Tenseien (Hakone)

We found ourselves in Tokyo a few months before getting married. We started our Japanese Inn adventure together with a trip to Hakone, a popular destination from Tokyo for an overnight trip with dramatic mountain views, well connected transportation, and a million inns to choose from. The inn we chose was "Tenseien" (pronounced ten-say-yen). Let me get right to the best thing about this inn... It's the hotel grounds!

Can you believe that these are all within the hotel property? What a lovely Japanese garden! There were water falls, koi or carp fish swimming around, and even a cute little shrine up top a rocky stairway... all within it's grounds!

Oh yeah, the lovely Japanese kimono-type things we're rocking? They are called yukata (or summer kimono) and you'll get these at every inn you go to in Japan. You're suppose to lounge in them and sleep in them. Basically, it goes check-in -> Go take your first bath -> change into these yukata -> spend the rest of the evening in them (including dinner) -> sleep in them. You can wear it to breakfast too if you want. Totally legit, all the Japanese people will be doing this. Walk around the hotel in it, no problem. Just leave it in your room when you leave.

The other nice things about this inn was that it is walking distance from Hakone-Yumoto train station, the main and most well connected station in Hakone. Also, the baths are outdoors and big, clean, and lovely. Ask me questions about that or maybe I'll do a post on baths in the future.

Dinner was a buffet, which is quite unusual for an inn, but good food (lots of Japanese traditional options as well as comfort foods for the western stomach, good veggie options and seafood too. Basically LOTS of options). If you want a nice, quiet, artsy meal, this isn't it.

All in all, the nice thing about this place is that it is very beginner-friendly for the Japanese inn uninitiated. The threshold is low because it's like a big hotel with traditional inn perks. We had a lovely walk in our yukatas before going to bed walking around the hotel grounds. My husband wondered why more westerners don't come to a place like this when they visit Tokyo (we encountered zero people speaking in a language other than Japanese), and that is part of the reason for starting this blog.

Hakone Yumoto Onsen Tenseien
682, Yumoto, Hakone-machi, Ashigarashimo-gun, Kanagawa 250-0311, Japan
http://www.japanican.com/hotels/shisetsudetail.aspx?ar=1406&st=4306031

We paid a little over 10,000 yen per person, which is a bit more than $100 (that'll be USD) per person. Almost all Japanese inns will charge you per person.This included dinner and breakfast (but drinks other than water and tea will cost you extra).

A few more photos to convince you you want to visit Hakone. Lots of resources on the web on this front though.

Start of my blog...

Hi, I'm SouthPoleNaoko. Why the name? It's because my last blog was about my trip to the South Pole (Japanese only - if you're really curious). I'm a Japanese girl that grew up in the United States and eventually married a New Zealander, or Kiwi for short. We live in the United States, but love to visit our families both in Japan and New Zealand. We always go on a Ryokan (or Japanese Inn) trip every time we're in Japan. This is usually a one-night stay somewhere close to where we already are, and involves heading towards nature with an inn serving decent food and a nice bath, a stereotypical Japanese people's weekend trip. Here's what we found so far.