Less than $US40 a night gets you two luxury meals and a room with a private rotenburo bath attached.
Hakone
A Twitter user caused a ker-fluff-le with adorable photos from her lodgings in Hakone, where you can pick a cat to accompany you during your stay.
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One more reason to visit beautiful Kanagawa, just a 30-minute train ride from downtown Tokyo.
Thanks to several items outfitted with self-parking systems, we get a glimpse into the future of Japanese hospitality.
It seems we just can’t ring in the new year anymore without this cheering squad of Friezas! Is the Dragon Ball Z overlord actually…benevolent!?
Ōwaku Valley, a part of Mount Hakone with high volcanic activity, has been showing more signs of an impending eruption recently.
A “musical road“? What the heck is that?
The Ashinoko Skyline is a private toll road in Hakone which boasts panoramic views of Lake Ashinoko and bordering Mt. Fuji. Just in time for Golden Week in Japan, a stretch of the Skyline will be converted into a musical road which plays the theme song from anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” when driven over by a car. Nothing like a catchy melody to enhance your scenic tour!
If you have even a passing interest in Japanese pop culture, you’re probably aware that Neon Genesis Evangelion has been a long-standing hit anime series with a huge fan base. It’s been 18 years since it originally finished airing on TV, but the anime still has a strong following, with many female fans. Now, Japanese travel agency Musee Travel has come up with the perfect break from reality for such female Evangelion lovers — the “Evangelion Hakone Trip for Girls“!
While the Hakone Turnpike is usually enjoyed by slow-driving families catching a glimpse of the natural beauty of the area’s mountainous landscape, some Japanese drifting enthusiasts last month turned a portion of the public toll road into a white-knuckle race to the top.
Shutting down the two-lane road, the drivers zoomed through the windy (and thankfully empty) roads, reaching speeds that would land normal citizens a pretty hefty fine. It may not be the first time a high-performance car has been seen on Japanese roads, but it’s pretty amazing that the Ministry of Transportation would approve this flashy display of speed, horsepower and roaring engines.
In 2012, Odakyu Hakone Highway Bus Company, which operates bus service to the mountain town Hakone, ran a Neon Genesis Evangelion-themed bus. Hakone corresponds to the anime series’ Tokyo-3, a new version of Tokyo built there after an apocalypse demolished its predecessor. The bus service’s popularity has led to an Evangelion bus revival.
Following the opening of Evangelion Store Tokyo-01, and with the release of the third installment of the reboot series, Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, a new Evangelion souvenir shop is scheduled to open in the town of Hakone on 14 July.
Hakone, which serves as the backdrop for the Evangelion story (where it’s renamed as Tokyo-3), is happy to be home to the second official Evangelion store, called “Eva Shop” but is also hoping they don’t get a repeat of what happened two years ago.
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