Most visits to the Hakone area of Kanagawa Prefecture begin at the heavily touristed town itself, from where numerous well-trodden routes head off through the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park of which it is the official center.
Although Hakone is jam-packed with souvenir shops and resort hotels, it enjoys the saving grace of excellent hot springs, making it an option to return to for an overnight stay. However, many visitors instead press on straight through the area, taking the Hakone Tozan Railway which starts at Hakone Yumoto.
Twenty minutes up from Hakone Yumoto is Miyanoshita, one of the area's oldest and most prosperous spas. The village is located along a ravine and is riddled with sulfurous streams, many of them piped there from several kilometers up in the hills.
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