Right before the weekend a friend suddenly got in touch. He wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, and asked if I could come along. So after some deliberation about where to go, we settled on Yunessun, the hot spring theme park in Hakone. Being near Tokyo it would be crowded, but you can soak in the onsen and getting there is easy.
Riding the Romancecar..
It is the train that goes straight from Shinjuku to Hakone. About 2,200 yen one way, and it takes about an hour. It was comfortable, I have to say.
Arriving at Yunessun
After getting off the Romancecar, I found the bus to Hakone Yunessun costs 560 yen one way. Transport in Hakone is generally a bit pricey.. and on top of that the roads are narrow, so it is not that fast either. It felt like we rode the bus uphill for quite a while.
The pool
This part is where the kids play; the hot spring theme park itself is elsewhere. I could not take photos of the onsen for obvious reasons. Anyway, the facilities were a bit worn, but it was a fun place in its own way. There were water slides, I soaked in an open-air bath while the rain came down, and there was even something like a doctor fish pool, so it was good fun. There were lots of families and couples in groups, and I can see why.
The buffet
The all-facilities course including the buffet was 3,500 yen. Not a bad price, really. Compared to Disneyland’s 6,000 yen it is half.. Since it was around lunchtime when we arrived, we headed up for the buffet first.
The guy at the steak corner
Since it comes free with the course I was not expecting much, but steak and snow crab were included. Oh.. how about that.. The steak was not very good, though..
The snow crab was decent.
Everyone was eating a ton of snow crab..
Roughly this kind of atmosphere..
I am on a diet, so I mostly went for the omelette..
Buffet or not, it was really quite good. No wonder it is popular.
This is roughly what I ate..
I was surprised at how good the all-you-can-eat snow crab was, better than expected.
On the way back we take the train instead of the bus.
It is not a dead end because it is the terminus; the tracks are laid out in a zigzag. The train ambles along at a leisurely pace, just like the bus. Still, it seemed a little faster than the bus..
A quiet little onsen town.
It is not far from Tokyo, yet the atmosphere is lovely. Transport is expensive, but I would like to come back again if I get the chance.
Arriving at the station
It was a fun day, but I could not just go home like this.. I could not find a decent restaurant around Hakone, so we move on to Odawara.