the ropeway stops with it. The eggs are blackened only on the shell, by the sulphur. Staff advise a short stay if your lungs are weak.

The pirate-ship boats cross between Moto-Hakone and Togendai in forty minutes. The deck is fully exposed and winter crossings are cold. Fuji hides behind cloud unless you go early.

There is a dedicated queue for the photo in front of the torii standing in the lake; at weekends it runs past half an hour. The shrine itself is up a cedar stairway. Most people skip it.

The sculptures stand on open lawn, so rain just means an umbrella. The stained-glass tower is climbed by a spiral inside. There is a free foot bath at the far end if you buy a towel.

The grade is so steep the train reverses three times on the way up, driver and guard swapping ends each time. From mid-June the line is walled with hydrangeas and the train slows through them.

Most of the building is buried so nothing rises above the treetops. The Impressionist holdings are deep enough that the temporary shows change often. The forest path outside needs no ticket.

The Edo checkpoint was rebuilt from the excavation record, down to the joinery. Climb the steps to the lookout behind it and the whole lake opens up. The cedar avenue beside it is four centuries old.

From mid-October to the first days of November a whole hillside turns to silver grass, with a path some 500 metres through it. Parking is a handful of spaces, so weekends fill the verge. It glows best backlit, near sunset.

Crystal strung over the garden walkway throws light everywhere on a clear day. The main hall holds Venetian glass. In rain the sparkle vanishes and the place reads completely differently.

Edo-period paving survives on the mountain path from Hatajuku to Moto-Hakone. The mossy stones turn slick after rain, so trainers with good grip beat smooth soles. At the Moto-Hakone end it runs into an avenue of several hundred cedars.

Seat of the Hojo clan in the Warring States era; the keep standing now dates from a 1960 rebuild. Inside is a museum, and the top floor looks over Sagami Bay. It is about 10 minutes on foot from Odawara shinkansen station, an easy stop on the way into Hakone.

A large Kowakudani museum of Asian ceramics and Japanese painting. A foot bath sits before the wind-and-thunder-god mural that covers the whole facade, and you can use it without entering the museum. The foot bath has its own fee.

A French formal garden opened in 1914, fountains and flower beds stepping down the slope. It sits between two stops of the cable car, easy to drop into on the way up or down. Workshops in the park offer glass blowing and pottery painting.

The former Hakone imperial villa grounds, now a park on a cape poking out into Lake Ashi. The hilltop lookout frames Mount Fuji beyond the water, and admission costs nothing. Hakone Sekisho lies a short stroll off.