Japan · A day or two from Tokyo
Southwest of Tokyo, the land rises toward Japan's most beloved symbol: Mount Fuji, the near-perfect cone that has inspired poets and painters for centuries. Pair it with the hot-spring resort of Hakone and you have one of the country's classic escapes, an easy day trip or a restorative overnight from the capital.
Fuji is at its most photogenic mirrored in Lake Kawaguchi or framed beneath the five-tiered Chureito Pagoda, while Hakone offers a different kind of pleasure entirely: soaking in an open-air onsen as the mountains turn pink at dusk. A cruise across Lake Ashi glides past a red torii gate standing in the water, and a ropeway lifts you over Owakudani, a steaming volcanic valley where the earth still hisses and bubbles.
It is a region best taken slowly. We often recommend an overnight at a ryokan so you can rise early, when Fuji most often shows its face, and let the rhythm of the baths and the mountain air do the rest.
