Immerse yourself in nature and quietly meet yourself. A day at KAIKA is scattered with experiences that let body and mind come undone.
Enjoy a bowl of tea in the rooftop tearoom, open to the skies and mountains of Gora. Immersed in nature and a sense of release, it is a quiet time to meet yourself. Experiences other than tea are also available.
Seated before your meal, settle the breath and sharpen the five senses in a moment of meditation that lets the mind quietly come undone.
Carrying the brush one character at a time, you let go of stray thoughts and settle the mind. In the stillness, you meet yourself.
Tie mizuhiki, a traditional Japanese cord craft, into a keyring of your own — a memento of your journey to take home.
A color therapy that turns you toward yourself through bottles of color. You choose the hue that meets your heart as it is now.
Moss garden and maple leaves, weaving one of Hakone's finest traditional beauties.
Opened in 1952, this is the oldest museum in Hakone. Its gardens, which show a different face in every season, are the highlight — above all the Moss Garden, colored by more than 130 varieties of moss and 200 maple trees, designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty. Together with the Kamakura- and Muromachi-period ceramics displayed indoors, it offers the serene, shifting beauty of Japan.
Japan's oldest French formal garden, open and surrounded by flowers and greenery.
Japan's first French formal garden, opened in 1914. Laid out on the steep slopes of Gora, the grounds center on a large fountain, with a rose garden and a tropical botanical hall scattered throughout — a picture from any angle. The site also holds Hakone Craft House, a workshop for glassblowing and pottery, and a café specializing in sandwiches, making it ideal for an active stroll that engages all five senses.
Japan's first open-air museum, where majestic nature and art resonate together.
An open-air museum where 70,000 square meters of green gardens unfold against Hakone's vast mountains. Some 120 masterpieces by the world's leading modern and contemporary masters — Rodin, Moore, Miró and others — are on permanent display. Along with the Picasso Pavilion, home to one of the world's finest collections, there are hands-on artworks and a natural hot-spring footbath, for a special day that stirs the senses at any age.
A hall of beauty on an overwhelming scale, across five full floors.
Set in Kowakudani, Hakone, this expansive museum keeps some 450 works of Japanese and Asian art on permanent display. Its greatest sight is the mural across the facade: Wind God and Thunder God, 12 meters high and 30 meters wide. From Tawaraya Sotatsu to Ito Jakuchu and Katsushika Hokusai, you can take your time with the supreme works everyone has seen in a textbook. Afterward, rest completely at the footbath café fed by free-flowing hot-spring water.
A sweeping panoramic journey through the sky, with the earth's pulse close at hand.
Beyond Gora, a ropeway of about 4 km links Sounzan Station to Togendai Station. The view from a maximum height of 130 meters above the ground is spectacular, taking in Mt. Fuji and Lake Ashi on clear days. As the cars cross the floor of Owakudani, the still-steaming vents open up right before you. Tasting the local black eggs, you feel for yourself that Hakone is a volcano — an experience full of energy.
