Hakone: hot springs and a museum in the hills

Ninety minutes from Tokyo, and the whole tempo drops. Hakone works as the opening or the closing of a longer journey — and equally well as the whole of one.

The skeleton

• Day 1 — The Romancecar from Shinjuku; an onsen inn in the hills by afternoon; that evening, only the bath and dinner
• Day 2 — The Open-Air Museum at opening time (the two quietest hours); the cedar approach to Hakone Shrine with its vermilion gate; Lake Ashi at dusk
• Day 3 — A morning bath, then an unhurried lunch in Gora before the train back

House rules of this journey

One inn for three days — the luggage never moves. No ropeways or pirate ships or anything else with a queue, unless you ask for it yourself.